LeBron James scored 33 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied in the fourth quarter for a 90-80 victory over Central Division rivals the Detroit Pistons on Sunday.
The win, the sixth in seven games for Cleveland, extended the Cavaliers’ divisional lead over the Pistons to 12 games.
Cleveland (37-9), who had lost four in a row in Detroit, trailed 66-58 after three quarters before outscoring the Pistons 15-2 in the first seven minutes of the fourth without James on the floor.
PHOTO: AFP
“Regardless of who’s out on the court, to get outscored at that point [is disappointing],” Pistons coach Michael Curry told reporters. “I just thought through the first three quarters we had done the job, done exactly what we wanted to do. And then we get into the fourth and for whatever reason, we just made too many mistakes.”
Mo Williams posted 12 of his 22 points in the big quarter and Daniel Gibson had all seven of his in the first 1:30 of the period.
“Gib [Gibson] came out in the fourth and hit three straight baskets and then Mo came and hit three straight baskets and those guys basically took control of the game for us,” James told reporters.
“It’s uplifting,” James said of the work of his team mates.
James and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who finished with 13 points, sealed the win with back-to-back three-pointers with three minutes to play after Detroit pulled with one.
“We knew if we stayed patient we’d be able to break the game open if our defense was there,” Cavaliers coach Mike Brown told reporters.
Allen Iverson led Detroit (25-21) with 22 and Richard Hamilton had 16.
“I thought we put the ball in his hands to make plays,” Curry said of Iverson, who had just one assist against five turnovers. “Beginning of the fourth they defended him well, I think he made a couple of turnovers.”
The loss was the fourth consecutive at home for the Pistons, the first time that has happened in eight years.
MAGIC 113, RAPTORS 90
At Toronto, Dwight Howard had 29 points and 14 rebounds and Jameer Nelson added 18 points and 10 assists as Orlando never trailed in their win over Toronto.
Mickael Pietrus scored 22 points and Rashard Lewis had 15 for the Magic, who led by as many as 24 and have won three straight following back-to-back losses to Boston and Miami.
Orlando broke it open with a 20-6 run to start the second half, keyed by two 3-pointers each by Lewis and rookie Courtney Lee.
Toronto trailed 87-65 after three quarters.
Jose Calderon scored 16 points for Toronto, reserve Joey Graham had 14 and Andrea Bargnani had 12.
CELTICS 109, TIMBERWOLVES 101
At Boston, Paul Pierce had 36 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and Ray Allen scored 22 as Boston beat Minnesota for their 11th straight game.
Al Jefferson, the centerpiece of the trade that brought Kevin Garnett to Boston and set the stage for the franchise’s 17th NBA title, scored 34 points for the Timberwolves. Jefferson also had 11 rebounds for his 26th double-double of the season.
Boston led by as many as 21 in the third quarter, 71-50, before Minnesota scored 15 of the next 17 points. The Timberwolves got within five in the fourth quarter, 94-89, with 5:20 left, but Allen hit a jumper and Pierce made a pair of free throws to make it a nine-point game.
Garnett missed the game with a high fever.
KINGS 122, THUNDER 118, OT
At Sacramento, California, Kevin Martin scored 37 points as the Kings ended an eight-game losing streak with a win over Oklahoma City.
Bobby Jackson had six of his 11 points in overtime. The veteran guard put Sacramento ahead for good with a floater in the lane and followed with a jumper to make it 120-116 with 1:42 left.
Russell Westbrook had a career-high 34 points and added eight assists for the Thunder. Kevin Durant scored 33, Jeff Green had 28 points and 13 rebounds and Nick Collison added 10 points and 14 boards.
Francisco Garcia had 17 points, Jason Thompson scored 15 and Spencer Hawes finished with 13 for the Kings. Both Garcia and Thompson fouled out in the fourth quarter.
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