Tony Parker prevailed in a clash of NBA All-Star point guards, scoring 25 points and stretching San Antonio’s divisional lead over Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets in Saturday’s 106-93 win.
Paul, who scored 38, will start ahead of Parker for the Western Conference at the All-Star game in two weeks, and he had the kind of game that showed why.
But the Spurs pushed their lead over the Hornets in the Southwest Division to three games.
PHOTO: AP
TRAILBLAZERS 122, JAZZ 108
In Portland, Oregon, Brandon Roy scored 30 points to help defeat Utah and give Portland a fourth straight victory.
PHOTO: AP
Roy, selected as a reserve for the Western Conference All-Star team on Thursday, shot 11-for-19 from the field while reaching 30 points for the seventh time this season.
Portland moved within one-and-a-half games of Northwest Division leader Denver.
MAVERICKS 111, HEAT 96
In Miami, Dallas stretched its dominance over Miami to a ninth consecutive regular-season win, using radar-like shooting.
The Mavericks sank a season-best 60 percent of their shots, with Dirk Nowitzki leading the way, getting 30 points from 12-for-14 shooting.
Jason Terry scored 20 and Jason Kidd finished with 11 assists for Dallas, which hasn’t lost to Miami in the regular season since early 2004.
The loss tarnished a night in which Dwyane Wade (30 points), Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning were honored for winning Olympic gold.
BUCKS 110, HAWKS 107
In Milwaukee, the hosts made it four straight home victories over Atlanta.
Charlie Villanueva scored 27 points and Richard Jefferson and Ramon Sessions each had 20 for the Bucks.
Atlanta’s Joe Johnson, picked as a reserve to the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the third consecutive season, passed the 10,000-point mark in his career.
LAKERS 115, GRIZZLIES 98
In Memphis, Tennessee, the Grizzlies crashed to their 12th straight loss, beaten comfortably by Los Angeles.
BULLS 122, SUNS 111
In Phoenix, Chicago notched a third successive win, sinking Phoenix.
NETS 85, 76ERS 83
In Philadelphia, New Jersey capitalized on the Nets’ fourth-quarter collapse to take a narrow win.
The Sixers led by 12 early in the fourth, then went the final 10 minutes without a basket. They missed their last 18 shots and finished the fourth quarter 2-for-22.
ROCKETS 110, WARRIORS 93
In Houston, Yao Ming had 25 points and 11 rebounds to lead Houston over Golden State.
Ron Artest scored 27 as the Rockets made up for the absence of an injured Tracy McGrady.
The Warriors, who’ve lost nine of their last 10 road games, missed six of their first eight shots in the final quarter to blow their chances of getting back into the contest.
KNICKS 122, PACERS 113
In Indianapolis, New York made it six wins from seven starts by defeating Indiana.
Al Harrington had 31 points and David Lee added 23 points and 17 rebounds for the Knicks, who moved within two games of matching last season’s meager wins tally.
Indiana had its seven-game home winning streak snapped.
WIZARDS 106, CLIPPERS 94
In Washington, the home team downed Los Angeles in a meeting of two struggling teams that lived down expectations.
Antawn Jamison had 25 points and 12 rebounds, Nick Young added 22 and rookie JaVale McGee tied his career high with 18.
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