Tracy McGrady scored 23 points and David Wesley added 19, including several key free throws late, to lead the Houston Rockets to a 93-89 win over the struggling New York Knicks on Sunday.
Yao Ming, in his fourth game back since missing 21 after toe surgery, looked to have shaken off any lingering effects of the injury and had 15 points. Houston's record is 12-6 when he and McGrady play.
With both its stars healthy, Houston has won three straight for the first time since it captured five in a row from Dec. 6-15.
The Knicks had a chance to tie with 6.9 seconds left, but a 3-pointer by Jalen Rose was partially blocked by Stromile Swift and fell short.
Rose scored 16 points and received a warm reception from the crowd in his debut with the Knicks after being traded from Toronto on Friday. Rose started to make it the 29th different starting lineup the Knicks have used this season.
Jamal Crawford scored 24 points and Eddy Curry had 15 for the Knicks, who have lost five straight and 11 of the last 12.
Clippers 115, Raptors 113, OT
In Toronto, Elton Brand scored 30 points, Sam Cassell added 27, and Los Angeles moved 11 games over .500 for the first time in team history.
Cassell sent the game into overtime with a 3-pointer and scored six points in the extra period.
Cuttino Mobley scored 20 points and Chris Kaman had 16 points and 15 rebounds for the Clippers.
The franchise hasn't been 11 games over the break-even mark since the Buffalo Braves were 30-19 on Jan. 28, 1976.
Kings 96, Jazz 78
In Sacramento, California, Mike Bibby scored 23 points, Kevin Martin added 20 and Sacramento hit more than enough field goals in the fourth quarter.
Ron Artest scored nine points for the Kings, who rebounded just fine from a humiliating 0-for-20 shooting performance in the fourth quarter in Salt Lake City two days earlier. Sacramento managed just 12 points on free throws while blowing a 12-point lead in an 89-79 defeat.
Kenny Thomas, who scored 10 points and led a strong rebounding game with nine boards, made sure the Kings wouldn't repeat the debacle with a fierce dunk on Sacramento's opening possession of the fourth.
Mehmet Okur had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Jazz, who have lost four of six.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier