Los Angeles center Andre Drummond dunks against the New York Knicks in New York on Monday. Wendell Cruz/Pool Photo via APAP

NEW YORK — Julius Randle had 34 points and 10 rebounds against his former team and the New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 111-96 on Monday night for their third straight victory.

Coming off tense finishes against Memphis and Toronto, the Knicks led comfortably for much of the fourth quarter and moved back above .500 at 28-27.

Elfrid Payton scored 20 points and Derrick Rose added 14 off the bench for the Knicks, who had plenty of energy on the second night of back-to-back games.

Dennis Schroder scored 21 points and Markieff Morris had 17 for the Lakers, who fell to 5-7 since LeBron James sprained his ankle March 20, joining fellow All-Star Anthony Davis on the sideline.

Even without them, the Lakers routed Brooklyn 126-101 on Saturday, tying their season high with 19 3-pointers. But in the same city, they found a Knicks team that plays a much different game than the Nets.

Bigger up front and much better defensively, the Knicks outrebounded the Lakers 47-33. Andre Drummond, who had 20 points and 11 rebounds against the Nets, took only three shots and had three points and 10 boards.

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The Lakers were at least healthier in this one, getting Kyle Kuzma back after he missed two games with a left calf strain. Wesley Matthews and Marc Gasol also played after sitting out in Brooklyn with injuries.

It didn’t matter and the Lakers fell to 3-3 on their road trip that ends Tuesday in Charlotte.

76ERS 113, MAVERICKS 95:  Joel Embiid scored 36 points and Philadelphia 76ers wrapped up a long stretch of mostly road games with a victory in Dallas.

Embiid made all six of his free throws in the first four-plus minutes and was 14 of 15 from the line as the 76ers finished 8-4 while playing 10 of 12 games on the road going into their final regular-season meeting with Brooklyn.

Philadelphia took a half-game lead atop the Eastern Conference over the Nets, whose game at Minnesota was called off because of the shooting death of a Black man by police in the Minneapolis area.

Luka Doncic scored 32 points but the young Dallas star didn’t have enough help with European sidekick Kristaps Porzingis sitting out the second night of a back-to-back four days after playing in one for the first time in two months.

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The Dallas debut of JJ Redick wasn’t much of a boost either. The veteran shooting guard had been recovering from a right heel injury since being acquired from New Orleans at the trade deadline more than two weeks ago in hopes of boosting the Mavericks at the 3-point line.

Playing against one of his former teams and his coach from four seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers in Doc Rivers, Redick entered late in the first quarter and missed two shots from inside the arc before connecting on his first attempt from 3. The 36-year-old in his 15th season scored four points, going 1 of 7 from the field and 1 of 3 from deep.

SPURS 120, MAGIC 97: DeMar DeRozan scored 19 points in under three quarters, Dejounte Murray added 17 and San Antonio won in Orlando, Florida.

San Antonio was playing a night after winning in Dallas on a last-second shot by DeRozan, and it showed no signs of fatigue in cruising to the easy win. The Spurs’ victories Sunday and Monday gave them their first consecutive wins since a three-game streak from March 15-19.

The Spurs, who beat the Magic 104-77 on March 12 and topped Orlando for a third straight time, wiped out an early six-point deficit and broke the game open by the latter stages of the first period. They led 60-37 at the half, by 30 during the third quarter and didn’t allowed their lead fall below 20 throughout the second half.

NOTES

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KINGS: Sacramento guard De’Aaron Fox was fined $20,000 on Monday for criticizing the officiating following the Kings’ 128-112 loss to the Utah Jazz over the weekend.

Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell kept Fox from going after the officials after Saturday night’s game in Salt Lake City. The Kings guard had been bothered throughout the second half and Mitchell, who said he has known Fox since high school, wanted to save him from a potential fine.

“If you’re going to call something on one end, call it on the other end,” Fox said after the game. “And if somebody is trying to talk to you, you can’t get your feelings (hurt) so quick to where it’s not even a hostile conversation and you’re saying, ‘Don’t talk to (me)’ and this and this and that and that. I mean, you’re coming down guessing on plays.”

Sacramento Coach Luke Walton said he shared Fox’s exasperation in his postgame interview as he pointed to Mitchell’s 17 free throw attempts to Fox’s six. Fox scored 30 points during the loss. He’s averaging 24.7 points and 7.2 assists for the season.


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