By ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James scored 17 points on his 41st birthday, but Cade Cunningham had 27 points and 11 assists while leading the Detroit Pistons to a 128-106 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, Dec. 30.
James hit three 3-pointers and added four assists and four rebounds in the 1,577th regular-season game of his unprecedented 23rd season, but he spent the final minutes of his birthday game sitting with his arms folded on the bench while watching the conclusion of the Lakers’ fourth loss in five games.
The top scorer in league history is the 12th player to appear in an NBA game at 41 or older — just the sixth in this century.
Marcus Sasser scored a season-high 19 points and Isaiah Stewart had 15 for the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons, who snapped their two-game skid to finish 3-2 on their West Coast trip.
Detroit won its third straight meeting with the Lakers despite losing third-leading scorer Tobias Harris to a left hip sprain in the first quarter.
Luka Doncic had 30 points and 11 assists for the Lakers, who have lost four of five for the first time since last season’s playoffs. Jaxson Hayes had 13 points, but the Lakers couldn’t match up defensively with the hard-nosed Pistons.
Detroit took control early with accurate shooting, consistent drives to the rim and a re-establishment of its defensive prowess after getting shredded by Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers two days ago. The Pistons weathered a tying rally led by James in the third quarter before surging ahead with a 16-6 run extending into the fourth.
Detroit scored 74 points in the paint, repeatedly beating Deandre Ayton and the Lakers’ undersized frontline down low.
The Lakers fell to 20-11, and they still haven’t taken a single-digit loss all season.
Meanwhile, Derrick White scored 13 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter and added a career-high seven blocks in a one-of-a-kind performance that carried the Boston Celtics to a 129-119 win over the Utah Jazz.
White became the 13th player in NBA history to have 27 points, seven rebounds, six assists and seven blocks in a game. But he was the first guard — or member of the Celtics — to post that statistical combination.
Jaylen Brown had 23 points and 10 assists for Boston, ending his streak of 30-point games at nine. He remained tied with Celtics great Larry Bird, who had nine straight 30-point games in February and March of 1985.
Anfernee Simons scored 20 points and Payton Pritchard added 18 for the Celtics, who have won five of six.
Keyonte George, listed as questionable with an illness until a couple of hours before tipoff, scored 37 points for the Jazz. Jusuf Nurkic had a season-high 26 and Lauri Markkanen added 22.
Utah rested rotation regulars Svi Mykhailiuk and Kevin Love, and rookie Ace Bailey was out with a hip injury.
Nurkic’s free throw drew Utah within four, but Brown, Pritchard and Simons made three straight shots to balloon the Boston lead to 123-112 with 3:56 to play. The Jazz never got within seven after that.
Utah committed 13 turnovers that led to 23 points for Boston while only scoring five points off the Celtics’ eight turnovers.
Some extraordinary shotmaking was on display but both teams allowed a bevy of straight-line drives to the basket and wide-open 3-pointers. White’s blocks (tied for the most by an NBA guard) and Neemias Queta’s three steals were the exceptions on defense.
The Jazz led by 12 in the first quarter after beating Detroit 131-129 at home and then surprising San Antonio on the road 127-114 last week.
