Kobe Bryant scored 18 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter on Wednesday as the Los Angeles Lakers beat New Orleans Hornets 113-107, disappointing the standing room crowd that put aside its Hurricane Katrina problems for a night of cheering on its team.
It was the first professional sporting event in New Orleans since the Aug. 29 storm destroyed much of the city, scattered residents across the US and sent the Hornets to Oklahoma City for the season.
Hornets owner George Shinn had worried about the city's ability to supply a crowd for the game -- the first of three to be played in New Orleans this season. Only an estimated 189,000 of the city's roughly 465,000 pre-Katrina residents have returned. But the game was a sellout, with 17,744 people jammed in and the Arena's US$10 million restoration ready for the crowd and the game.
PHOTO: AP
Hornets forward Desmond Mason's layup with 3:16 left tied it at 97. But Bryant's 3-pointer at 2:19 put the Lakers ahead 100-97 and the Hornets could never catch up.
Lamar Odom had 18 points and 17 rebounds for Los Angeles, Smush Parker had 16 points and Sasha Vujacic had 10.
David West led the Hornets with 25 points, Chris Paul and Speedy Claxton each scored 22 and Aaron Williams added 10. Paul also had 10 rebounds.
Heat 118, Wizards 112
At Miami, Dwyane Wade returned from a two-game absence to score 40 points and lead Miami past Washington for its 10th straight win.
Wade, who missed the previous two games with a sprained right wrist, has scored 115 points in three games this season against Washington. His running jumper in the lane gave Miami a 114-112 lead with 21 seconds left.
Pistons 106, Bulls 101
At Auburn Hills, Michigan, Richard Hamilton scored 14 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to help Detroit improve to 27-2 at home.
The Bulls scored 37 points in the fourth -- a quarter that saw four players score at least 10 points -- but gave up 38.
Cavaliers 98, Raptors 97
At Toronto, Damon Jones made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift Cleveland over Toronto for its fourth straight victory.
Toronto's Morris Peterson had given Toronto the lead with a go-ahead 3-pointer with 4.8 seconds left, but a double-teamed LeBron James found a wide-open Jones in the corner for the winning bucket.
James scored 35 points for the Cavaliers.
Celtics 104, 76ers 101
At Boston, Paul Pierce had his first triple-double of the season with 31 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists to rally Boston past Philadelphia.
After Allen Iverson's jumper gave Philadelphia a 99-94 lead with 1:34 remaining, Pierce scored eight straight points for Boston, including a pair of 3-pointers, to put the Celtics up 100-99.
Bobcats 104, Warriors 101
At Charlotte, North Carolina, Jumaine Jones scored 29 points, including a pair of free throws with 1.4 seconds to play, and Charlotte battled back in the fourth quarter to beat Golden State.
Golden State has lost 17 of its last 20 road games.
Kings 123, Bucks 116
At Milwaukee, Mike Bibby scored 36 points, and Sacramento tied its season high for points in a win over Milwaukee.
The Kings scored 69 first-half points en route to their fifth win in six games. The Bucks have lost seven of nine.
Rockets 103, Pacers 99
At Houston, Yao Ming scored a season-high 38 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Houston rallied from 17 points down in the third quarter to beat Indiana.
Jazz 96, Timberwolves 93
At Salt Lake City, Andrei Kirilenko had eight blocks and eight assists to go with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Utah won consecutive games for the first time in nearly a month.
Grizzlies 99, SuperSonics 74
At Seattle, Pau Gasol had the first triple-double of his career with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists, and Memphis routed Seattle.
Gasol found Jake Tsakalidis along the baseline for a dunk with 2:32 left for his 10th assist -- setting a career high -- as the Grizzlies won for the fourth time in their last five.
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