Rasheed Wallace made up for a fourth-quarter technical foul by scoring six points of his season-high 28 points late in the game, helping the Detroit Pistons beat the Toronto Raptors 98-92 on Saturday night.
Richard Hamilton added 21 points and eight assists for the Pistons, who won their sixth straight.
TJ Ford had 17 points and 11 assists for the Raptors, whose five-game winning streak was stopped. Chris Bosh added with 14 points and 11 rebounds for Toronto, which has lost eight in a row at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
PHOTO: AP
Detroit, which led 76-73 after three periods, continued to hold the lead for most of the fourth before getting frustrated by the officiating, culminating in Wallace's technical foul. Anthony Parker's free throw pulled the Raptors within 85-84, and Andrea Bargnani followed with a 3-pointer to put Toronto ahead.
Wallace answered with a three-point play that put Detroit back in front, and his 3-pointer with 2:45 remaining finished the Pistons' 10-point run.
Nets 93, Magic 78
At East Rutherford, New Jersey, Vince Carter scored 32 points and reserve Marcus Williams added 12 clutch points to lead New Jersey.
Jason Kidd had 10 points and nine rebounds as the Nets extended their winning streak to three.
Dwight Howard scored 25 points on 11-of-15 from the field along with 12 rebounds for Orlando, which lost for the 12th time in 16 games.
Williams came in late in the third quarter to spell Kidd and immediately took charge by scoring the last six points for the Nets in the period as New Jersey took a 66-63 lead.
Starting the fourth quarter, Williams orchestrated a 15-8 run that sealed it. Williams scored four points in the surge and dished out three assists.
Hornets 114, Grizzlies 99
At Oklahoma City, Chris Paul had 23 points and 11 assists, and David West added 22 points to help New Orleans win its third straight.
After back-to-back overtime wins, the Hornets put this one away earlier -- using a 17-3 push shortly after half-time to take control.
Tyson Chandler had 15 points and 16 rebounds for his seventh double-double in the last eight games.
Pau Gasol had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Grizzlies.
Jazz 104, Knicks 102, OT
At Salt Lake City, Mehmet Okur forced overtime on a layup with 12 seconds left in regulation, and Derek Fisher scored with three seconds left in the extra period to lift Utah past New York.
Okur scored 29 points and Fisher finished with 14, including the winner on a pass from Deron Williams, who had 10 assists for Utah. The Jazz ended a five-game losing streak against the Knicks.
New York had a final chance, but Jamal Crawford's shot at the buzzer was off. The Jazz trailed by 10 late in the fourth quarter before rallying to win their fourth in a row.
Rockets 104, Bobcats 83
At Houston, Tracy McGrady and Juwan Howard each scored 16 points and Houston rebounded from a blowout at Dallas a day before to beat Charlotte.
Dikembe Mutombo, who has been great in place of the injured Yao Ming, added 14 points and 14 rebounds for Houston, and Rafer Alston had 14 points.
Raymond Felton led Charlotte with 16 points, and Emeka Okafor had 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Nuggets 109, Bucks 102
At Milwaukee, Carmelo Anthony had 29 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds, and Nene added 17 points and 11 rebounds for Denver.
Nene hit three free throws in the final 35 seconds to seal the victory as the Nuggets completed a short road trip with wins on back-to-back nights.
Earl Boykins led Milwaukee with 26 points.
Kings 114, SuperSonics 93
At Seattle, Kevin Martin scored 14 of his 26 points during a big second quarter that led Sacramento past Seattle.
It was Sacramento's season-high fifth straight win.
Martin and Ron Artest both scored 16 in the first half, as the Kings built a huge lead -- helped by a 36-point second quarter -- and were never challenged in the second half.
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