Corey Maggette scored a career-high 39 points, Elton Brand added 32, and the Los Angeles Clippers rallied to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 118-110 on Thursday despite Kobe Bryant's 50 points.
Bryant's nine 50-point games this season are the most in the NBA since Wilt Chamberlain scored at least 50 nine times in the 1964-1965 season. Chamberlain averaged a record 50.4 points three years earlier.
The win snapped a poorly timed three-game losing streak for the Clippers (38-40), who are tied with Golden State for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference. Both trail the seventh-place Lakers by 1.5 games.
PHOTO: EPA
Bryant shot 17-of-33 from the floor and made all 15 of his free throws. He also had nine rebounds, but was held scoreless after making two foul shots to give the Lakers a 102-92 lead with 8:46 remaining.
The Clippers outscored the Lakers 26-8 after that.
Cavaliers 94, Nets 76
At Cleveland, LeBron James looked playoff ready. The New Jersey Nets aren't quite there yet.
James scored 35 points in 36 minutes and Cleveland secured home-court advantage for the first round of the NBA playoffs with a win over New Jersey, which blew a chance to inch closer to a postseason berth.
Larry Hughes added 19 points for Cleveland (47-32), which tied idle Chicago (47-32) for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs have three games left, and they'll likely have to win them all and hope the Bulls -- who own the tiebreaker between the clubs -- stumble to avoid a first-round matchup against the Miami Heat.
With a few trademark dunks, and more energy than he's shown in recent weeks, James took over in the third quarter, scoring 15 points when the Cavaliers shot 82 percent (14-of-17) from the field to blow the game open.
Vince Carter scored 26 points to lead the Nets (37-41), who came in as the East's No. 7 seed.
A victory would have reduced New Jersey's magic number for clinching a sixth straight playoff appearance to one. However, the Nets were out of synch offensively and got just five points from Richard Jefferson and only eight from Jason Kidd.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB