The Detroit Pistons handed the Los Angeles Lakers their first loss of the new NBA season, winning 106-95 on Friday.
Rasheed Wallace had 25 points and 13 rebounds and new addition Allen Iverson added 25 points for the Pistons.
Kobe Bryant scored 29 points but went only 12-of-30 from the floor for the Lakers, who won their first seven and were outscoring opponents by an average of 18 points before the defeat.
Both Bryant and Iverson moved up on the NBA’s career scoring list. Bryant has 21,817 points and jumped into 21st ahead of Larry Bird and Gary Payton. Iverson passed Elgin Baylor to jump to No. 19.
NUGGETS 94, CELTICS 85
In Boston, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups had 18 points each as Denver downed defending champs Boston.
Kenyon Martin added 16 for the Nuggets, who have won four of five since acquiring Billups from Detroit.
The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for the Celtics, who suffered their first home loss of the season.
SUNS 97, KINGS 95, OT
In Sacramento, California, Shaquille O’Neal tied a season high with 29 points as the undermanned Phoenix edged Sacramento.
O’Neal also and had 13 rebounds and six assists for the Suns, who played without suspended Steve Nash and Matt Barnes while Leandro Barbosa left the team following his mother’s death.
HORNETS 87, TRAIL BLAZERS 82
In New Orleans, James Posey hit two 3-pointers in the final minute, snapping a New Orleans scoring drought and beating Portland.
The two baskets were the Hornets’ only field goals in the last 8:30.
David West scored 18 points for New Orleans.
BOBCATS 104, JAZZ 96
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Raymond Felton scored 23 points as Charlotte beat Utah in a clash of undermanned teams.
Gerald Wallace added 22 points for the Bobcats, who were without injured top scorer Jason Richardson. The Jazz were without point guard Deron Williams (ankle), sixth-man Andrei Kirilenko (finger) and center Mehmet Okur, who is with his sick father in Turkey.
Utah committed 20 turnovers.
NETS 115, HAWKS 108
In East Rutherford, New Jersey, Devin Harris returned from three games out with an ankle sprain to score 30 points and lead New Jersey over Atlanta.
The Nets ended a three-game losing streak.
76ERS 94, PACERS 92
In Indianapolis, Philadelphia overcame a 26-point deficit to beat Indiana.
Thaddeus Young had 25 points and 10 rebounds for the 76ers, who ended a three-game losing streak against the Pacers.
SPURS 77, ROCKETS 75
In San Antonio, Tim Duncan scored 22 points and blocked Aaron Brooks’ layup with a second left to give San Antonio victory over Houston.
The Spurs came from 14 points down with 7:37 to go.
MAGIC 102, MAVERICKS 100
In Dallas, Rashard Lewis scored 23 points, including the tying and go-ahead points on free throws with 10 seconds left, as Orlando edged Dallas.
The Mavericks lost their fifth straight and remain winless at home under new coach Rick Carlisle.
BUCKS 101, GRIZZLIES 96, OT
In Memphis, Tennessee, Ramon Sessions had 20 points, including a pair of free throws that put Milwaukee ahead with 42 seconds left in overtime and beat Memphis.
KNICKS 116, THUNDER 106
In New York, the home team blew most of a 30-point lead but held on to beat Oklahoma City.
Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph each scored 29 points, combining for 10 in the final four minutes as the Knicks steadied. Randolph also had 19 rebounds in his seventh straight double-double.
Seemingly headed to their second straight lopsided victory, the Knicks’ huge cushion was down to seven at 102-95 before Crawford and Randolph bailed them out.
The Knicks are off to their best start since the lockout-delayed 1998-1999 season, while the Thunder have lost six straight.
HEAT 97, WIZARDS 77
In Miami, Dwyane Wade scored 24 points before taking the fourth quarter off as Miami coasted past Washington.
The Wizards were held without a field goal for nine minutes in the second half.
Miami needed 20 games to hit the five-win mark last season, but have reached it in nine in this campaign.
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