Darius Garland scored 25 points, Ty Jerome matched his career-high with 24 in place of Donovan Mitchell and the host Cleveland Cavaliers stayed unbeaten with a 128-114 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday night.

The Cavs are the fourth team to start 15-0, joining the Golden State Warriors (2016), Houston Rockets (1994) and Washington Capitols (1949). The Warriors set the league record by winning their first 24 games on the way to a 73-9 season.

Although they wanted to keep their winning streak alive, the Cavs felt getting Mitchell rest was more important.

LaMelo Ball had 31 points and 12 assists for the Hornets.

GRIZZLIES 105, NUGGETS 90 >> Jaren Jackson scored 20 points and host Memphis built a 24-point lead in the fourth quarter in a victory over short-handed Denver.

Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic missed the game for personal reasons, while forward Aaron Gordon is recovering from a strained right calf.

Julian Strawther led Denver with 19 points.

TIMBERWOLVES 120, SUNS 117 >> Julius Randle hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to cap his 35-point night and lift host Minnesota to a win over Phoenix.

Minnesota overcame a season-high 44 points from Devin Booker of the Suns, who were missing Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal with injuries.

Anthony Edwards added 24 points for Minnesota on the same day he was fined $35,000 by the league for an obscene gesture he made in Friday’s win over Sacramento.

MAVERICKS 121, THUNDER 119 >> P.J. Washington had 27 points and a career-high 17 rebounds and visiting Dallas held off Oklahoma City without star guard Luka Doncic. Washington averaged just over eight points and seven rebounds per game entering Sunday’s game but stepped up in the absence of Doncic, who was out with a bruised right knee.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 36 points and Jalen Williams added 27 for the Thunder, who entered the night with a Western Conference-best 11-2 record.

BUCKS COACH RIVERS FINEd $25K >> Doc Rivers was right. It still cost him $25,000.

Rivers, the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, was fined by the NBA on Sunday, a day after he publicly criticized the officiating that led to the deciding points in a 115-114 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

Rivers argued Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t commit a foul with the Bucks trailing by one with 7.3 seconds left, saying Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball simply slipped and fell. Ball made two free throws to give Charlotte the lead for good.

“I thought the final play was the ref blowing a call,” Rivers said after that game. “This is back-to-back games now where on the final play there has been an incorrect call made.”

It wasn’t relevant that the referees wound up agreeing with Rivers.

“During live play we called illegal leg-to-leg contact,” crew chief Curtis Blair told a pool reporter. “During postgame review when we looked at the play there was no illegal contact on the play.”

HORNETS’ BALL FINED $100K FOR DEROGATORY COMMENT >> Charlotte Hornets star guard LaMelo Ball said Sunday night that he didn’t mean to offend anyone with a comment the NBA said was “offensive and derogatory” while slapping him with a $100,000 fine.

Following Saturday’s 115-114 win in Milwaukee, Ball made the comment on FanDuel Sports Network. Sideline reporter Shannon Spake asked Ball about the team’s defensive strategy against Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo on the game’s final play, and Ball used an anti-gay slur while delivering his answer.

After the Hornets lost to the unbeaten Cavaliers, Ball made his first comments since the fine was assessed.

“Before we get started, I just want to address the comment yesterday,” he told reporters. “I really didn’t mean anything (by it) and don’t want to offend anybody.

“I’ve got love for everybody, and I don’t discriminate.”