Richard Hamilton scored 17 points and Tayshaun Prince 16 as the Detroit Pistons held off a late charge by Miami to win 80-72 and end the Heat's franchise-record 18-game home winning streak on Sunday.
With Shaquille O'Neal out for a third straight game because of a stomach virus, the Heat set season-lows for scoring in a game (77), half and quarter, established another low by shooting 34.6 percent, and have lost two straight for just the fourth time all season.
Eddie Jones had 19 points for Miami, which hurt itself by shooting 14-for-26 from the foul line. Dwyane Wade had only five points on 1-for-6 shooting before fouling out with 4:13 left, ending his streak of 51 consecutive games in double figures.
PHOTO: AP
Udonis Haslem scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Alonzo Mourning, who started in place of O'Neal, had 10 points, a season-high 14 rebounds and five blocked shots.
Ben Wallace had 12 points and 14 rebounds for defending champion Detroit, which won its sixth straight game, outscored the Heat 38-22 in the paint, and downed Miami for the second time in three meetings this season.
Knicks 113, Pacers 112, OT
At Indianapolis, Michael Sweetney scored a career-high 20 points, hit a rebound basket in the final second of overtime and the New York Knicks beat Indiana to end their longest losing streak in 20 years at nine games.
Kings 124, Lakers 105
At Sacramento, California, Kenny Thomas had a career-high 32 points and 14 rebounds, and the Sacramento Kings beat the LA Lakers for their fourth high-scoring victory in five games.
Mike Bibby had 24 points and eight assists for the Kings, who blew out their biggest rivals with 68 points in the second half, outrebounding the Lakers 62-32.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with