HOLLYWOOD ENDING: Davis, James catch fire, lead Lakers past Suns

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Anthony Davis scored 35 points and LeBron James added 21 as the Los Angeles Lakers erased a 22-point deficit to beat the Phoenix Suns 123-116 for a second victory to start the National Basketball Association (NBA) season on Friday.

It’s the first time since the 2010-2011 season that the Lakers have started a season 2-0. Davis, who scored 36 points in a season-opening win over Minnesota, was key again.

“I’m just trying to play the game the right way,” said Davis, who added eight rebounds, four assists, a steal and two blocked shots.

Davis said defensive adjustments were the key to turning things around against Kevin Durant and the Suns, who out-scored the Lakers 38-23 in the first quarter to take control.

“They made some tough shots, but we were letting them get out in transition, we were turning the ball over early,” Davis said.

“They had 14 points in transition in the first seven minutes of the game, that’s not us.”

The Lakers, down by nine at halftime, turned it around in the third quarter, when a 9-0 scoring burst saw them grab an 83-81 lead. They would push the advantage to as many as 12.

Durant led the Suns with 30 points. Devin Booker scored 23, but after connecting on better than 61 percent of their shots in the first half, Phoenix were held to 41.9 percent shooting in the second.

In New York, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges looked right at home at Madison Square Garden, scoring 21 points apiece to help the Knicks to a 123-98 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

Towns, acquired in a three-team trade from Minnesota days before training camp, added 15 rebounds and two blocked shots in his first home game for his new team.

“It definitely feels different to be home,” Towns said of playing his first game at the Garden as a Knick.

Bridges, who arrived in July in a cross-town trade with the Brooklyn Nets, made eight of 12 shot attempts as the Knicks shook off a blowout season-opening loss to the reigning champion Boston Celtics.

Jalen Brunson led the Knicks in scoring with 26 points and Josh Hart added 20 as the Knicks gained a small measure of revenge against a Pacers team that ousted them in seven games in the second round of last season’s playoffs.

Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers with 20 points off the bench as star guard Tyrese Haliburton — the cornerstone of Indiana’s potent offense — missed all eight of his shot attempts to finish with zero points.

Chicago’s Coby White scored 35 points as the Bulls spoiled Milwaukee’s first home game of the season on Friday with a 133-122 victory over the Bucks.

The Bulls withstood a 38-point, 11-rebound double-double from Milwaukee’s two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose big night included a monster dunk over Nikola Vucevic.

Damian Lillard added 28 points and eight assists for the Bucks, but it wasn’t enough in the end.