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Michael Jordan didn’t seem too upset.

Hours after Kevin Durant knocked him out of the top five on the NBA’s all-time scoring list , Jordan was all smiles as he walked to Victory Lane to greet Tyler Reddick after the driver’s win Sunday at Darlington Raceway.

Reddick — who drives for 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by Jordan and veteran driver Denny Hamlin — joined NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliott as the only Cup Series drivers to win four of the first six races in a season.

To do so, Reddick had to overcome a malfunctioning battery and a large deficit in the final 50 laps. Afterward, Jordan jumped the track’s safety barrier to greet Reddick and his team with some hard high fives and enthusiastic cheers.

“I think the key to him winning was just keeping his head,” Jordan said after the race. “We just had to get the car right, and I think he did an unbelievable job. I just wanted everything to be good, because once he gets back out there, then I feel like his competitive juices are going to carry him all the way to the end. He earned it all week, and I’m real proud of the team.”

Earlier this year, Reddick became the first NASCAR driver to start the season with three consecutive wins. He stands atop Cup Series standings, leading second-place Ryan Blaney of Team Penske by 95 points. Reddick’s 23XI teammate Bubba Wallace is currently in third place.

One night earlier, Durant scored 27 points in the Houston Rockets’ 123-122 victory over the Miami Heat to overtake Jordan for fifth place on the NBA’s all-time leading scorer list. In his 18th season, Durant has 32,294 points — two more than Jordan, who played 13 seasons for the Chicago Bulls and two for the Washington Wizards. Durant and the Rockets play the Bulls in Chicago on Monday.

Jordan has yet to comment publicly on the matter, but Durant had plenty of praise for the man considered by many to be basketball’s GOAT on Saturday during his postgame news conference.

“It’s kind of crazy passing him up because he’s meant so much to the game,” said Durant, who passed Wilt Chamberlain and Dirk Nowitzki on the scoring list earlier this season and now trails only Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and all-time leader LeBron James.

“I’ve been inspired by all of these players that I’m either coming close to or passing up, and MJ is in a world of his own,” Durant added. “He’s in a galaxy of his own as somebody that I look up to, respect and who basically shaped the game for me.”

Durant also pointed out that Jordan would have scored many more points had he not taken multiple seasons off during the span of his playing career.

“He left a few, I want to say, thousand or so points on the table, too, with the amount of games he missed,” Durant said. “… He scored points quickly, man. So he set the bar high, and it’s pretty cool to reach that bar.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

HOUSTON — In their first meeting of the season on Christmas Day, Lakers coach JJ Redick said the Lakers were “punked” by the Houston Rockets and vowed not to let it happen again.

On Monday, the Lakers displayed their toug to hness in a 100-92 win over the Rockets at Toyota Center.

Even when they missed 14 comsecutive shots at one point in the fourth quarter, the Lakers showed their resilience with a gritty defensive effort that kept them in the game. The Lakers scored only 17 points in the fourth, but they held the Rockets to just 12 points en route to their sixth consecutive win.

“They’re a really good basketball team and they make you either play hard and match their physicality, and how they muck the game up, or you can lay down,” Redick said. “And we didn’t lay down tonight. Had a deficit there in the third quarter. Our guys just kept playing.”

Luka Doncic led the Lakers with 36 points, six rebounds and four assists. LeBron James scored 18 points and Austin Reaves had 15 points.

But three big baskets from Deandre Ayton (seven points, 11 rebounds) and a big three-pointer by Marcus Smart (11 points) helped the Lakers open their six-game trip with a win.

Sitting third in the Western Conference, the Lakers (43-25) will take a 1½-game lead over the Rockets (41-26) into their rematch on Wednesday night.

“Obviously, we have another one on Wednesday, but it was a very important game,” said Doncic, who shot 14 for 27 from the field. We’ve been playing very good. Our defense has been pretty good, so just gotta continue that way.”

The Lakers threw double teams at Houston’s Kevin Durant all game, limiting him to 18 points and forcing him into seven of the Rockets’ 24 turnovers.

Durant shot only 16 times yet made eight. He was one for three in the fourth quarter and had just as many turnovers as points (two) in the final 12 minutes. One of those turnovers was on an eight-second violation.

“He’s one of the greatest players we’ve ever seen play,” James said. “Obviously you got to try to show him different looks, try to keep him off-balanced and when he shoots, hope he misses. So, I thought we did a good job of having a game plan but also just switching up our pitches.

“You can’t show a great like that too many of the same coverages throughout the whole game. He’ll get a feel for it.”

Doncic got off to what has become his typical first-quarter starts, scoring 16 points on seven-for-10 shooting. But Houston took a 58-51 lead at halftime after taking control of the boards in the second quarter. The Rockets turned six offensive rebounds into 13 points.

The Lakers also had a hard time scoring, shooting only 32% from the field and 13% (one for eight) from three-point range in the quarter.

After trailing by as many as 10 points in the third quarter, the Lakers surged and took an 83-80 lead heading into the fourth. After what happened in L.A. back in December, the Lakers were determined not to let Houston run away with the game.

After taking an 85-80 lead, the Lakers struggled to find consistent offense until Ayton checked back into the game with 4:52 left. Ayton scored on a tip shot to give the Lakers an 89-88 lead, then scored off a pair of offensive rebounds in the final 90 seconds to help keep the Lakers ahead for good. He finished with six points and five rebounds in the fourth quarter.

“He was amazing,” James said. “I mean, just the fact that he was sitting over there for as long as he did and stayed locked in on the game and came in and finished the game. He was able to get a tip-dunk, a couple of jump hooks around the rim, and a couple of rebounds. He helped us finish the game.”

Note: Lakers backup center Maxi Kleber did not play as he continues to recover from a lumbar back strain. “He’s basically been shut down for five days to sort of heal,” Redick said. “He’s not with us right now, and we hope he’s able to join us later on in the trip.”

Trae Young has yet to play a game for the Washington Wizards.

The four-time All Star has, however, already been ejected from a game as a member of the team.

That happened Monday night, three days before Young’s expected debut for the team that acquired him in a trade with the Atlanta Hawks on Jan. 7. He has not played in an NBA game since Dec. 27 because of knee and quadriceps injuries.

Earlier on Monday, Young posted a video on Instagram that showed him in Wizards gear and ended with “3/5” on the screen, indicating the date Washington hosts the Utah Jazz later this week. Before his team’s game against the Houston Rockets on Monday night, Wizards coach Brian Keefe said Young was trending toward being able to play in the Utah game.

Still, Young was in street clothes and watching the Rockets-Wizards game on the bench at Capital One Arena. During the third quarter, Houston’s Tari Eason shoved Washington’s Jamir Watkins to the floor, an incident that did not draw a whistle from the referees.

A few seconds later, after a foul was called on Eason for a different incident involving Watkins, Young stepped onto the court while yelling at referee Jacyn Goble apparently over the previous no-call against Eason. Goble called a technical foul on Young, then spoke with crew chief Tony Brothers and umpire Marat Kogut.

Brothers then announced that the technical foul had been called on Young for running onto the court and that Young had been ejected from the game. Eason also was ejected.

Young gave high fives to fans as he left toward the locker room. He did not speak to reporters after the Wizards’ 123-118 loss but joked about his ejection on X.

“Don’t expect me to get ejected too many more times D.C.,” Young wrote, adding a crying-with-laughter emoji, “but I’m definitely bringing that energy & competitiveness when I’m back for my brothers!”

After the game, Keefe praised Young for having his fellow player’s back.

“I think he was just sticking up for his teammates, which I thought was great,” Keefe told reporters. “Obviously, the refs missed a call in which our guy got knocked down, and I loved how our teammates stuck with him. So, whatever happened in that moment, I was actually proud of him because he stuck up for his teammates and I really care about that type of stuff.”

Keefe added that it’s an example of the type of engagement Young has shown since he’s joined the team.

“It’s nothing that he’s not been doing the whole time since he’s been here,” Keefe said. “He’s talking to everybody in every timeout. He sees so much. He has so much stuff to share. He’s completely engaged in the whole game. So I am not surprised that he stood up [for] his teammates. That’s the type of guy he is, and we’re lucky to have him.”