Tim Duncan had 31 points and 15 rebounds as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks 97-94 for their seventh straight win in the NBA on Thursday.
Manu Ginobili added 17 points for San Antonio and Michael Finley had 16. Dirk Nowitzki scored 28 points for the Mavericks.
The Mavericks are 3-2 with new addition Jason Kidd, who had 10 assists and seven points. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Dallas, which is in a tight race with the Spurs and two other teams for the Southwest Division lead.
PHOTO: EPA
With the game tied at 94, Erick Dampier fouled Duncan, who sank both shots from the line to put the Spurs up 96-94.
Nowitzki missed two shots with less than 30 seconds on the clock, and Jason Terry missed another. The Spurs got the ball back with 3.3 seconds to go, and Dampier fouled Finley with 0.4 left. Finley hit the first of two from the line.
Lakers 106, Heat 88
At Los Angeles, Jordan Farmar scored a career-high 24 points, Kobe Bryant added 21 and the Los Angeles Lakers extended their winning streak to a season-best 10 games.
The Lakers (41-17) maintained their one-game lead over the defending champion San Antonio Spurs for best record in the Western Conference, and lead Phoenix and New Orleans by two.
Nets 120, Bucks 106
At East Rutherford, New Jersey, playing for the first time since being acquired last week in a trade for Jason Kidd, Devin Harris scored 21 points as the Nets beat the Bucks. Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson added 19 points apiece.
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