Manu Ginobili scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, as the San Antonio Spurs pulled away following the late ejection of Ben Wallace to defeat the Detroit Pistons 84-75 Thursday.
"I would rather be in the locker room than playing in a ... game like that," Wallace said afterward.
Detroit trailed 71-64 when Wallace was called for a loose ball foul with 6:07 remaining. Referee Steve Javie ejected Wallace for heatedly complaining.
Malik Rose hit the technical free throw and Hedo Turkoglu followed with a 3-pointer as part of a 6-0 run that put the Spurs ahead by 13. A basket by Tony Parker with 3:55 remaining completed an 18-4 run and gave San Antonio an 82-66 lead.
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said playing the Pistons was tough, given that he learned how to coach from Detroit's Larry Brown.
"It's like playing ourselves," said Popovich, who was an assistant in San Antonio under Brown for three-plus seasons. "We do a lot of the same things. We like the same kind of players."
The win pulled the Spurs within two games of Midwest Division leader Minnesota with 10 games remaining for both teams.
Hawks 84, Hornets 76
In Atlanta, Bob Sura had 23 points and a career-high 15 rebounds as Atlanta took advantage of the absence of Baron Davis to defeat New Orleans.
Davis, who leads the team with an average of 23.0 points, had a sprained left ankle. His status for Friday's home game against Phoenix was uncertain.
Chris Crawford and Jason Collier each scored 16 points for the Hawks, who limited New Orleans to 30 second-half points.
The Hornets shot just 4-for-24 from 3-point range, including 1-for-8 by Wesley and 2-for-10 by Armstrong.
New Orleans is fourth in the Eastern Conference standings but only 1 game ahead of fifth-place Milwaukee. When Davis missed six games with a similar ankle injury earlier this season, the Hornets went 2-4.
Wizards 103, Clippers 94
In Los Angeles, Larry Hughes scored 24 of his 30 points in the first half as Washington beat the Los Angeles Clippers to end a five-game road losing streak.
Hughes, playing his third game since coming off the injured list, shot 11-for-20 and tied a career high with 12 rebounds to help the Wizards win for only the third time in 13 games. It's the second straight season that they've swept the Clippers.
Jerry Stackhouse had 20 points and Steve Blake scored seven of his 17 points in the final 4:42.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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