Shaquille O'Neal had his second career triple-double, Antoine Walker scored a season-high 32 points, and the Miami Heat overcame Dwyane Wade's absence to beat Toronto 106-97 on Tuesday and send the Raptors to their ninth straight loss.
O'Neal finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, doing so in only 28 minutes because of foul trouble.
And Walker, who was shooting only 30 percent and averaging eight points per game in April -- as the Heat got off to a 2-4 start -- connected on 13 of 26 shots, plus added eight rebounds and five assists.
While the Raptors remained horrid, Mike James stayed torrid for the Raptors. He scored 32 points, his fourth straight game cracking the 30-point mark, and Morris Peterson added 23 for Toronto -- which stayed close by hitting 13 3-pointers.
Miami, with Wade and his 27.5 points per game at home with a flu-like virus, trimmed its magic number for clinching the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs to two over New Jersey, which lost later Tuesday night in Chicago.
Spurs 104, SuperSonics 95
At San Antonio, Texas, Tony Parker had 27 points and nine assists, and San Antonio increased its lead in the Western Conference to one game over Dallas.
San Antonio (60-18) recorded a 60-win season for the third time in franchise history, the last coming when the Spurs won the NBA title in the 2002-2003 season.
Parker, who was 7-of-8 from the field in the second quarter, helped the Spurs overcome a tough shooting night by Tim Duncan. Duncan shot 6-for-18 and had 18 points and 14 rebounds.
Seattle (33-44) had won a season-best four straight games and six of the past eight. Ray Allen averaged 31 points and shot 55.4 percent during the winning streak, but was limited to 14 points and shot 5-of-13 from the floor.
Grizzlies 92, Timberwolves 76
At Memphis, Tennessee, Pau Gasol had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Chucky Atkins added 17 points, and Memphis beat injury-depleted Minnesota.
Memphis won for the fourth time in five games and moved a half-game ahead of the idle Los Angeles Clippers for the fifth playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Bobby Jackson finished with 16 points for the Grizzlies, Jake Tsakalidis contributed 12, and Mike Miller scored 10. Gasol added six assists.
Minnesota was without leading scorer and rebounder Kevin Garnett; Ricky Davis, second-leading scorer and team leader in assists, and a supporting cast of Anthony Carter and Troy Hudson. Justin Reed led the Timberwolves with 14 points on 7-of-11 from the field.
Bulls 104, Nets 101
At Chicago, Ben Gordon scored 21 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter, leading short-handed Chicago over New Jersey and into a tie with Philadelphia for the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff spot.
The Bulls and 76ers trail Milwaukee and Indiana by a game.
New Jersey trails Miami by 3 1/2 games for the second seed in the Eastern Conference. The Nets have five games left and the Heat four.
Vince Carter scored 43 points -- his fifth game with 40 or more this season -- for a Nets team (47-30) that had won 15 of 16 and is trying to reach the 50-win mark for the second time in its NBA history. The 2001-2002 team won 52.
Suns 123, Kings 110
At Sacramento, California, Raja Bell scored 25 points, Shawn Marion added 23 and Phoenix roared back from a 17-point halftime deficit against Sacramento.
Steve Nash had 13 points and 13 assists despite foul trouble for the Suns, who won for just the second time in five games with an impressive 72-point second half. Eight Suns scored at least nine points apiece as they made 71 percent of their shots after halftime to fly past the Kings, who had won six of their previous seven games.
Mike Bibby, Ron Artest and Brad Miller scored 23 points apiece for the Kings, whose awful second-half defense provided a blow to their hopes of a rematch with Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs.
Lakers 111, Warriors 100
At Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant scored 31 points, Lamar Odom had 15 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, and the Los Abgeles Lakers sent Golden State to its season-high ninth straight loss.
The Lakers (42-37) moved a game ahead of Sacramento for the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference playoffs after the Kings lost 123-110 to Phoenix.
Odom's triple-double was his first with the Lakers and ninth of his career. His rebounds were a season high. Smush Parker added 18 points and Kwame Brown had 15 points and 15 rebounds.
Jason Richardson led the Warriors with 20 points after missing one game because of a sore right knee. Derek Fisher added 18 points against his former team.
Houston Rockets center Yao Ming will have surgery this weekend on his broken left foot and the injury could take four to six months to heal, general manager Carroll Dawson said Tuesday.
The 2.29m Yao was hurt in the first quarter of an 85-83 loss to Utah on Monday.
An MRI performed in Houston on Tuesday showed a crack in the fifth metatarsal bone of the foot, Dawson said.
"It can be fixed two ways," Dawson said. "You could just put a cast on it, but it takes forever. The thing most people do is have the surgery."
It is not known if the surgery will prevent Yao from playing in the FIBA World Championship in Japan, which begins Aug. 19.
Yao said he thought he hurt his foot when Utah's Mehmet Okur accidentally kicked it. Yao limped through a few more minutes and converted a three-point play before hobbling off the court with 3:51 left in the opening quarter.
Earlier this season, Yao missed 21 games following surgery to remove an infection from his left big toe. Since the NBA All-Star Game, Yao has been one of the leagues's top performers, averaging 26.6 points and 12 rebounds.
Eliminated from playoff contention, the Rockets have four games left in their injury-wracked season, starting Wednesday game against Minnesota.
Leading scorer Tracy McGrady has missed 30 games with recurring back problems. As a whole, Rockets players have missed 258 games to injuries.
postseason rosters to expand
NBA postseason rosters will expand to 13 this season, with teams deactivating one player before each game.
This will be the first time teams will be allowed to make changes during the playoffs. In the past, they had to stick with the same 12-man roster throughout the postseason.
The new rule was approved by the board of governors and announced on Tuesday.
NBA spokesman Tim Frank said the change was made to give teams the same kind of roster room they had during the regular season. Under the new collective bargaining agreement, rosters were expanded to 15, with teams placing 12 players on the active list before each game.
"We should have some type of flexibility since teams have been able to do that the entire season," Frank said. "We just kind of felt like that was the best way to go."
The regular season ends on April 19, and the playoffs begin three days later.
Nash plans camp
Steve Nash will return to his birthplace at this year's Basketball without Borders camp in South Africa.
The basketball instructional camp, in its sixth year, also teaches about such social issues as HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. More than 120 players, coaches and team personnel have taken part.
The camp also will go to Lithuania and Puerto Rico for the first time. It also will return to China, with the announcement set for Wednesday. Yao Ming will lead the group that goes to his hometown of Shanghai. Last year's camp was in Beijing.
Commissioner David Stern said the program "transcends all boundaries" and uses basketball to unite "young people from diverse cultural, national and economic backgrounds on four separate continents."
Nash, the NBA's MVP last season, was born in Johannesburg, which will host a camp in September. Africans Dikembe Mutombo (Congo) and Chicago's Luol Deng (Sudan) will be on that trip.
Cleveland's Zyndrunas Ilgauskas (Lithuania) and Orlando's Carlos Arroyo (Puerto Rico) will take part in camps in their home countries. Philadelphia's Samuel Dalembert of Haiti will be at European and Asian camps.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set