Richard Hamilton had a playoff-career high 40 points and the Detroit Pistons advanced to the second round of the NBA playoffs with a 122-93 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.
Rasheed Wallace scored 22 points and keyed an 18-2 run after halftime for the two-time defending Eastern Conference champions, who won the best-of-seven series in five games.
Detroit will play the winner of the Cleveland-Washington series. The Pistons will take a day off and have at least a couple of practices before resuming their goal of winning a second title in three years.
Michael Redd led the Bucks with 23 points, two in the first quarter. Hamilton had 15 points in the opening quarter as the Pistons took a 39-23 lead.
Detroit had four starters with at least 11 points in the first half while Redd was the only Buck in double figures at halftime as they trailed 62-49. Chauncey Billups had 17 points and eight assists and Tayshaun Prince added 12 points for the Pistons.
Cavaliers 121, Wizards 120, OT
At Cleveland, LeBron James muscled through traffic and dropped in a layup with 0.9 seconds left in overtime as Cleveland took a 3-2 series lead over Washington.
With the Cavs down by one, James, who finished with 45 points, took an inbounds pass with three seconds to go. After sliding past Antawn Jamison, James knifed inside of Michael Ruffin, Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood. He rose in the lane and softly dropped in his layup.
Arenas, who had 44 points, was way off with a desperation heave at the buzzer.
The best-of-seven series returns to Washington for Game 6 tonight.
Larry Hughes scored 24 points, Eric Snow had 18, including six in overtime, and Flip Murray added 12 for the Cavaliers, who blew a seven-point lead late in regulation.
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