Chauncey Billups scored 16 points and Darko Milicic added 10 points and nine rebounds on Thursday to help the Detroit Pistons beat the Milwaukee Bucks 95-88 in NBA preseason play.
Tayshaun Prince added 10 points for Detroit while Ben Wallace had eight points and 13 rebounds.
Maurice Williams led the Bucks with 19 points, while former Michigan State star Charlie Bell, who last played in the NBA in 2002, had 12.
Milwaukee was missing three key players to injury -- Michael Redd (groin), T.J. Ford (hand) and Joe Smith (knee). Andrew Bogut, the top pick in this year's draft, started and scored three points in 21 minutes. He had six rebounds and four fouls.
Nets 95, Bobcats 76
At Charlotte, North Carolina, Richard Jefferson and Jason Kidd scored 10 points each to lead New Jersey over shorthanded Charlotte.
The Nets, who held the Bobcats to 31 percent shooting, won despite committing 22 turnovers.
Antonio Meeking scored 14 points and fellow rookie Raymond Felton added 10 for Charlotte.
The Bobcats were without six players, including Emeka Okafor, who missed his second straight game with a sprained right ankle.
Wizards 95, Spurs 91
At Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Jarvis Hayes scored 19 points and Washington spoiled San Antonio star Tim Duncan's college homecoming.
Duncan, a three-time All-American and national player of the year at Wake Forest, was honored by city officials on "Tim Duncan Day." He received a key to the city, and had Deacon Drive, which runs by Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, renamed "Tim Duncan Drive."
However, Duncan struggled from the start, not scoring his first points until the 3:06 mark of the second quarter.
Caron Butler added 14 points for Washington, and Antonio Daniels and Awvee Storey each had 12.
Beno Udrih led the Spurs with 20 points, Sharrod Ford added 13 and Sean Marks 10.
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