Gerald Wallace slid face-first off the court after a hard foul, popped back up and looked at the scoreboard. He wasn't seeing things -- the Charlotte Bobcats really were on their way to the first win in franchise history.
The expansion Bobcats wrestled for rebounds, scrambled after loose balls and outhustled the Orlando Magic en route to a 111-100 victory on Saturday.
Primoz Brezec, quickly emerging as Charlotte's star player, had 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Bobcats. Wallace added 18 points and 10 rebounds, Steve Smith had 14 points, and Jason Hart had 14 points and 11 assists.
"All I can say is those young men deserve it, they play hard and they never surrendered," Charlotte coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. "But we still do some things that can cause cardiac arrest."
Cuttino Mobley led the Magic with 23 points. Grant Hill, playing in his first back-to-back games since Dec. 15-16, 2002, scored 16 for the Magic. Hedo Turkoglu also had 16.
"To this day I know who Orlando's first win was -- the Detroit Pistons," Hill said. "We don't want to be their first win. It goes down in history."
Celtics 107, Knicks 73
In New York, Paul Pierce scored 28 points, Ricky Davis added 20, and Boston shot 56 percent to win for the first time this season after opening with two losses at home.
Pierce shot 10-for-18 from the field and 6-for-6 from the line with 10 rebounds and eight assists. Gary Payton added nine points, leaving him 15 shy of becoming the 29th player in NBA history to score 20,000.
Stephon Marbury scored 12 and Jamal Crawford had 11. Reserve forward Michael Sweetney led New York with 18 points.
Heat 118, Wizards 106
In Washington, Dwyane Wade had career highs with 37 points and 12 assists to again overshadow Shaquille O'Neal, and Miami improved to 3-0 for the second time in franchise history.
Wade made 11 of 16 field goals, 14 of 16 free throws and outshone the Wizards trio of Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Larry Hughes, who combined for 77 points and rallied Washington from a 10-point third-quarter deficit to tie the game late.
O'Neal, hampered by foul trouble and a strained hamstring, scored 13 points in 27 minutes while facing a team that started 2.03m Michael Ruffin at center.
Wade has been the star of all three Heat victories, totaling 86 points and 23 assists as Miami is 3-0 for the first time since the 1995-96 season.
Arenas had 27 points, Hughes scored 26, and Jamison had 24 points and 13 rebounds.
Pistons 99, 76ers 91
In Auburn Hills, Michigan, Chauncey Billups had 20 points and 10 assists, and Richard Hamilton added 17 points, leading Detroit over Philadelphia.
Rasheed Wallace scored 16 points, and Ben Wallace had 11 points and 16 rebounds for the Pistons, who were without coach Larry Brown for a second straight game. Brown is hospitalized after having hip surgery on Wednesday.
Allen Iverson scored 31 points for the Sixers but was limited to just eight points in the second half.
Billups scored 18 first-half points.
Timberwolves 99, Hornets 92
In Minneapolis, Latrell Sprewell ended a quiet night with a flurry, scoring seven points over a two-minute span down the stretch to spark Minnesota over New Orleans.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but