LeBron James scored 33 points and barely missed a triple-double as the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics 114-113 on Tuesday for the second time in this NBA season.
James added 12 assists, nine rebounds and five steals to pace the Cavaliers, who handed the NBA's best road team just their fifth loss away from home. Cleveland also beat the Celtics in overtime on Nov. 27.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas added 21 points for Cleveland.
Ray Allen led the Celtics with 24 points.
Spurs 116, Pacers 89
At Indianapolis, Tim Duncan dominated the middle and San Antonio's stingy second-half defense turned a close game into a rout.
Duncan had 19 points and 15 rebounds, and backup guard Jacque Vaughn scored 16 points off the bench.
Danny Granger led Indiana with 16 points in their season-high seventh-straight defeat.
Tied at halftime, the Pacers opened the third quarter shooting 1-of-11, a lapse that allowed San Antonio on an 8-0 run. By the time it ended, the Spurs had outscored Indiana 18-2, building an insurmountable 77-61 lead with 4:18 to go.
76ers 101, Wizards 96
At Philadelphia, Andre Iguodala scored 20 points and Philadelphia stunned Washington with a 17-0 run late in the fourth quarter, handing Washington their fourth-straight loss.
The Sixers trailed by 12 early in the fourth before Rodney Carney's open dunk off a turnover tied the score at 90. Iguodala's layup at the 4 minute mark put the 76ers ahead 92-90. They would never trail again.
DeShawn Stevenson scored 19 points for the Wizards.
■ LEBRON: NO CONTEST
AP, MEDINA, OHIO
NBA star LeBron James pleaded no contest to driving 101mph (163kph) on his 23rd birthday in December and was ordered to pay US$259 in fines and court costs.
The Cleveland Cavaliers player entered the plea on the speeding charge on Monday through his lawyer in Medina Municipal Court, clerk of court Nancy Abbott said on Tuesday. James was found guilty by Magistrate Charles Lawrie and avoids a court hearing on Monday, when the Cavaliers play in Orlando.
James was ticketed by the State Highway Patrol on Interstate 71 south of Cleveland at about 3am on Dec. 30. James later said he was heading home after the team arrived in Cleveland.
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