LeBron James scored 41 points against Chicago for the second time in four days as the Cleveland Cavaliers hung on for a 106-97 victory on Saturday.
James was at it again after a big performance in a 14-point win over Chicago at home on Wednesday night. This time, he scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to start a 15-0 run as the Cavaliers turned a three-point deficit into an 89-77 lead. And he hit two key 3-pointers after Chicago cut it to two in the closing minutes.
It was a difficult night for the Bulls, who learned guard Kirk Hinrich will miss up to three months with a thumb injury. Andres Nocioni’s 3-pointer made it 96-90 with 3:30 left and two more jumpers by Ben Gordon made it 96-94 with 2:15 remaining.
James answered with a 3-pointer from the wing and, after two free throws by Gordon, struck again from long range, leaping after the shot went in. That made it 102-96 with 1:28 remaining, and the Cavaliers hung on from there.
James hit 13 of 29 shots in his seventh straight game against Chicago with 30 or more points and had 13 rebounds. Gordon scored 29 points for Chicago.
MAGIC 106, WIZARDS 81
At Orlando, Florida, Dwight Howard had a season-high 31 points and 16 rebounds wile blocking three shots to help Orlando beat winless Washington for its fourth straight victory.
Howard, who leads the NBA in blocked shots, hit 11 of 13 shots and nine of 14 free throws. Mickael Pietrus added 18 points and Keith Bogans had 13 for Orlando (4-2).
Nick Young had 20 points for the Wizards (0-5), the only team in the Eastern Conference without a victory this season.
HORNETS 100, HEAT 89
At New Orleans, Chris Paul had 21 points and 13 assists for his sixth straight double-double to help New Orleans down Miami and snap a two-game losing streak.
Paul set an NBA record for consecutive games at the start of a season with at least 20 points and 10 assists, breaking the mark set by Oscar Robertson in 1968. Paul also had seven rounds. David West added 21 points for New Orleans.
In other NBA action, it was:
• Pacers 98, Nets 80
• Magic 106, Wizards 81
• Suns 104, Bucks 96
• Trail Blazers 97, T’wolves 93
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
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
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