Richard Hamilton scored 27 points and the Detroit Pistons hardly missed Chauncey Billups, who sat out with a strained right calf, rolling to a 92-68 victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Thursday night.
The Pistons snapped a three-game losing streak as the Hornets were unable to climb out of a 26-point halftime hole without starters Chris Paul (sprained right ankle), Peja Stojakovic (back surgery) and David West (right elbow surgery).
Jannero Pargo led the Hornets with 16 points, Desmond Mason added 15 and reserve Devin Brown scored 14.
Tyson Chandler grabbed 16 rebounds for New Orleans, which lost for the 10th time in its last 12 games. The Hornets, who rank last in the NBA in scoring, had their lowest output of the season.
Mavericks 100, Pacers 91
At Dallas, Devin Harris scored 13 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, pushing Dallas past Indiana and extending the NBA's longest winning streak this season to 12 games.
It is the second 12-game winning streak this season for the Mavericks (26-7), who have the NBA's best record.
The first dozen victories in a row came after the defending Western Conference champions started the season 0-4 for the first time in team history.
Josh Howard, who has won back-to-back NBA player of the week awards, had 25 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Mavericks. Dirk Nowitzki, bothered by sinus problems, still had 20 points in 36 minutes.
Al Harrington had 24 points and 11 rebounds for Indiana, which played its first game this year after being off since a home loss to Charlotte last week. Jermaine O'Neal had 20 points and a season-high 16 rebounds, while Jeff Foster had 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Lakers 132, Kings 128, OT
At Sacramento, California, Kobe Bryant overcame a scoreless opening 16 minutes to finish with 42 points and Los Angeles blew a 21-point lead before rallying past Sacramento.
Bryant fed Smush Parker for the game-tying shot in the final second of regulation for one of his nine assists, then scored on the opening possession of overtime to give the Lakers the lead for good in the first meeting of the season between the two fierce California rivals.
Brian Cook added 26 points, Luke Walton scored 16 and Andrew Bynum had 15 points and 11 rebounds as the Lakers won their first game since center Kwame Brown went down with an injury.
Sacramento was also without its starting center, as Brad Miller missed the game with the flu. Mike Bibby led the Kings with 38 points and Kevin Martin had 21.
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