Wounded and belted, Lakers limping toward playoffs

LeBron James rested his arthritic left foot and his injury-depleted Los Angeles Lakers are limping toward the playoffs after a home shellacking from NBA-leading Oklahoma City.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 25 points and eight assists, Isaiah Joe hit six 3-pointers and Chet Holmgren had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder as they won 123-187 on Tuesday and improved to 63-16 for the season.

The Lakers (50-29) had their lowest-scoring performance of the season while playing without James, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Marcus Smart and Jaxson Hayes, who represent a combined 94.6 points per game.

Doncic and Reaves are out for the remaining three games of the regular season, while 41-year-old James sat for one game.

Los Angeles had won 13 of 14 and were closing in on the third seed in the Western Conference before losing Doncic, who is in Europe seeking treatment on his Grade 2 hamstring strain.

Rui Hachimura scored 15 points for the Lakers, who have lost three straight since losing Doncic and Reaves to injury last week.

Kevin Durant had 24 points and five 3-pointers as his Houston Rockets overcame a 21-point deficit, producing a 119-105 victory over the host Phoenix Suns.

The Rockets (50-29) are tied with the Lakers for fourth place in the West and are one game behind the Denver Nuggets (51-28) with three to play. The Lakers own the tiebreaker over both.

The Boston Celtics inched closer to locking up second seed in the Eastern Conference as they downed the Charlotte Hornets 113-102 at home.

Jaylen Brown had 35 points and nine rebounds for the hosts while Jayson Tatum added 23 points.

The Toronto Raptors beat the Miami Heat 121-95 at home, an outcome that locked the Heat into the play-in tournament for a fourth consecutive season.

Jakob Poeltl scored 17 points for the Raptors (44-35), who moved within a game of Atlanta for the No.5 spot in the Eastern Conference.

Miami (41-38) now likely need to win their final three games to have any chance of escaping the No.10 seed in the play-in tournament.

Kawhi Leonard scored 34 points and Darius Garland added 22 as the Los Angeles Clippers improved their play-in tournament seeding with a 116-103 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

The eighth-place Clippers (41-38) moved a full game ahead of ninth-place Portland.

Ayo Dosunmu scored 24 points and Julius Randle and Bones Hyland each added 19 for Minnesota as they picked up a critical victory over Indiana, 124-104.

Other results meant Minnesota clinched a top six seed and avoided the Western Conference's play-in tournament.