Pelicans rally past Suns after Booker's injury to even playoff series

Brandon Ingram scored 37 points, CJ McCollum added 23 and the visiting New Orleans Pelicans beat the top-seeded Phoenix Suns 125-114 on Tuesday night in Game 2, evening the series in their Western Conference first-round matchup.

The Suns — who led the NBA with a franchise-record 64 wins during the regular season — trailed 77-74 when he departed.

Phoenix kept the game close without its leading scorer and even took a lead early in the fourth, but the Pelicans rallied, getting big 3s from Jose Alvarado, Ingram and McCollum to take an advantage they wouldn't relinquish.

Ingram added tough back-to-back jumpers in the closing minutes to keep a final Suns rally at bay. New Orleans earned its first playoff win since 2018.

Ingram finished 13 of 21 shooting from the field.

Game 3 is on Friday in New Orleans.

The Suns rallied for a 61-56 halftime advantage thanks to Booker scoring spree. He scored all of his 31 in the first half on 12 of 18 shooting, including 7 of 10 from 3-point range. He hit a 30-footer just before the halftime buzzer after the Pelicans inexplicably left him open.

Booker left the game and went to the locker room late in the third quarter. On the possession before he departed, he jumped to contest a fastbreak shot by New Orleans, but it wasn't immediately clear that he was hurt.

He returned at the beginning of the fourth quarter wearing warmups and never re-entered the game. Booker missed multiple games earlier in the season with a hamstring injury.

Grizzlies even playoff series with Timberwolves

Ja Morant scored 23 points and handed out 10 assists as the Memphis Grizzlies looked much more like the team that posted the NBA's second-best record, routing the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves 124-96 on Tuesday night to even up their first-round Western Conference series at 1 apiece.

Brandon Clarke, Xavier Tillman Sr. and Ziaire Williams each had 13. Tyus Jones added 10.

Game 3 is Thursday night in Minneapolis.

Anthony Edwards, who scored 36 points in his playoff debut in Game 1, led Minnesota with 20. All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Naz Reid and Taurean Prince had 12 each off the bench, and D'Angelo Russell added 11.

Heat defeat Hawks

Jimmy Butler scored a playoff career-high 45 points, including a personal 7-0 run in the final moments, and the Heat held off the visiting Hawks in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.

Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 19 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter for Atlanta. Trae Young scored 25 for the Hawks, while De'Andre Hunter had 16 and John Collins finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks.

Butler's previous playoff best was 40, done twice, both in the bubble when the Heat made the 2020 NBA Finals. The Heat needed all of his heroics then, and they needed them all on Tuesday as well.

Bogdanovic's 3-pointer with 3:15 left got Atlanta within 104-101.

From there, it was all Butler.