The Los Angeles Clippers will welcome an old friend back into town Monday when former head coach Doc Rivers and his current team, the Milwaukee Bucks, make a visit to Inglewood, Calif.

As the Clippers try to nail down a favorable spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament, the Bucks are making a last-gasp effort to become play-in eligible with three weeks remaining in the regular season.

Los Angeles (35-36) is heading home after ending a four-game losing streak with a 138-131 overtime victory on the road against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. Darius Garland stepped up in his best game for the Clippers, scoring 41 points with 11 assists.

Garland, who has played in nine games for Los Angeles, including seven starts, is averaging 21.4 points with 7.0 assists for his new team after arriving in a trade-deadline deal from the Cleveland Cavaliers. James Harden was traded to Cleveland in the transaction.

Even with his production, Garland was just as pleased to see teammate Kawhi Leonard deliver 34 points on 12-of-22 shooting, including 5 of 9 from 3-point range.

“Yeah, it was pretty cool to see him go to work,” Garland said of Leonard, who scored 13 points in the third quarter when the Clippers outscored the Mavericks 37-27 as they rallied from a 12-point first-half deficit. “I just wanted him to get some catch-and-shoot opportunities, and he got a couple to get us going. Overall, it was a good team win.”

Los Angeles shot 56.7% from the floor and went 21 of 42 from 3-point range, including 9 of 19 in the second half and 4 of 6 in the decisive overtime period. Leonard scored seven points in OT.

The Bucks (29-41) lost six of seven games before pulling off a 108-105 road victory over the postseason-eligible Phoenix Suns on Saturday. Ryan Rollins scored 26 points with 10 rebounds, including four points in the final 23.8 seconds to seal the victory.

The Bucks, who are 7 1/2 games out of the final play-in spot, not only were playing without Giannis Antetokounmpo (knee) for the third consecutive game, they also lost Kyle Kuzma in the third quarter because of right Achilles tendon tightness. Kuzma finished with 20 points before departing.

Kuzma scored 17 points in the first half as Milwaukee scored 42 points in the second quarter as a team and rallied from a 13-point deficit to take a 57-52 lead at halftime.

“I just thought it was a team win; everybody pitched in,” Rivers said. “Kuzma had a fantastic first half and I thought (Rollins) was consistent. It was funny, Ryan started out in the beginning of the game struggling a little bit. We took him out, brought him back in and I thought he played terrifically.”

Rollins is scoring a career-best 16.9 points per game, while also reaching career highs in games played (68) and starts (61).

Monday’s game will be the first between the teams this season. They will also meet March 29 at Milwaukee.

The Bucks have won five of the last six games over the Clippers during the past three seasons, with the only loss coming in their first game at Los Angeles’ new arena last season.

–Field Level Media

Bones Hyland scored 23 points and Jaden McDaniels finished with 19 to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 102-92 win over the host Boston Celtics on Sunday night.

Rudy Gobert added nine points and 14 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who won in Boston for the first time since 2005. Minnesota also received 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists from Ayo Dosunmu.

Minnesota outscored Boston 26-15 in the final quarter, even though the Celtics scored the game’s final six points.

Jaylen Brown led Boston with 29 points and seven rebounds. Jayson Tatum added 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Celtics, who shot 35.8% from the field (34 of 95). The loss ended Boston’s four-game winning streak.

Nuggets 128, Trail Blazers 112

Nikola Jokic had 22 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists, Jamal Murray also scored 22 points and host Denver never trailed in a win over Portland.

Peyton Watson returned from a 19-game absence to score 14 points off the bench. Cameron Johnson scored 19 points, Christian Braun had 15, Bruce Brown contributed 13 and Aaron Gordon had 12 as the Nuggets beat the Blazers for the 11th straight time on their home court.

Deni Avdija led Portland with 23 points and 14 assists, while Donovan Clingan hit a career-high four 3-pointers on his way to 18 points. Toumani Camara and Robert Williams III scored 16 each, while Scoot Henderson finished with 13 points.

Kings 126, Nets 122

Malik Monk scored 32 points, Maxime Raynaud paired 22 points with 10 rebounds and Sacramento snapped a two-game losing streak with a win over visiting Brooklyn.

Monk, as a reserve, also had six assists and knocked down 7 of 13 from 3-point range. Devin Carter added 16 off the bench for Sacramento, and Precious Achiuwa posted 14 points and 15 boards.

Ben Saraf contributed 22 points off the bench for the Nets, who suffered their seventh straight loss. Malachi Smith and Ziaire Williams contributed 18 points each, and Nolan Traore 17.

Suns 120, Raptors 98

Devin Booker scored 25 points and Jalen Green added 20 as Phoenix snapped a season-worst five-game losing streak with a victory over visiting Toronto.

Collin Gillespie had 16 points for the Suns, who led wire-to-wire and avenged a 122-115 road loss to the Raptors on March 13. Jordan Goodwin scored 14 points, Ryan Dunn added 12 and Rasheer Fleming chipped in 11.

Scottie Barnes led the Raptors with 17 points. RJ Barrett and Ja’Kobe Walter added 13 apiece, Immanuel Quickley had 11 and Gradey Dick scored 10. Forward Brandon Ingram was held to six points on 3-of-10 shooting after averaging 25.8 points over his last five games. Toronto trailed by as many as 31 and lost its second straight following a three-game winning streak.

Knicks 145, Wizards 113

Karl-Anthony Towns posted a 26-point, 16-rebound double-double and seven Knicks scored in double figures as New York rolled to its sixth straight win with a rout of visiting Washington.

The Knicks rebounded from an anemic offensive effort their last time out in a 93-92 win on Friday over Brooklyn, pouncing on the Wizards early en route to 68 first-half points and their second-highest scoring game of the season. New York spread its scoring evenly among a corps of Towns, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges. The Knicks’ trio of Villanova products — Brunson, Hart and Bridges — finished with 23, 16 and 14 points. Hart added six rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals.

Washington was short-handed due to a spat of injuries and was also down starting forward Justin Champagnie on Sunday for his involvement in an altercation in the Wizards’ loss to Oklahoma City. Jaden Hardy came off the bench to lead the team with a season-high 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting, including 7-of-13 from 3-point range.

–Field Level Media

Alvaro Folgueiras drained a wide-open 3-pointer from the right corner with 4.5 seconds left to give Iowa a dramatic 73-72 victory over defending national champion Florida in a South Region second-round game at Tampa, Fla.

The top-seeded Gators’ Xaivian Lee (17 points) was unable to get a shot off in the final seconds after driving down the court, failing to complete an attempted pass to Thomas Haugh in front of the basket. That allowed first-year Iowa coach Ben McCollum to take the ninth-seeded Hawkeyes to the program’s first Sweet 16 since 1999, setting up an intra-Big Ten matchup Thursday in Houston vs. No. 4 seed Nebraska.

Tavian Banks had 20 points and six rebounds, and Folgueiras added 14 points for the Hawkeyes (23-12). Sharpshooter Bennett Stirtz added 13 points despite going 0-for-9 from 3-point range and Cooper Koch had 12 on four 3-pointers.

Alex Condon recorded 21 points and seven assists and Haugh added 19 points for Florida (27-8), which was even with Iowa in rebounds at 27 apiece despite leading the nation in rebounds per game.

WEST REGION

No. 1 Arizona 78, No. 9 Utah State 66

Jaden Bradley scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half as the catalyst for the Wildcats in holding off a wild comeback from the Aggies in second-round play in San Diego.

Arizona (34-2) advances to its third consecutive Sweet 16 and fourth in five years, and will meet No. 4 seed Arkansas on Thursday in San Jose, Calif. Motiejus Krivas finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive glass. Koa Peat added another 10 rebounds to go with 14 points, helping the Wildcats to a pivotal 54-26 rebounding advantage. Brayden Burries scored 16 points.

Garry Clark’s 13 points led Utah State (29-7), MJ Collins Jr. finished with 12, Drake Allen 11 and Mason Falslev had eight.

No. 2 Purdue 79, No. 7 Miami 69

Fletcher Loyer scored a game-high 24 points on just seven shot attempts, lifting the Boilermakers to a win over the Hurricanes in the second round of the West Region in St. Louis.

Loyer made 6 of 7 shots from the field, including all four of his 3-point tries, and canned eight free throws without a miss as Purdue (29-8) earned a spot in the regional semifinals Thursday against 11th-seeded Texas (21-14).

Trey Kaufman-Renn added 19 points and nine rebounds for the Boilermakers, who hit 25 of 47 shots from the field and connected on 21 of 22 at the foul line. Freshman Shelton Henderson paced the Hurricanes (26-9) with 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Malik Reneau added 16 points and Tre Donaldson scored 13 but made only 4 of 15 attempts.

MIDWEST REGION

No. 2 Iowa State 82, No. 7 Kentucky 63

The short-handed Cyclones were without versatile star forward Joshua Jefferson but they had their feral defense, and that was more than enough to tame Kentucky, which coughed up 20 turnovers that led to 25 points during a beatdown in St. Louis.

With Jefferson out due to an ankle injury suffered during Friday’s 108-74 blowout over Tennessee State, the Cyclones (29-7) relied on veteran point guard Tamin Lipsey. He scored 17 of his game-high 26 points after halftime and added 10 assists, one more than the Wildcats had as a team. Milan Momcilovic added 20 points, while Nate Heise chipped in 12 and freshman Killyan Toure netted 10 points.

Denzel Aberdeen scored 20 points for Kentucky (22-14) and Otega Oweh added 18 and eight rebounds, but it wasn’t quite enough. The Wildcats shot decently from the field, making 46.7%, but only attempted 45 shots because of all of the turnovers.

No. 6 Tennessee 79, No. 3 Virginia 72

Ja’Kobi Gillespie put up 21 points and six assists, Bishop Boswell had 13 points and nine assists and the Volunteers took down the Cavaliers in a second-round matchup in Philadelphia to reach their fourth straight Sweet 16.

Tennessee (24-11), which will meet No. 2 seed Iowa State in the Midwest Region semifinals, also got 16 points from freshman Nate Ament after he played 18 scoreless minutes in the first round while working through an ankle sprain. Ament scored 13 in the second half, and teammates J.P. Estrella and Jaylen Carey scored 10 apiece.

Belgian freshman Thijs De Ridder powered Virginia’s comeback with 17 of his 22 points in the second half. Malik Thomas added 12 and Jacari White and Chance Mallory had 10 apiece for the Cavaliers (30-16), who doubled their win total from a year ago in Ryan Odom’s first season in charge.

No. 4 Alabama 90, No. 5 Texas Tech 65

Latrell Wrightsell scored 24 points and the Crimson Tide unleashed a relentless 3-point attack in blowing out the Red Raiders in Tampa, Fla.

Houston Mallette scored all 15 of his points on 3s, Amari Allen had 12 points despite missing his four 3-point attempts and Aiden Sherrell had 10 points. Labaron Philon Jr. contributed nine points and a career-high 12 assists. Alabama (25-9) is going to the Sweet 16 for the fourth year in a row, meeting top-seeded Michigan on Friday night in the Midwest Region at Chicago.

LeJuan Watts’ 16 points and seven rebounds led Texas Tech (23-11), while Donovan Atwell provided 12 points and Leon Horner had 10. The Red Raiders lost four of their final five games, with a once-promising season veering off track after the loss of star JT Toppin to a season-ending injury.

EAST REGION

No. 5 St. John’s 67, No. 4 Kansas 65

Dylan Darling’s first points of the Red Storm’s NCAA Tournament win over the Jayhawks came as the buzzer sounded, sending St. John’s to its first Sweet 16 since 1999.

St. John’s (30-6) never trailed in the second half and led by as many as 14 points before Kansas (24-11), behind Darryn Peterson’s 21-point effort, rallied to force a 65-65 tie. The Red Storm shot just 25 of 69 (36.2%) from the floor, while the Jayhawks went 24 of 54 (44.4%).

One difference for St. John’s was its 3-point shooting — specifically, Bryce Hopkins’ 3-point shooting. Hopkins scored a team-high 18 points, all on 6-of-9 shooting from long range. The rest of the Red Storm went 5 of 26 from deep. Peterson shot 3 of 8 from beyond the arc for Kansas, but the rest of the lineup combined for just two triples.

No. 2 UConn 73, No. 7 UCLA 57

Alex Karaban scored a career-high 27 points, freshman Braylon Mullins added 17 and the Huskies took down the Bruins to return to the Sweet 16.

UConn (31-5) will face No. 3 Michigan State in the East Region semifinals. The program is shooting for a third national title to cap Karaban’s four-year career, after eventual champion Florida eliminated the Huskies in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year. Tarris Reed Jr. had 10 points and 13 boards but shot just 3 of 8 from the field. Jayden Ross had 11 points.

Xavier Booker had 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting in the first half to fuel UCLA (24-12), but he was held in check after that and finished with 13. Eric Dailey Jr. put up 12, Donovan Dent added 11 with nine assists and Skyy Clark also scored 11.

–Field Level Media