Final-second drama: Cavs cling on for 13th straight win

The NBA-leading Cleveland Cavaliers have rallied for their 13th straight victory, with Donovan Mitchell scoring 24 points to help his side prevail 118-117 over the Charlotte Hornets.

Darius Garland added 20 points in Charlotte to help the Cavaliers improve to 53-10.

Miles Bridges scored a career-high 46 points for Charlotte, who suffered their ninth consecutive loss and fell to 14-48.

Bridges had a chance to snatch what would have been a remarkable victory in the final second, but his shot from halfcourt at the buzzer was off the mark.

Bridges' three-pointer with 8.1 seconds left gave the Hornets a chance, narrowing the gap to 116-115.

After Mitchell and Bridges exchanged two made free throws, Mitchell missed 1 of 2 with 4.1 seconds left before Bridges' last-gasp heave.

Cleveland led 67-54 early in the second half and were up 87-83 after three quarters, while Charlotte rallied with a 21-8 run for a 104-95 lead with 5:41 to play.

The Cavaliers responded by outscoring the Hornets 25-15 to end the game.

Denver star Nikola Jokic had the league's first 30-20-20 triple-double in the Nuggets' 149-141 overtime victory over the Phoenix Suns. Jokic had 31 points, 21 rebounds and a career-high 22 assists.

"It's not supposed go that way," Jokic said. "I was talking to (Aaron Gordon) and he said to me, 'That was a quiet 30 points.' I didn't do anything special, just seemed like everyone was in flow."

Jokic tied the Denver record with his 29th triple-double of the season, and he reached it just 1:20 into the second half with his 10th rebound.

The Dallas Mavericks, playing their second game since losing Kyrie Irving to a season-ending knee injury, made only one field goal in the final seven minutes while crashing to a 122-111 loss to Memphis.

Ja Morant scored 31 points, including the game's final seven, and Desmond Bane had 27 points and a career-high 16 rebounds for the visiting Grizzlies.

The Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder trumped the Portland Trail Blazers 107-89 at home in arguably their most unlikely win of the season, given they had five regular players out.

Aaron Wiggins scored 30 points and Jaylin Williams delivered his first career triple-double to lift the shorthanded Thunder.

In other games, Sacramento won 127-109 at home to San Antonio, Toronto beat the visiting Utah 118-109, Minnesota won 106-104 at Miami and the Los Angeles Clippers won 105-95 over the visiting New York Knicks.