Nets avoid late collapse to douse Clippers' fire

NEW YORK • Kyrie Irving rattled in 39 points and James Harden bagged the 50th regular season triple-double of his career as the Brooklyn Nets outgunned the Los Angeles Clippers 124-120 on Tuesday.

The potential National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals sneak preview at the Barclays Centre saw the Nets' "Big Three" of Irving, Harden and Kevin Durant combine for a total of 90 points to halt the Clippers' three-game unbeaten streak.

Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with 33 points while Paul George added 26 and Nicolas Batum chipped in with 21.

The Nets rebounded from a wild 149-146 loss in Washington on Sunday when they allowed two three-pointers in the final seconds.

Brooklyn nearly collapsed again down the stretch - they were 115-106 up with 2 minutes and 36 seconds left yet Los Angeles managed to get within 118-117 with 24.8sec remaining.

However, the Nets held the Clippers off and Irving said his team (14-9), the second-best team in the Eastern Conference, were determined to lay down a marker against the visitors (16-6), who were leading the West and had the NBA's best record heading into the game.

"We knew they were going to come out aggressive and they've got two wonderful players (Leonard and George) and a great collection of guys," the All-Star said.

"We know they're in contention for meeting us down the line so we wanted to come out and make an impression. I felt like we did that. It was a total team effort and that's what it's going to take every single night.

"We've got to get our defence in order, last few games we've been giving up a lot of points. So we've got to knuckle down on the defensive end and continue to will ourselves to win."

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Fred VanVleet exploded for a franchise record 54 points as the Toronto Raptors demolished the Orlando Magic 123-108.

The guard - whose previous best score was 36 points - looked poised to topple Klay Thompson's single-game three-pointer record of 14 after nailing 11 treys in the opening three quarters.

But he was unable to add to his collection in the closing stages and had to be content with beating the Raptors' previous best scoring record of 52 points set by DeMar DeRozan, now of the San Antonio Spurs, in 2018.

"Every time I get a 30-point game, I usually get a text from DeMar telling me that I'm weak for not passing his record. I definitely had him in mind as I got close down the stretch," he said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS