Sasha Pavlovic scored 13 points in the fourth quarter to pick up the slack for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers shut down Kobe Bryant in the final minutes for a 99-90 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.
Pavlovic finished with 21 points, Zydrunas Ilgauskas 17 and Anderson Varejao with 12 as the Cavaliers improved to 20-7 at home with their second straight solid effort.
James had 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists, but he deferred to Pavlovic and others down the stretch and Cleveland's supporting cast came through. James was outscored 25-7 by Bryant in the second half, but the All-Star forward got to crown the Cavs' win with a soaring dunk in the final seconds.
Timberwolves 109, Celtics 107
At Minneapolis, Ricky Davis' jumper from the corner with 0.2 seconds remaining dealt the Celtics their franchise-record 18th straight loss.
Davis finished with 28 points, Kevin Garnett had 26 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists and another former Celtic, Mark Blount, added 20 points for the Timberwolves.
Bulls 116, Suns 103
At Phoenix, Kirk Hinrich scored 14 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter and Chicago completed a seven-game road trip with the victory over the short-handed Suns.
Phoenix played without Steve Nash for the third consecutive game because of a sore right shoulder. The Suns also didn't have starter Boris Diaw because of back spasms.
Heat 100, Spurs 85
At Miami, Dwyane Wade scored 18 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter and the Heat held San Antonio without a field goal for more than seven minutes down the stretch.
Wade hit seven of 10 field goals in the final period and added seven assists.
Pacers 94, Clippers 80
At Indianapolis, Jermaine O'Neal scored 21 points and set an Indiana franchise record for career blocked shots.
The Pacers took control with a 16-0 run at the end of the second quarter and built their lead to 23 points early in the third period.
The Clippers rallied within seven points midway through the final quarter, but O'Neal then hit two straight baskets and Mike Dunleavy, who finished with 20 points, added another basket to push Indiana's lead to 89-76. Los Angeles came no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
Trail Blazers 94, Wizards 73
At Washington, Jarrett Jack and LaMarcus Aldridge scored 18 points apiece and Portland held Gilbert Arenas to nine points.
Arenas, who vowed to score 50 points in retaliation for being left off the US national team last summer by Portland coach Nate McMillan, shot 3-for-15 from the field, including 0-for-8 on 3-pointers.
SuperSonics 114, Kings 103
At Sacramento, California, Ray Allen scored 25 points and hit a key 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter to help Seattle win its second straight road game following a franchise-record 15-game skid away from home.
Chris Wilcox added 25 points on 8-for-9 shooting for the Sonics and Rashard Lewis had 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Hawks 106, Warriors 105
At Oakland, California, Josh Smith scored 11 of his 29 points in Atlanta's big first quarter and also had 10 rebounds, leading the Hawks to their fifth straight road victory.
Joe Johnson scored 21 points for Atlanta.
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
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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