NEW YORK — Kevin Durant scored 33 points in his latest return from injury, Kyrie Irving had 34 and the Brooklyn Nets beat the Phoenix Suns 128-119 on Sunday in a matchup of two of the NBA’s top teams.

Durant missed three games after bruising his left thigh early in a loss to Miami last Sunday and has been limited to just 25 games this season. He played 28 minutes off the bench in his return, shooting 12 for 21.

Blake Griffin scored 15 points to help the Eastern Conference leaders improve to 25-7 at home and 20-6 against West teams.

Devin Booker scored 36 points and Deandre Ayton had 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Suns, the No. 2 team in the West who are seeing the best of the East on their current road trip.

They led for much of the first half but Brooklyn pulled away after halftime, when Durant played his normal minutes after not coming into the game until four minutes into the second quarter so the Nets could keep his minutes down but have him in position to play down the stretch if it was close.

The Nets were 2-2 while playing almost entirely without Durant in their previous four games, but things change when the four-time scoring champion is on the floor.

“How you guard away from him is different than how you would have guarded before on another guy who couldn’t shoot from 40 feet from the basket, is 7-foot-1 and dribbles like a guard,” Phoenix Coach Monty Williams said before the game.

GRIZZLIES 120, TRAIL BLAZERS 113: Ja Morant had 28 points and the Memphis won at Portland for the second time in three days.

Jonas Valanciunas, back after missing three games because of concussion protocol, added 21 points and 10 rebounds, and the Grizzlies held off a late rally by Portland.

CJ McCollum had 27 points, and Jusuf Nurkic added 16 points and 19 rebounds for the Blazers. They have lost five straight and nine of their last 11 to fall to seventh in the Western Conference – a half-game ahead of Memphis.

HAWKS 111, BUCKS 104: Lou Williams sank four 3-pointers in the final seven minutes, including a jumper that gave Atlanta its first lead of the second half, Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 32 points and the Hawks beat visiting Milwaukee.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 31 points and 14 rebounds for the Bucks.

WIZARDS 119, CAVALIERS 110: Bradley Beal scored 33 points and Washington rallied to beat visiting Cleveland for its eighth straight victory.

Down 95-87 early in the fourth quarter, Washington tied it at 105 on Beal’s 3-pointer with 4:55 remaining and finished on a 17-5 run.

INDIANA 131, MAGIC 112: Malcolm Brogdon scored 24 points and visiting Indiana used a big third quarter to rout short-handed Orlando in a game marred by Magic rookie Devin Cannady’s gruesome ankle injury.

Cannady suffered an open fracture of his right ankle in the first quarter when he landed awkwardly while trying to contest Edmond Sumner’s layup. Magic center Mo Bamba was so shaken by the sight of the injury that he took his jersey off and placed it over Cannady’s badly broken and bleeding ankle.

NOTES

MAGIC: Coach Steve Clifford tested positive again for the coronavirus and will miss multiple games while going through the NBA’s health and safety protocols.

Assistant coach Tyrone Corbin will coach in Clifford’s absence, starting with Sunday’s game against Indiana. Clifford already expected to miss Sunday’s game because of two positive tests in a three-day span, and subsequent testing confirmed that he has the virus.

There is no timetable for his return. Typically, those in the league who have tested positive have missed at least 10 days before being cleared to resume work. That would mean Clifford, a Maine native, could miss much of the remainder of the season.

Even if Clifford misses just a week, he would still be out for five games.

“I’m in a place here where I’m healthy enough so hopefully I can help somewhat,” Clifford said. “But also I’m fortunate – I have a veteran staff.”

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