NBALamar Odom scored 21 points and Kobe Bryant added 19 points and a season-high 10 assists as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the New Jersey Nets 99-93 on Sunday night.
Kwame Brown had 13 points and nine rebounds and Smush Parker also scored 13 for the Lakers, winners of five of their last six games. Los Angeles won despite Bryant's 8-of-24 shooting night.
Vince Carter had 21 points and 11 rebounds, Nenad Krstic scored 20, and Jason Kidd had 16 assists for the Nets, who lost their fifth straight -- all to Western Conference teams.
Rookie Jordan Farmar helped to give the Lakers an 80-69 lead early in the fourth quarter. The Nets battled back, drawing within two on a basket by Krstic, but Odom's five points during a 7-1 run made it 95-87 with 3:30 to play.
Luke Walton's 3-point basket with 1:53 left extended the Lakers' lead to 98-89, but the Nets scored the next four points before Kidd's miss with 20 seconds to go. Bryant made a free throw three seconds later to complete the scoring.
Nuggets 103, Clippers 88
At Denver, Carmelo Anthony had 33 points and J.R. Smith added 23 for Denver in the Nuggets' fifth straight win.
Denver, the NBA's highest-scoring team, started strong in the first and third quarters against the tired Clippers, shooting 51 percent and getting 27 assists for its second win in its last nine games against Los Angeles. Andre Miller had 14 points and 10 assists, and Anthony, the NBA's leading scorer, went over 30 points for the ninth time in 12 games.
Corey Maggette had 22 points to lead Los Angeles, which shot 36 percent to lose its fourth straight.
Already playing without center Chris Kaman, who sprained his ankle the night before against the Timberwolves, Los Angeles lost point guard Sam Cassell for most of the second half with a sprained left ankle.
Raptors 92, Pacers 83
At Toronto, Chris Bosh had 17 points and 11 rebounds and four other Raptors reached double figures in scoring as Toronto led from buzzer to buzzer.
Andrea Bargnani -- the No. 1 overall pick in the draft -- had 14 points for Toronto. He made two 3-pointers and shot 5-for-11.
Stephen Jackson and Danny Granger each scored 18 points for the Pacers, who have been behind after the first quarter in 11 of their 14 games this season.
The Pacers trailed by as many as 27, but cut the lead to four in the third quarter with a 12-1 run capped by Lee Tinsley's driving layup.
But the Raptors followed with a 17-4 run bridging the third and fourth quarters.
Suns 119, Trail Blazers 101
At Portland, Oregon, Raja Bell had a season-high 30 points, including seven 3-pointers, to pace Phoenix.
The Suns led by as many as 25 points, and all of their starters scored in double figures in the team's fourth straight win after a slow start to the season.
Amare Stoudemire, coming back from surgery on his left knee that forced him to miss all but three games last season, had 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Steve Nash had 23 points and 10 assists. Boris Diaw and Shawn Marion each scored 17.
Zach Randolph had 18 points and nine rebounds, but left the game late in the fourth quarter and did not return.
Travis Outlaw added 22 points for the Blazers, 2-7 in their last nine games after opening the season 4-2.
Spurs 98, SuperSonics 78
At Seattle, Tony Parker scored 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter to help San Antonio improved on the best road start in franchise history.
The Spurs improved to 7-0 on the road and are the only unbeaten road team left in the NBA. San Antonio is the fourth team in the last 10 years to start 7-0 or better on the road. The Spurs will be tested twice more on their current three-game road trip at Golden State and in Utah.
Tim Duncan added 18 points and 16 rebounds and Fabricio Oberto had 16 points for the Spurs, who have won 12 straight regular-season road games dating to the end of last season.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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