Lakers edge Cavs on road, 76ers hold off Thunder

LOS ANGELES, United States -- Los Angeles big man Anthony Davis scored 23 of his season-high 32 points in the second half on Saturday (Sunday, Manila time) as the Lakers earned a third straight NBA road win with a hard-fought 121-115 victory over the Cavaliers in Cleveland.

Davis added 13 rebounds and three blocked shots, helping the Lakers overcome a slow shooting night from superstar LeBron James against his former club, which honored the league's all-time leading scorer with a video tribute in the first quarter.

James connected on just eight of 23 shots -- one of nine from three-point range -- on the way to 22 points in a nip-and-tuck game that featured 16 lead changes and never saw either team push its lead to double digits.

The Cavs' 40-point first quarter saw them up by just five, and they led 71-70 at halftime.

Davis's layup -- after he rebounded a James miss, put the Lakers up 111-103 with 3:48 to play.

The Cavaliers cut the deficit to one with less than two minutes remaining, but James drove for a layup, came up with a steal and threw down a dunk and the Lakers held on.

"We just had to impose our will in the defensive end," Davis said, acknowledging the Lakers benefitted from the second-half absence of Cleveland's Darius Garland, who departed early with a neck injury.

But he hailed a "total team win" after seven of the eight Lakers players who took the court scored in double figures.

Donovan Mitchell, back after missing four games with a hamstring injury, finished with 22 points and Jarrett Allen added 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Cavs.

In Oklahoma City, Philadelphia's NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid scored 35 points and drained six free throws in the final 9.8 seconds to help the 76ers hold off the Thunder 127-123.

Embiid came up just shy of his first triple-double of the season, adding 11 rebounds and nine assists to go with four blocked shots and a steal to help the Sixers end the Thunder's six-game winning streak.

Up by nine with 49 seconds remaining, the Sixers saw their lead cut to 121-118 on rookie center Chet Holmgren's dunk with 11.1 seconds to go.

Embiid made two free throws, and he responded again at the line after Holmgren twice