Basketball

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Pelicans and Smoothie King have agreed to renew their arena naming rights contract, the club announced Tuesday.

CHICAGO (AP) — Bulls center Nikola Vucevic missed Tuesday night's game against the Atlanta Hawks because of bruised muscles around his left hip and groin, leaving Chicago without two star players.

NEW YORK (AP) — Jalen Brunson scored 38 points and the New York Knicks snapped Milwaukee’s seven-game winning streak, ending their lengthy skid against the Bucks with a 129-122 victory Monday.

Cleveland Cavaliers (17-13, seventh in the Eastern Conference) vs. Dallas Mavericks (17-12, fifth in the Western Conference) Dallas; Wednesday, 8:30 p.m.

PHOENIX (AP) — The Phoenix Suns ran double teams at Luka Doncic and the Dallas star picked them apart to set up easy baskets. It was even worse when the Suns left Doncic in one-on-one coverage.

DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic's frequent parade to the free-throw line was a sore subject for Steve Kerr. The Golden State coach doesn't feel like defense gets rewarded consistently enough in today's NBA.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Boston Celtics were happy to share on Christmas Day, and it propelled them to a historic holiday against the Los Angeles Lakers.

MIAMI (AP) — The first thing Miami rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. did when the schedule was released this summer was check to see when the Heat play in his hometown of Los Angeles. The second thing was seeing if they played on Christmas.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Bucks hadn't just been beating them, they were beating them easily. So in front of a sold-out home crowd and a national TV audience, the New York Knicks used the Christmas stage to make their stand against Milwaukee.

ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Hawks will be without starting small forward De'Andre Hunter for at least two weeks as he deals with inflammation in his right knee, the team said Monday.