New York held Orlando to a franchise-low 25 percent shooting, and the Knicks won their first game with a 75-68 victory over the Magic on Monday night.
Charlie Ward scored 15 points, and Keith Van Horn added 14 points and eight rebounds for New York, which avoided its second 0-3 start in as many seasons with its best defensive effort ever.
PHOTO: AFP
The Magic's previous worst shooting performance was 28.6 percent at Philadelphia on March 15, 1999. A 2-for-15 second quarter and 4-for-16 fourth quarter en route to a 21-for-84 night helped beat that record by three misses.
Tracy McGrady scored 19 points on 5-for-20 shooting to lead the Magic, who lost their opening three home games for the first time in the franchise's 15-year history.
Hawks 90, Hornets 80
In Atlanta, Dion Glover had 20 points, Jacque Vaughn filled in for top scorer Jason Terry and Atlanta beat New Orleans for its first win.
Terry, averaging 22.7 points, was serving a one-game suspension, imposed by the NBA for throwing a flagrant elbow in Saturday's loss to Indiana.
Vaughn started in Terry's spot and played the entire game, scoring eight points, dishing out seven assists and committing only two turnovers.
Robert Traylor scored a career-high 20 points to lead the Hornets, who lost for the first time after opening the season with three straight victories. They were the last unbeaten team in the Eastern Conference.
Mavericks 103, Heat 93
In Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki scored 16 of his 30 points in the third quarter to break open a tight game and send Dallas to a victory over winless Miami.
Steve Nash added 18 points and 11 assists, and Tony Delk had 17 points for the Mavericks (3-1). Dallas also got 13 points and nine rebounds from Antoine Walker.
Udonis Haslem had 20 points and 12 rebounds, John Wallace scored 19 points, and Lamar Odom had 17 points and nine assists for the short-handed Heat (0-4).
Rockets 98, Bulls 66
In Chicago, Steve Francis scored 19 points to lead Houston to a rout of Chicago.
Cuttino Mobley added 14 points and Yao Ming had 12 points and seven rebounds for the Rockets, who forced the Bulls into 19 turnovers and held them to just 27 percent shooting.
Jamal Crawford led the Bulls with 19 points, and Tyson Chandler had 14 points and 17 rebounds. It was the third blowout loss already this season for Chicago (1-3). The Bulls lost to Washington at home by 25 in their opener and got beat at Milwaukee by 30 on Saturday.
For the results of other games and local TV broadcast information, see the scoreboard on p19.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB