Luka Doncic celebrated his 27th birthday with 26 points, eight assists and six rebounds to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 129-101 rout of the Golden State Warriors on Saturday in San Francisco.

Los Angeles came into the Bay Area on a three-game losing skid but rebounded emphatically. The Lakers surrendered the game’s first two points, then went on to score the next 10 en route to a lead they never relinquished.

Doncic set the pace for the Los Angeles offense, shooting 9 of 17 from the field, including 4 of 9 from 3-point range. He knocked down consecutive triples to open the second half, then connected on another pair minutes later as part of a 16-9 surge.

Doncic scored 16 points in a third quarter that effectively snuffed any hope of a Golden State rally.

The Warriors showed signs of life in the second quarter when they trimmed what had been a 23-point deficit to 12 points on the strength of a 15-2 spurt. Gary Payton II scored six of his 12 points off the bench during the run.

Twelve was as close as Golden State came the rest of the night. The Los Angeles lead steadily ballooned throughout the second half behind five Lakers scoring at least 15 points.

LeBron James shot 4 of 6 from 3-point distance and 7 of 13 from the floor overall en route to 22 points. James also flirted with a triple-double, adding a game-high nine assists and seven rebounds.

Austin Reaves scored 18 points for Los Angeles and Luke Kennard came off the bench to connect on 4-of-7 3-point attempts on his way to 16 points. Jake LaRavia dropped in 15 points in reserve duty.

Golden State, meanwhile, had just one scorer with more than 12 points: Gui Santos, who finished with 14.

Moses Moody scored all 12 of his points on 4-of-10 3-point shooting. De’Anthony Melton added 10 points and Al Horford scored eight points off the bench.

–Field Level Media

Ole Miss snapped its longest losing streak since 2002-03 to crush Auburn’s seemingly slim March Madness dreams with a gutsy 85-79 Southeastern Conference road win Saturday night.

The Rebels (12-17, 4-12 SEC) had dropped their last 10 games but came alive with their second-best shooting day of the season, making 31 of 58 shots from the field (53.4%).

AJ Storr and Patton Pinkins led all scorers with 26 points apiece. Storr came off the bench for the Rebels shooting 9 for 15 from the field to go along with four assists. Pinkins made 8 of his 10 shots, including 4 for 5 from 3-point range, and Malik Dia finished with 10.

Keyshawn Hall helped lead the charge for Auburn (15-14, 6-10) with 21 points, including making 9 of his 10 free throw attempts. Tahaad Pettiford chipped in 24 points, Elyjah Freeman had 15 and Kevin Overton dropped 10.

Auburn built an early second half lead, but Ole Miss responded with a 22-4 run to blow open the game and take a 67-55 lead with 7:32 left.

The Tigers brought it close, but the Rebels never let go of the lead after that.

Ole Miss iced the game with a huge alley-oop, second-chance dunk by James Scott, who had a season-high four blocks, to stretch the lead to 78-71 with 1:11 left.

With the Help of Storr, Ole Miss’ bench dominated Auburn’s, outscoring the Tigers 28-4.

Both teams came out the gates hot with the Rebels making 7 of their first 8 shots and the Tigers making 6 of their first 8. Auburn fell behind by six early but used a 14-2 run that was capped by an acrobatic layup from Filip Jovic to pull ahead 31-25 with 4:46 left in the half.

The Rebels scored the last eight points of the half, including a layup and jumper from Storr, to take a 38-37 lead into the half.

Ole Miss was lights out in the first half making 16 of 27 shots (59.3%) and 5 of 11 from 3-point range. Dia, Storr and Pinkins each got into double digits in the first half with the latter two logging 10 points and the former with 11.

Auburn made 14 of 26 shots (53.8%) in the first half with Hall leading the way with 10 points.

This was Ole Miss’ first win over Auburn, breaking a 10-game head-to-head skid, since the Rebels pulled out an 86-84 overtime win Feb. 6, 2021.

–Field Level Media

Mark Delgado scored and had an assist after halftime, Stephen Eustaquio also struck from long range and visiting LAFC defeated the nine-man Houston Dynamo 2-0 on Saturday night.

Son Heung-Min had secondary assists on both goals and also drew both red card fouls from his opponents as LAFC (2-0-0, 6 points) remained perfect through four matches in all competitions under new manager Marc Dos Santos.

In first-half stoppage time, Antonio Carlos raked down Son’s Achilles area and was shown a straight red card for violent conduct. In the 76th minute when it was 1-0, Agustin Bouzat pulled down Son on the break and was ruled to have denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

Hugo Lloris made two saves to keep his second clean sheet. Jonathan Bond stopped four shots for Houston (1-1-0, 3 points), which will have two weeks before its next match after a scheduled trip to New England next weekend was postponed because of delayed field installation.

Bouzat put a scare into LAFC early in the second half when he tried to catch Lloris off his line and struck the crossbar from near midfield.

But the visitors eventually had their lead in the 56th minute.

From Son’s short corner, Denis Bouanga fed the ball to Delgado above the left half of the penalty area. Delgado took a touch to his right, then unfurled a 24-yard curling effort that beat Bond to the bottom right corner.

Eustaquio — a Canada World Cup hopeful on loan from FC Porto — scored his first MLS goal six minutes after Bouzat’s dismissal on a similar sequence.

This time, it was Son who dribbled toward the penalty area from Bouanga’s short corner, then laid the ball to his right for Delgado, who spotted Eustaquio above the penalty arc.

Eustaquio took a controlling touch, then uncorked his own 25-yard strike through traffic, beyond Bond and into the bottom left corner in the 82nd minute.

Even 11-on-11, LAFC controlled affairs, holding 63% of the first-half possession, and leading 9-6 in shots and 2-1 in efforts on target before halftime.

Both LAFC efforts on goal came in the first 45 came in the same sequence, when Bouanga and Son forced consecutive saves from Bond in the 37th minute.