Mike Bibby scored 24 points and Marvin Williams hit the clinching free throws as the Atlanta Hawks snapped the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 11-game winning streak with a 97-92 victory in the NBA on Saturday.
LeBron James had 33 points and nine assists for the Cavaliers, who overcame a 14-point deficit in the third quarter to take a 70-68 lead early in the fourth on Mo Williams’ layup.
Williams finished with 26 points for the Cavaliers, who were trying for the first 12-game winning streak in franchise history, having won 11 in a row four times.
PHOTO: AP
76ers 104, Wizards 89
At Philadelphia, Elton Brand scored a season-high 27 points, leading Philadelphia over struggling Washington in Tony DiLeo’s coaching debut. Lou Williams added 15 points, Thaddeus Young and Andre Iguodala each had 14, and Willie Green scored 13 for the Sixers.
Maurice Cheeks didn’t receive that range of effort on a consistent basis and was fired earlier on Saturday as coach of the Sixers, who were slumping badly a season after making the playoffs.
DiLeo, the team’s assistant general manager, was appointed coach for rest of the season.
Antawn Jamison scored 17 points and Mike James and DeShawn Stevenson added 16 apiece for the last-place Wizards, who are 1-8 on the road.
Pistons 90, Bobcats 86
At Charlotte, North Carolina, Allen Iverson scored 20 points and Rasheed Wallace hit a 3-pointer with 10.4 seconds left to avoid an embarrassing collapse as Detroit held off new-look Charlotte.
Richard Hamilton added 18 points, while Rodney Stuckey had 13 points and 10 assists for the Pistons, who won their second straight game with their new, smaller lineup despite being outscored 30-12 in the fourth quarter.
Boris Diaw managed seven points and nine rebounds on 3-of-10 shooting in the Bobcats’ sixth straight loss. Raja Bell had four points and missed seven of nine shots in the duo’s Charlotte debuts, three days after they were acquired from Phoenix for Bobcats top scorer Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley.
Magic 103, Jazz 94
At Salt Lake City, Rashard Lewis scored 27 points as Orlando beat Utah despite playing without injured Dwight Howard for the first time.
Howard missed the first game of his career because of a left knee injury sustained in Friday’s loss at Phoenix. He had played in all 351 games since being drafted No. 1 overall in 2004.
Orlando (18-6) also got 23 points from Hedo Turkoglu to improve to 9-3 on the road this season.
Mavericks 103, Thunder 99
At Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki scored a season-high 46 points and Jason Terry added 28 as Dallas won for the 11th time in 13 games, beating Oklahoma City.
Jeff Green scored 25 points and Kevin Durant added 22, but none in the fourth quarter. Rookie Russell Westbrook chipped in with 19 points and eight rebounds for the Thunder, who are 1-11 on the road.
Nuggets 123, Warriors 105
At Denver, Carmelo Anthony had 27 points and nine rebounds and Chauncey Billups added 16 points and 11 assists as Denver beat Golden State.
Bulls 113, Nets 104
At Chicago, Ben Gordon scored 29 points and Derrick Rose had nine of his 22 in the fourth quarter to lead Chicago over New Jersey.
One night after going 0-for-13 against Toronto in the worst shooting performance of his career, Vince Carter bounced back with 39 points on 11-for-22 from the field.
Bucks 121, Pacers 103
At Milwaukee, Michael Redd scored 27 points and Andrew Bogut had 20 points and 20 rebounds as Milwaukee blew a 21-point, second-half lead before scoring the game’s final 19 points to beat Indiana.
Charlie Villanueva added 26 points, 24 in the first half, to equal a season high and help the Bucks snap a three-game losing streak.
Knicks 114, Kings 90
At Sacramento, California, Al Harrington made five 3-pointers and scored 33 points and New York scored 43 points in the first quarter of its victory over slumping Sacramento.
Nate Robinson had 19 points and David Lee had 17 points and 19 rebounds for the Knicks.
Clippers 95, Rockets 82
At Los Angeles, Zach Randolph had 30 points and 13 rebounds and Al Thornton scored 26 points as Los Angeles beat Houston to record back-to-back victories for the first time this season.
Randolph, fresh off his 38-point effort in Friday night’s double-overtime win at Portland, shot 12-for-23 from the field to help Los Angeles improve to 6-17.
Yao Ming had 24 points and 13 rebounds for the Rockets, who had beaten the Clippers in seven consecutive meetings and 19 of the previous 22.
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