It’s Monday, we can all use a high five to start the week off right. Jimmy’s got you covered…

THE LINEUP 🏀

West races tighten up: Three teams separated by a game for first; two teams separated by a half-game for fourth

Lakers put up 150: The Lakers beat the Pacers with their most points in 37 years

Sabonis’ streak: A double-double tonight gives Domantas Sabonis the longest streak since the merger

Rewind & preview: Looking back at the best of the weekend, and setting the weekly planner for what’s coming

Photos of the Week: Some of our favorite flicks from Week 22

BUT FIRST … ⏰

Last night’s scores & what to watch today.

Celtics-Hawks (7:30 ET, NBA TV): Boston goes for its second double-digit win streak of the season.

Sixers-Kings (10 ET, NBA TV): Both teams are locked in a three-team race for one guaranteed playoff berth in their respective conferences.

1. WEST RACES GET CLOSER

• Sunday began with the Thunder narrowly in first place over the Nuggets, with the Wolves 1.5 games back of both teams
• Sunday ended with a new team on top and just one game separating all three teams

Bucks lock down Thunder: Giannis Antetokounmpo (30 pts, season-high 19 reb) and Khris Middleton (2nd career triple-double – 11 pts, 10 reb, 10 ast) led the Bucks to a 118-93 win over the Thunder, holding OKC to its lowest point total of the season. | Recap

• Bucks’ trio: Sunday’s win marked the first time since Feb. 3 that the Bucks had Giannis, Middleton and Dame on the floor together
• Giannis: “Now we’re all here. There’s no more excuses.”
• Giannis 2K x3: Antetokounmpo reached a career-best 2,023 points for the season, joining Kareem as the only Bucks in franchise history with at least three 2K point seasons
• Playoff Race (MIL ↔️): The Bucks remain second in the East, increasing their lead over No. 3 Cleveland to three games
• Playoff Race (OKC ⬇️): OKC drops from first to second in the West, trailing Denver by a half-game and leading Minnesota by a half-game

Wolves narrow the gap: Behind Anthony Edwards’ 23 points, double-doubles from Naz Reid (20 pts, 12 reb) and Rudy Gobert (17 pts, 12 reb), and a season-high-tying 21 3s, the Wolves outlasted the Warriors 114-110. | Recap

• Playoff Race (MIN ↔️): The Wolves remain third in the West, but narrowed their deficit to one game back from No. 1 Denver and a half-game back from No. 2 OKC
• Play-In Race (GSW ↔️): The Warriors remain 10th in the West, but see their lead for the final Play-In spot drop to one game over the red-hot No. 11 Rockets

Not only is the race for the No. 1 spot heating up, so is the battle for the final top-four seed in the West.

Zion near-perfect: Zion Williamson tied his season-high 36 points, while shooting 13-14 (92.9%) from the floor, and adding seven boards and six assists to lead NOLA to a 114-101 win over Detroit. | Recap

• Legendary company: Zion joined Wilt (4x), George Gervin (2x) and Nikola Jokic (2x) as the only players with multiple games scoring 35+ points while shooting 90+ percent
• Playoff Race (NOP ↔️): The Pelicans remain fifth in the West, but their win combined with the Clippers’ loss trims LA’s lead for the No. 4 seed to a half-game

Sixers never trail in LA: Philly got 24 points each from Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris and a season-high 23 from Cam Payne in a 121-107 win over the Clippers, a team they face again in two days in Philly. | Recap

• PG-11: With his third of four 3s on the night, Paul George passed Jamal Crawford for 11th place on the all-time 3-pointers made list
• Playoff Race (LAC ↔️): The Clippers remain fourth in the West, but their lead has shrunk to a half-game over the No. 5 Pelicans
• Play-In Race (PHI ↔️): The Sixers remain eighth in the East, tied with No. 7 Miami (which owns tiebreaker), with both teams a half-game back of No. 6 Indiana

2. LAKERS OUTLAST PACERS, EAST RACE TIGHTENS

Lakers halt Pacers: The Lakers have been held below 116 points 35 times this season. On Sunday, they had 116 through three quarters, taking a 17-point lead into the fourth. But the Pacers kept coming, cutting L.A.’s lead to three before the Lakers prevailed 150-145. | Recap

• 4 x 25+ PTS: The Lakers had four players score 25+ points in the same game for the first time in 53 years (Jan. 24, 1971) with Anthony Davis (36), Spencer Dinwiddie (26), LeBron (26) and Austin Reaves (25) combining for 113 of L.A.’s 150 points
• Most points since when? The Lakers reached 150 points for the first time since Jan. 2, 1987
• Playoff Race (IND ↔️): The Pacers remain sixth in the East, but see their lead over both No. 7 Miami and No. 8 Philadelphia trimmed to a half-game
• Play-In Race (LAL ↔️): The Lakers remain ninth in the West, increasing their lead over No. 10 Golden State to 2.5 games and are now 2.5 games back of No. 8 Dallas and No. 7 Sacramento

Heat handle Cavs: Bam Adebayo (15 pts, 16 reb, season-high 5 stl, 3 ast) stuffed the stat sheet to lead seven Heat players in double figures (compared to just one for the Cavs) as Miami got the 121-84 win. | Recap

• Playoff Race (CLE ↔️): Cleveland remains third in the East, falling three games back of No. 2 Milwaukee and having its lead over No. 4 New York trimmed to a half-game
• Play-In Race (MIA ↔️): Miami remains seventh in the East (via tiebreaker over Philly) with both teams a half-game back of Indy

3. SABONIS’ STREAK AMID PLAYOFF PUSH

With another double-double tonight against Philly (10 ET, NBA TV), Domantas Sabonis can stand alone with the longest streak of double-doubles since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976-77.

No current NBA player was alive the last time a player had a double-double streak longer than Sabonis, who matched Kevin Love’s 53-game run from 2010-11 during the Kings’ win over the Magic on Saturday.

Only four players in NBA history have a longer streak than Sabonis: Wilt Chamberlain (7x), Elvin Hayes (2x), Elgin Baylor, Walt Bellamy.

Sabonis, who has played in all 70 of Sacramento’s games entering tonight, can max out this streak at 65 games, which would give him the ninth-longest run of all time, trailing only Wilt, Bellamy and Baylor.

The numbers: Sabonis is averaging 20.0 ppg, 13.7 rpg, 8.3 apg for the season – on pace to join Wilt (1967-68) as the only players to average 20/13/8 for an entire season.

• The numbers have been better during the streak at 20.4 ppg, 14.4 rpg, 8.7 apg and 23 triple-doubles over the past 53 games

The stakes: While Sabonis is closing in on this record, the Kings are in a battle for the final playoff spot in the West as the No. 6 Suns, No. 7 Kings and No. 8 Mavs are separated by just a half-game.

Marquee matchups: Eight of the Kings’ remaining 12 games are at home. However, they face nine opponents over .500 and have two key games on the second night of a back-to-back.

• Tuesday vs. Dallas (10 ET, TNT): The first of a two-game set over four days in Sacramento, the Kings need to win one of the two to clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker
• April 12 vs. Phoenix: The Kings and Suns meet for the fifth time this season, with this game deciding the head-to-head tiebreaker

With a tough schedule to close out the regular season, the Kings will need more double-doubles from Sabonis down the stretch as they look to begin a streak of their own with back-to-back playoff appearances.

4. WEEKEND REWIND & WEEKLY PLANNER

Weekend Rewind:

• Celtics, Rockets on fire: The Celtics own the longest win streak in the league (nine in a row), but the Rockets are right on their heels with eight straight wins as they make a run at the Play-In
• Franchise records fall: D’Angelo Russell (187) has made more 3s in a season than anyone in Lakers history. On the other end of the court, Myles Turner (1,248) passed Jermaine O’Neal for the most blocks in Pacers history
• Knicks win ‘Nova reunion: Donte DiVincenzo (31 pts) was the top Wildcat in a Knicks-Nets matchup that featured four former college teammates
• Nuggets back atop West: The three-team race for first in the West has Denver, OKC and Minnesota separated by one game. Meanwhile, only a half-game separates No. 4 LA and No. 5 NOLA. And the race for the final guaranteed playoff berth has Phoenix, Sacramento and Dallas all within a half-game of each other
• In the East: Only one game separates Nos. 3-5 in the East – Cleveland, NY and Orlando. The race for the No. 6 spot is even closer with No. 6 Indy trying to fight off Miami and Philly, who are just a half-game back

With the races as tight as ever, here are a few must-see games to circle for this week.

• Monday: The Rockets go for their ninth straight win when they host Portland (8 ET, NBA App), but will be without Jabari Smith Jr., who was suspended for one game after an altercation in Saturday’s game against Utah
• Tuesday: The No. 9 Lakers visit the Bucks (7:30 ET, TNT) trying to inch closer to the teams above them. The No. 10 Warriors visit the Heat (7:30 ET, NBA App) needing wins to hold off the Rockets
• Wednesday: Those No. 11 Rockets visit OKC (8 ET, NBA App) with OKC battling for the No. 1 spot in the West. Denver, which opens the week on top by a razor’s edge, hosts Phoenix (10 ET, ESPN)
• Friday: Another In-Season Tournament championship rematch sees the Pacers hosting the Lakers (7 ET, NBA TV). Plus, Denver hosts Minnesota (9 ET, NBA App) with the winner taking a 2-1 series lead with one game to play in April
• Sunday: When Dallas visits Houston on Sunday (7 ET, NBA App), will the Rockets have crashed the Play-In party and have their win streak still intact before trying to take the season series lead?

5. PHOTOS OF THE WEEK