The Detroit Pistons clinched the NBA's Central Division title with a 85-69 victory over the Miami Heat on Thursday.
Rookie Arron Afflalo had career highs of 15 points and seven rebounds for Detroit, which struggled against the hapless Heat.
Miami, which only dressed nine players, has lost 13 of 15.
Nuggets 118, Mavericks 105
In Denver, Carmelo Anthony scored 32 points and sparked the decisive run in the third quarter of Denver's win over sliding Dallas.
The Nuggets won their fourth straight and stayed within half a game of Golden State, which holds the eighth and last playoff berths in the Western Conference. They also closed within three games of Northwest Division leader Utah.
Denver's grand night was capped when forward Nene entered the game with 1:17 left, returning to the court two and a half months after surgery to remove a malignant testicular tumor, and just over a month after undergoing chemotherapy.
The Mavericks are 10-9 since acquiring Jason Kidd from New Jersey, but none of the wins was against teams with winning records. Six of their final 10 games are against teams above .500.
Warriors 111, Trail Blazers 95
In Oakland, California, Golden State bolstered its playoff hopes by beating an undermanned Portland.
Stephen Jackson scored 14 of his 24 points in the third quarter and the Warriors clung on to the last playoff spot in the Western Conference with 11 games to play.
The Warriors' playoff hopes will hinge on their next two games, against the team directly below them (Denver) and directly above them (Dallas) in the playoff standings.
The Warriors fell behind by 14 points in the first quarter before finding their stride. Golden State has rallied from double-digit deficits in 16 of its 44 wins this season.
Golden State broke open a close game with a dominant third quarter, when it sank 18 of 20 free throws after not going to the line once in the first 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