Rajon Rondo scored 18 of his 26 points in the third quarter to help the Boston Celtics tie a club record with their 18th straight win, beating the New York Knicks 124-105 on Sunday night.
Boston can break the record, set in 1981-1982, at home against the Philadelphia 76ers tonight.
Ray Allen had 18 points, Paul Pierce 17, Kevin Garnett 12 and Kendrick Perkins 12 for the Celtics.
Quentin Richardson led the Knicks with 29 points and Nate Robinson had 23. Chris Duhon added 20 with 10 assists.
CAVALIERS 102, THUNDER 91
At Oklahoma City, LeBron James scored 31 points, Mo Williams added 20 and Cleveland finished a four-game road trip.
James eclipsed 30 points for the fourth straight game. Kevin Durant scored 26 for the Thunder. Russell Westbrook added 22 points and matched his career-high with 11 assists and Jeff Green scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Delonte West hit his first five shots and finished with 18 points against his former team as Cleveland won for the 22nd time in 24 games to extend the best start in team history.
MAVERICKS 97, WIZARDS 86
At Washington, Jason Terry scored 25 points and Dirk Nowitzki had 23 to help Dallas send the Washington Wizards to their sixth straight loss.
Washington tied a 42-year-old franchise record for worst start — the 1966-1967 Baltimore Bullets also started 4-21.
The win was Dallas’ 13th in 17, even though the Mavericks made only five of 30 three-pointers two nights after a 24-point loss at New Jersey.
HAWKS 85, PISTONS 78
At Atlanta, Mike Bibby put an end to Detroit’s domination of the Hawks, scoring a season-high 27 points.
Detroit trailed by 18 points early in the second half before launching a steady comeback in the matchup of second-place teams.
The Pistons cut the lead to 80-76 on a basket by Rasheed Wallace with 2:30 remaining, but Bibby answered with a jumper.
The Pistons swept the four-game series with the Hawks last season, but each of the games came before Atlanta acquired Bibby from Sacramento on Feb. 16. Detroit had won 12 of the last 16 in Atlanta.
Johnson had 19 points and seven assists. Al Horford added 11 points and 11 rebounds and Josh Smith also had 11 points for Atlanta. Rodney Stuckey and Wallace each had 20 points for Detroit.
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