The American men's basketball team bounced back from a defeat by Puerto Rico to beat Greece 77-71 Tuesday while Lithuania, China and Australia were among the other winners.
Greece had a chance to pull within two points with 18 seconds left, but Lamar Odom defended the play perfectly for the Americans, keeping his hand high and preventing Dimitris Pipanikoulaou from getting a clean layup attempt.
Odom rebounded the miss and made two free throws to lock up the US team's victory in its second game of the Olympics.
In a much closer game than expected, the US bounced back from their embarrassing loss to Puerto Rico in their opener and avoided dropping to 0-2, which would have matched their loss total from the previous 68 years.
Yao Ming bounced back from a rough opening game with 39 points and 13 rebounds to lead China to a 69-62 win over New Zealand and Shane Heal scored 18 points to power Australia to an 83-59 win over Angola.
Serbia-Montenegro defeated Italy 74-72 on Milos Vujanic's two free throws in the final seconds while Spain beat Argentina 87-76.
Allen Iverson played for the US with a broken right thumb, scoring a team-leading 17 points. Iverson originally injured the thumb on his shooting hand during the team's 92-73 defeat Sunday, then aggravated it during practice Monday.
Puerto Rico center Jose Ortiz said his team's loss wasn't a letdown after the big win over the Americans.
"As I said the other night, basketball is not consistent always," Ortiz said. "We're still getting things together. Tonight, we didn't have the toughness and focus from our defense that we did against the US."
The loss on Sunday night was the first for the United States since NBA players began participating in the Olympics in 1992 and was just the third in 112 Olympic games overall.
Ramunas Siskauskas had 23 points for Lithuania (2-0).
Lithuania, which has won the last three Olympic bronze medals, pulled away from Puerto Rico with an 8-0 run early in the fourth quarter and the lead reached 15 points twice, the last time at 88-73 with 4:22 to play.
Yao, the 2.26m center from the Houston Rockets, had 12 points for China and eight rebounds in an opening loss to Spain, but he took over from the start against New Zealand, finishing 15-for-20 from the field and keying China's effective zone defense inside.
Andrew Bogut added 16 points and 11 rebounds for Australia, which led 45-29 at halftime and was up by as many as 28 points in the fourth quarter. Valter Monteiro had 18 points for Angola (0-2), which shot just 27 percent (19-for-71).
Vujanic's free throws came with 5.6 seconds left. Basile had tied the game 14 seconds earlier when he stripped Dejan Bodiroga near midcourt and went in for a layup.
Igor Rakocevic had 19 points for Serbia-Montenegro.
The Philadelphia 76ers, fueled by 36 points from Tyrese Maxey and a triple-double from Joel Embiid, on Thursday beat the Houston Rockets 128-122 in an NBA overtime thriller. Cameroonian big man Embiid scored 32 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and handed out 10 assists, posting the ninth triple-double of his career to help the Sixers end the Rockets’ three-game winning streak. Rockets star Kevin Durant scored 36 points and Amen Thompson added 17, but Thompson was scoreless in the fourth quarter. Even so, the Rockets led by nine midway through the final frame, Maxey tying it at 115-115 with 40.1 seconds left. Durant missed a
MARRED FINAL: As most of Senegalese players walked off the pitch after a controversial decision, some supporters threw objects and attempted to get onto the pitch Senegal on Sunday won the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) as Pape Gueye’s extra-time winner sunk hosts Morocco 1-0 after a chaotic final that saw the eventual champions storm off the pitch late in the game. Brahim Diaz could have won the trophy for Morocco with a controversial spot-kick in the 24th minute of added time at the end of normal time as ugly scenes broke out in the stands. However, Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy easily saved the weak attempted “Panenka” chip by the Real Madrid winger, who was clearly distracted by the long delay that followed the penalty award.
Tobias Harris on Monday scored 25 points as the Detroit Pistons held off the Boston Celtics to score a 104-103 victory in their top-of-the-table Eastern Conference showdown. Harris was one of four Detroit players to finish in double figures, with Jalen Duren adding 18 points and point guard Cade Cunningham scoring 16 points with 14 assists. The win sees Detroit extend their lead at the top of the Eastern Conference to 31-10, 5.5 games ahead of second-placed Boston, who fell to 26-16 with the defeat. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics scoring with 32 points and almost snatched victory in the
The civil war engulfing tennis has been laid bare on the opening day of the first Grand Slam event this year, with details of Tennis Australia’s peace deal with the Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA) published for the first time. The PTPA last year launched an anti-trust lawsuit against the four grand slam tournaments, the ATP Tour, WTA Tour, and the International Tennis Federation, accusing them of collaborating to reduce prize money, impose a restrictive ranking system and repress player promotional opportunities, but Tennis Australia was dropped from the claim last month after reaching a settlement agreement with the players’
RSS