NBA roundup

Jan. 20—Suns 117, Nets 112

Mikal Bridges scored 28 points, Deandre Ayton had 24 points and 14 rebounds and the Phoenix Suns held off the Brooklyn Nets 117-112 on Thursday night.

Brooklyn fought back from 20 points down in the fourth quarter to make things tight in the final minute.

Kyrie Irving — who scored 21 points of his 30 points in the fourth quarter — hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 113-110 with 10.9 seconds remaining, After the Suns hit a free throw, Nic Claxton's dunk with 7.4 seconds made it 114-112, but that's as close as the Nets would get to taking the lead.

Brooklyn has lost four straight. The Suns snapped a three-game losing streak.

The Suns welcomed back forward Cam Johnson, who played for the first time in more than two months because of a knee injury. He had 19 points and made four crucial free throws in the final 20 seconds.

Johnson's return is welcome good news for a team that had lost 12 of 14 games coming into Thursday.

Both teams were missing some of their star players. Brooklyn's Kevin Durant was out with a knee injury while Phoenix was missing its All-Star backcourt of Devin Booker (groin) and Chris Paul (hip).

The Suns controlled most of the game, pushing to a 94-74 lead by the end of the third quarter. The Nets cut it to 107-102 with about 3:30 left, but then had three straight turnovers to blunt their momentum.

Irving also had seven rebounds and seven assists. He was 11 of 27 from the field.

The Suns pushed to a 65-51 halftime lead after shooting 58.5% from the field. Ayton had 17 points, nine rebounds and three assists before the break.

Nets guard Ben Simmons was ejected early in the third quarter after picking up two quick technicals for arguing.

Simmons was called for an offensive foul on a screen and then started arguing with official Eric Lewis as both went down the court. Lewis called him for his first technical and then Simmons was subbed out of the game. As Simmons sat down, he continued arguing and got his second technical.

After he was ejected, Simmons immediately got up and walked back to the locker room. He finished with seven points, four rebounds and six assists.

Johnson got a huge ovation from the crowd midway through the first quarter when he checked in for the first time. Those cheers got even louder when he hit two 3-pointers in his first few minutes on the court.

Johnson was averaging 13 points before his injury Nov. 4.

Paul, Booker, G Josh Okogie (nasal fracture), G Cameron Payne (right foot sprain), G Landry Shamet (right foot soreness) didn't play for Phoenix.

76ers 105, Trail Blazers 95

Joel Embiid scored 32 points and Philadelphia stretched its winning streak to four games, all on the road, with a victory over Portland.

James Harden added 16 points and 14 assists for the Sixers, who led by as many as 26 points before holding off a late Portland rally.

Damian Lillard had 25 points and 11 assists for the Blazers and Jerami Grant scored 24 points against his former team.

Jusuf Nurkic's layup closed the gap to 92-80 with 6:17 left, but Embiid answered with a dunk and a free throw. Grant's 3-pointer narrowed it to 95-86 with 3:49 left.

Embiid picked up his fifth foul and Anfernee Simons made a pair of free throws to get within 95-88.

Tyrese Maxey's layup and De'Anthony Melton's free throws got the Sixers' lead back to double digits and Portland couldn't catch up.

Bulls 126, Pistons 108

With Victor Wembanyama sitting courtside and watching some of the players he'll go up against next season, Zach LaVine scored 30 points and Chicago never trailed in a win over Detroit at the NBA Paris Game.

DeMar DeRozan added 26 points for the Bulls, and Nikola Vucevic finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds and six assists.

Bojan Bogdanovic led the Pistons with 25 points. Killian Hayes, the only French player on either roster, scored four points for Detroit on 2-of-13 shooting, but had a game-high eight assists.

Hamidou Diallo had 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting for Detroit, while Saddiq Bey and Jaden Ivey each scored 16 for the Pistons.

Timberwolves 128, Raptors 126

D'Angelo Russell scored 16 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, Anthony Edwards had 23 and Minnesota rallied to beat Toronto.

Kyle Anderson added 20 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota, which was down Rudy Gobert and Austin Rivers and playing the second game of a back-to-back after a fourth-quarter collapse a night earlier in Denver.

The Timberwolves erased a 14-point deficit midway through the fourth with a defensive effort not typically seen from Minnesota, particularly without Gobert making an impact down low. Toronto scored just seven points in the final 9:46.

Scottie Barnes had 12 of his season-high 29 points in the fourth for Toronto, which had won four of six. Fred VanVleet added 25 points and 10 assists for the Raptors. Toronto scored 62 points in the paint without Gobert to protect the rim and added 23 fast-break points.