Gilbert Arenas made 11 of his first 12 shots from the field and scored 43 points to lead the Washington Wizards past a lackluster Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs 110-95 Saturday.
Duncan connected on his first two attempts from the floor and then could not figure out a way to get the ball in the basket until a tip-in with just under 6 minutes left in the game. He missed 15 straight shots.
He wound up 3-for-18 for 11 points and had 14 rebounds, barely keeping intact his run of a double-double in every game this season.
Manu Ginobili scored 28 points and Tony Parker added 23, keeping the Spurs in the game until late in the third quarter.
Heat 108, Bobcats 99
At Miami, Jason Williams scored 22 points, Dwyane Wade added 19 and Alonzo Mourning 16 to lead Miami over Charlotte.
Sean May scored 18 points, Kareem Rush had 15 and Primoz Brezec added 11 for Charlotte, which lost its fourth straight. The Bobcats trailed by 20 points with 2:10 remaining in the game before making the final score close.
Udonis Haslem added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Heat, who were without Shaquille O'Neal (sprained right ankle) for the fifth straight game.
Mavericks 109, Hornets 103
At Oklahoma City, Dirk Nowitzki scored 30 points and Jason Terry added 26 to lead Dallas over New Orleans.
Terry had eight points of his season-high total in the final 4:22. His driving basket with 31.8 seconds remaining made it 104-96. After a three-point play by Chris Paul got the Hornets within five, Nowitzki sank two free throws for a 106-99 lead and the Mavericks held on from there.
Paul led the Hornets with 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting. He was coming off a 4-of-13 night in a loss to Orlando on Wednesday.
Rockets 99, Nets 91
At East Rutherford, New Jersey, Tracy McGrady scored 30 of his 35 points in the second half, and Yao Ming added 18 to help Houston snap a three-game losing streak.
Reserve guard David Wesley had 15 points before fouling, and McGrady -- making his return after missing three games due to back spasms -- also grabbed 10 rebounds.
Jason Kidd had a season-high 20 points and nine rebounds, and Richard Jefferson added 17 points to lead the Nets, who lost for the third time in four games.
Vince Carter and Jeff McInnis had 16 points for New Jersey. Carter, plagued with foul trouble in the first half, shot just 6-of-19 en route to his lowest scoring total of the season.
Yao scored 10 points in the first 8 minutes of the game to help the Rockets take the lead for good.
Suns 101, Warriors 86
At Phoenix, Shawn Marion had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Raja Bell scored a season-high 20 points, helping Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni get his 100th NBA win.
The victory was the Suns' first in four home games. In their previous three losses, they blew double-digit leads in the second half. This time, they held on despite 23 points by the Warriors' Baron Davis.
Leandro Barbosa, starting for the first time this season, added 19 points for the Suns, and Steve Nash had 18 points and 10 assists.
Derek Fisher and Mickael Pietrus each scored 16 points for the Warriors, and Troy Murphy had 10 points and 17 rebounds. Jason Richardson, the Warriors leading scorer, was limited to 11 points on 5-of-19 shooting.
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