Paul Pierce scored 22 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Boston Celtics to a 94-87 comeback win over the Toronto Raptors on Monday.
Kevin Garnett added 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Ray Allen had 19 points for the Celtics (7-1). Boston scored 58 points in the second half after getting just 36 in the opening 24 minutes.
Jermaine O’Neal recovered from a rough night in Sunday’s win over Charlotte, leading the Raptors (4-3) with 23 points and 11 rebounds.
TRAIL BLAZERS 106, MAGIC 99
At Orlando, Florida, Brandon Roy scored 27 points to lead Portland to its first road win with a victory over Orlando.
Dwight Howard had 29 points and a season-high 19 rebounds and Hedo Turkoglu added 35 points for the Magic, who finished their homestand 4-1.
Trailing 73-72 entering the final period, Portland scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter, fueled by two three-pointers by Rudy Fernandez. He finished with 16 points.
HEAT 99, NETS 94
At Miami, Dwyane Wade scored 19 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter as Miami rallied from a 10-point deficit midway through the final quarter to beat New Jersey.
Michael Beasley scored 19 points and Daequan Cook added 15 for the Heat.
Yi Jianlian (易建聯) made a career-best five three-pointers and finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Nets, who got 22 points from Vince Carter. New Jersey led by 10 after Carter connected on a three-pointer with 5:48 left, but were outscored 26-11 the rest of the way.
PACERS 107, THUNDER 99
At Indianapolis, T.J. Ford had 24 points and 10 assists to help Indiana beat Oklahoma.
Ford scored 11 points in the final period as Indiana (3-3) pulled away. Danny Granger added 20 points and seven rebounds for the Pacers, who won their second straight.
Kevin Durant led the Thunder (1-6) with 37 points and eight rebounds.
SUNS 107, GRIZZLIES 102
At Phoenix, Leandro Barbosa scored 16 of his team-high 27 points in the fourth quarter, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 43.8 seconds left, as Phoenix withstood a furious fourth-quarter rally to beat Memphis.
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