The Allen Iverson-led Detroit Pistons cooled off their second hot NBA team in less than a week, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 96-89 on Wednesday.
After inflicting the Los Angeles Lakers’ first loss of the season on Friday, the Pistons proved too good for a Cleveland team that came into the game having won eight straight.
Iverson had 23 points, leading a fourth-quarter surge that sealed the game and moved Detroit within half a game of the Cavaliers, who lead the Central Division.
PHOTO: AP
NUGGETS 91, SPURS 81
In San Antonio, Chauncey Billups scored 22 points, leading Denver’s victory over injury-riddled San Antonio.
Carmelo Anthony added 21 for the Nuggets, who have a 7-1 record since Billups arrived in the trade that sent Iverson to Detroit.
The result maintained Denver’s co-leadership of the Northwest Division, and snapped the Spurs’ three-game winning streak.
JAZZ 105, BUCKS 94
In Salt Lake City, Utah stayed undefeated at home and extended their mastery of Milwaukee to eight straight games.
C.J. Miles scored a season-high 25 points for the Jazz. Carlos Boozer added 20 points and 11 rebounds before leaving because of a strained quadriceps.
Utah kept pace with Denver as leaders of the Northwest.
RAPTORS 101, HEAT 95
In Miami, Toronto gave up most of a big lead, but held on to beat a Miami team led by a stellar Dwyane Wade performance.
Andrea Bargnani scored a season-high 25 points and Jermaine O’Neal added 16 points and 17 rebounds for the Raptors.
Wade finished with season highs of 40 points and 11 assists, and added a career-best five blocks. Since blocks became an official stat, the only other player to have a 40-10-5 effort was Alvan Adams of Phoenix in 1977, Elias Sports Bureau figures show.
Toronto squandered much of a 17-point, late-third-quarter lead, but ultimately scrambled to beat Miami for the second time in four days.
TRAIL BLAZERS 116, BULLS 74
In Portland, Oregon, the hosts built a 30-point lead in the first half and went on to trounce Chicago.
Greg Oden had 11 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in his home debut. Oden, sidelined all of last season by a knee injury after being the top draft pick, entered the game to a standing ovation in the first quarter and dunked seconds later.
MAVERICKS 96, ROCKETS 86
In Houston, Dallas notched its third straight win over its Texas rival Houston.
Jason Terry scored 31 points and Dirk Nowitzki added 24 points and 12 rebounds for the Mavericks.
KINGS 105, HORNETS 96
In New Orleans, John Salmons scored 29 points to lead Sacramento over New Orleans. Bobby Jackson had all eight of his points in the final 5:10 for the Kings.
HAWKS 91, WIZARDS 87
In Atlanta, Marvin Williams hit the go-ahead three-pointer with 26 seconds left as Atlanta snapped a four-game losing streak by downing Washington.
TIMBERWOLVES 102, 76ERS 96
In Minneapolis, Minnesota ended an eight-game losing skid by defeating Philadelphia.
Al Jefferson scored six of his 25 points in the final three-and-a-half minutes to shore up victory for the Timberwolves, who won for the first time since their opening game of the season.
CLIPPERS 108, THUNDER 88
In Oklahoma City, Los Angeles put together a 23-4 run during the third quarter to overwhelm struggling Oklahoma City.
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