Mixed night for Celtics and Lakers

The Boston Celtics earned their third straight win on Sunday with a 115-101 victory over the Toronto Raptors, while the Los Angeles Lakers were unable to overcome a historic day by rookie Cooper Flagg.

In addition to the win against the Canadian squad, the Celtics continue to see encouraging performances from their top star, Jayson Tatum, who has already completed a miraculous recovery from an Achilles tendon injury and today scored 23 points and 13 rebounds in 34 minutes.

Tatum, 28, has appeared in 14 games during the 2025-26 season in which he averaged 21.4 points, 9.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists.

Winning eight of the last ten games and with four games remaining in the regular season, Boston is no longer in contention for first place in the East which belongs to the Detroit Pistons.

Jaylen Brown, another of Boston's standout performers, scored 26 points and was the game's leading scorer while Nikola Vucevic returned and played 13 minutes after a month-long absence because of a fractured right hand.

"It's good for us to find ways to win, it's good to dominate games in the paint," Brown said. "In the past, we've been criticized that we rely too much on three-pointers." Boston outscored the Raptors by an 18-point margin in the painted area.

For the Raptors, Ja'Kobe Walter was the leading scorer with 16 points, the Canadians sit in seventh place in the East, first in playoff qualification and with a chance to overtake the Philadelphia 76ers for direct playoff qualification.

LeBron James surrenders to Cooper Flagg

The Dallas Mavericks were inspired by a brilliant performance from rookie Cooper Flagg to prevail 134-128 over the Los Angeles Lakers in the first game for the Los Angeles squad without Slovenian, Luka Doncic.

Flagg, 19 and in his first NBA season, finished with an impressive tally of 45 points, eight rebounds and nine assists.

The Maine-born forward became the first rookie with back-to-back games with at least 45 points since Allen Iverson in 1987.

"I have all the confidence but I have to talk about my teammates and the coaches, they help me a lot," Flagg said. "I'm proud to be a part of this team, we've battled through a lot of injuries."

In addition, his 96 points from the last two games are the most for a rookie since Wilt Chamberlain's 111 in 1960.

LeBron James, who has picked up the baton in the face of Doncic's injury that will sideline him for the rest of the regular season, completed a double-double of 20 points and 15 assists in 39 minutes.

"He's a special player," James said of Flagg. "He seems to love the game and he's getting better every day, the league is in good hands with rookies in this class."

Jaxson Hayes off the bench with 23 points and Rui Hachimura with 21 were the Lakers' second-best scorers.

With four games left to play, the Lakers (50-28) have clinched third place with no chance of catching the Spurs (59-19) for second.

Suns still believe they can avoid play-in

The Phoenix Suns defeated an eliminated Chicago Bulls 120-110 and remain in the fight for the last direct qualifying spot to the NBA playoffs.

Currently in seventh place in the West, Phoenix needs to win the rest of its regular-season games and hope for a monumental stumble by the Minnesota Timberwolves to erase a 3.5-game deficit and avoid the play-in.

The first step was this afternoon at the United Center (Chicago) where Devin Booker was the standout performer scoring 30 points, including three three-pointers.

"There were good and bad things," said head coach Jordan Ott. "They are a major challenge, we managed to keep them out of the paint and we found a way to win."

Arizona found themselves down by as many as seven points in the first quarter but managed to recover in the second and never looked back, imposing conditions in the complement, including a run of 11 points in a row.

Tre Jones with 29 points and Leonard Miller with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds stood out for the Bulls.