The Charlotte Hornets beat the Indiana Pacers 158-126 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Wednesday, creating multiple records in the big win on the road.

This was the highest scoring game for the Hornets, beating the 141 points in 1993. The team scored 87 and 113 points in the second half and first three quarters respectively, both of which are franchise highs.

The Hornets drained 24 3-pointers against the Pacers, matching the team's record.

Kelly Oubre Jr. went 12-18 in field goals (FGs) and 10-15 in triples to drop 39 points for the Hornets off the bench, setting a new record for points scored by a substitution in franchise history. He also became the fourth backup player to make at least 10 shots from downtown in NBA history and the third player this season to make 10 3-pointers in one game.

"Tonight we kind of got in that zone in the third quarter and we didn't look back," Oubre Jr. said. "None of us were going for numbers today. We just wanted to play hard."

LaMelo Ball was 11-16 in FGs and 3-4 in triples to get 29 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists. That's his fourth triple-double this season and the fifth in his career. Ball, at 20 years and 158 days, is the fourth player in league history to get at least five triple-doubles before turning 21. The other three are LeBron James (five times), Magic Johnson (seven times) and Luka Doncic (21 times).

"We were due for one of these games," Hornets head coach James Borrego said. "We just got rolling, one guy after another and just a great game offensively tonight and a great third quarter defensively. That's what turned the game."

The Hornets are currently seventh on the Eastern Conference with a 27-22 record and only two games away from No. 6, the ranking place that can skip the play-in tournaments. By contrast, the Pacers are No. 13 in the East with a 17-32 record, 2.5 games away from NBA bottom three, which share the same 14 percent of possibility to get the first-overall draft pick this summer.

Both the Hornets and the Pacers are getting closer to their aims for the season.

Cavaliers make East top 3 over Bucks

The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 115-99 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Wednesday, securing their third straight win and the eighth victory of the past nine games.

After this win, the Cavaliers rose to No. 3 in the East while kicking the Bucks out of the top four of the conference. If these are the final rankings of the regular season, the defending champions Bucks will have no home advantage from the first round of playoffs.

The Cavaliers' bench squad made the most valuable contribution for their team to win in Wednesday's game. Kevin Love and Cedi Osman combined 11 3-pointers and 48 points, leading the Cavaliers' substitutions to outscore their Bucks counterparts 57-15.

"We feel if we play hard and stay true to our system, we can beat anybody," Love said. "I just want to bottle up what we have right now and stay hungry."

Giannis Antetokounmpo managed to go 7-13 in FGs and 11-12 in free throws to get 26 points and nine rebounds, but he committed seven turnovers while deliver only three assists. When the team's biggest offensive threat couldn't connect with the rest of the team, the Bucks lost scoring consistency and were thrown into the unfavorable situation from the beginning.

"This is not the Cleveland we knew over the past few years," Antetokounmpo said. "They have a good team and we have to respect them more. They're a playoff team and are fighting for the title themselves."

The Cavalier remained absent from postseason since 2018, the last year when LeBron James was still with the team. The last time the team reached playoffs without James happened in 1998. Back then, their ace was 29-year-old Shawn Kemp who played his last All-Star Game.

Suns continue to show dominance with eight-game winning streak

The Phoenix Suns beat the Utah Jazz 105-97 at Vivint Arena on Wednesday, extending their winning-streak to eight games.

Although the Jazz lacked their star-duo, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, in the home game on Wednesday, the team was surprisingly resilient. Having trailed 39-18 in the first quarter, the Jazz responded a 30-11 in Q2 and kept the competition quite close on the floor.

The Jazz managed to do that partly because of Jordan Clarkson's explosive offensive performance off the bench. He made six shots behind the arc to get team-high 26 points. The team's defense deserved credit too as they did a good job containing the Suns from the 3-point line. Though the Suns have been one of the least productive 3-point shooting teams of the season, they have the sixth-best triple rate of the league. The Jazz limited the Suns to 7-18 on this front at home on Wednesday night.

Usually this was when the Suns needed someone to make a difference in the middle range. Devin Booker played that role in the first three quarters of the game to get 37 of his 43 points. He still made two jumpers in Q4, but that quarter belonged to Chris Paul.

Paul was not in his best form in the first three quarters during which he missed seven of 10 FG attempts. But he suddenly entered the zone in Q4, making four jumpers, three in the middle range, and four of the six free throws he earned, to get 15 points in this quarter. The Suns might not have stood against the rally of the Jazz without the efforts of Paul.

"Chris can read the game and when Book has it going like that, he typically goes to sets where he can get him in catch-shoot environments," Suns head coach Monty Williams said. "But when he's in a groove like that, I think our team feeds off it."

The Suns now lead the league with a 38-9 record, 3.5 games over the second-ranking Golden State Warriors. Paul has averaged 14.4 points, 10.2 assists (league-leading) and two steals per game. He should be ignored in any discussion over the NBA MVP.

Other games on Wednesday (away teams come first):

Los Angeles Clippers 111-102 Orlando Magic

Sacramento Kings 104-121 Atlanta Hawks

New York Knicks 96-110 Miami Heat

Denver nuggets 124-118 Brooklyn Nets

Toronto Raptors 105-111 Chicago Bulls

Memphis Grizzlies 118-110 San Antonio Spurs

Dallas Mavericks 132-112 Portland Trail Blazers