Perhaps trying to show his US Olympic team coach that he should have played more in Greece, LeBron James scored a career-high 43 points on Wednesday to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 92-76 win over Larry Brown's Detroit Pistons.
"That's as good as I've seen," Cavaliers coach Paul Silas said of James. "All I know he was great, not good, he was great. We just don't have enough superlatives to give this guy."
Jeff McInnis added 16 points as the Cavaliers won for the seventh time in eight games.
The NBA's reigning rookie of the year scored 21 points in the first half and 12 in the third quarter when he assisted on Cleveland's two other field goals. In the fourth, after Detroit pulled within 10, James made consecutive 3-pointers, punctuating the second with a wag of his tongue as the Cavaliers went up by 16.
"Fantastic," said Cavs forward Robert Traylor. "That's the only word I can think of to describe it. I don't know if he had something to prove, but he came to play. He's one of those guys who sets his mind to it and takes his game to another level."
Richard Hamilton scored 28 points and Rasheed Wallace 11 for Detroit.
Heat 99, Hawks 93
In Atlanta, Dwyane Wade scored 31 points, handed out 11 assists and had the most spectacular defensive play of the night as Miami edged Atlanta.
Wade just missed the first triple-double of his career, also pulling down eight rebounds.
Shaquille O'Neal and Udonis Haslem each had 21 points for Miami, which went ahead to stay, 85-84, when O'Neal dunked off a pass from Wade with 5:51 remaining.
The Hawks closed to 92-91 on Kenny Anderson's three-point play with 1:43 to go, but Haslem hit a jumper, Al Harrington turned the ball over and Wade hit a couple of free throws to clinch it.
Wade's defensive stop came with about eight-and-a-half minutes remaining when Jelani McCoy, a 6-foot-10 center, went in for a one-handed dunk, only to get it stuffed back in his face by the 6-4 Wade.
Trail Blazers 89, Magic 83
In Orlando, Florida, Zach Randolph scored 20 of his 27 points after halftime and Damon Stoudamire had 16 points and eight assists as Portland beat Orlando.
Randolph twice hit a tie-breaking basket in the final three minutes, and his free throws with 34 seconds remaining put the game away. He shot 10-for-23 and added seven rebounds.
Hedo Turkoglu led the Magic with a season-high 27 points, and brought Orlando back from a 66-56 deficit late in third quarter.
Portland has beaten Orlando 11 straight times.
76ers 110, Celtics 97
In Philadelphia, Allen Iverson had 28 points and 10 assists, and Josh Davis moved into the starting lineup and added a career-high 19 points to help Philadelphia beat Boston and snap a three-game losing streak.
O'Brien, who coached the Celtics for three years before resigning in January, got his win with Philadelphia against Boston in the season opener three weeks ago.
Davis, the CBA's most valuable player last season with the Idaho Stampede, hadn't played more than 10 minutes in a game this season but started ahead of veteran Kenny Thomas and logged 26 minutes. Signed as a long-range threat, Davis scored 11 straight Philadelphia points in the third quarter, including consecutive 3s that stretched the lead to 78-61.
Ricky Davis led the Celtics with 23 points.
Raptors 114, Knicks 91
In Toronto, Vince Carter scored 22 points and backup point guard Milt Palacio had a season-high 18 points and seven assists to lead Toronto over New York.
Palacio came within two points of his career-high for the Raptors, who won for just the second time in eight games.
Before the game, first-year coach Sam Mitchell said he was "losing his mind" because he thought the team could play better. He compared the Raptors to the comical Washington Generals after the loss to the Washington Wizards.
Toronto led by as many as 27 points in handing the Knicks their second-worst loss of the season. New York lost by 34 in its home opener against Boston.
Other results: SuperSonics 93, Grizzlies 84, Spurs 94, Mavericks 80, Suns 111, Bucks 104, Bulls 101, Jazz 99.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite