LeBron James scored 47 points on Tuesday, but his foul with 0.2 seconds left allowed Danny Granger to make the winning free throw, giving the Indiana Pacers a 96-95 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It’s the first time this season the Cavaliers have lost two straight games and this one was a surprise because the short-handed Pacers were missing three key players: Mike Dunleavy, Jeff Foster and Marquis Daniels.
The foul ended a bizarre sequence in which TJ Ford appeared to hit a winning fadeaway with 0.8 seconds left. But James drew a foul on an alley-oop and made both free throws with 0.4 seconds to go.
Then the Pacers tried the same play to Granger, and James was called for a foul he strongly disagreed with. Granger hit the first and deliberately missed the second to seal it.
SPURS 108, NETS 93
At East Rutherford, New Jersey, Tim Duncan had 27 points, nine rebounds and eight assists as San Antonio beat New Jersey for the 13th straight time.
Matt Bonner scored 13 of his 22 points in the opening 5 minutes of the third quarter in helping the Spurs win for the 15th time in 19 games since the start of this year.
NUGGETS 99, HEAT 82
At Miami, Chauncey Billups scored 13 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, Carmelo Anthony finished with 19 points and nine rebounds, and Denver, swept the series with Miami.
Kenyon Martin had 18 points and 10 rebounds, while JR Smith scored 10 for Denver, which wasted much of a 20-point first-half lead before pulling away late and defeating Miami for the eighth straight time.
RAPTORS 110, TIMBERWOLVES 102
At Minneapolis, Jason Kapono, the two-time defending 3-point contest champion, scored 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting as a reserve as Toronto beat Minnesota.
HAWKS 111, WIZARDS 90
At Atlanta, Joe Johnson scored 22 points as Atlanta downed Washington to bounce back emphatically from its worst loss of the seasons.
Atlanta raced to a 9-1 lead before most of the sparse crowd had even settled into its seats. The Hawks pushed the margin as high as 22 points in the second quarter against an injury-plagued team that has managed the modest feat of back-to-back wins only once this season.
MAVERICKS 118, KINGS 100
At Dallas, Josh Howard and Antoine Wright both had 23 points, Dirk Nowitzki had 21 and JJ Barea had 10 as Dallas beat Sacramento.
The Kings (11-42) became the first NBA team guaranteed to have a losing season — and they still have 29 games remaining. Sacramento is 2-13 since beating Dallas 102-95 at home on Jan. 11.
In other NBA games on Tuesday it was:
• Bulls 107, Pistons 102
• Warriors 144, Knicks 127
• Lakers 105, Thunder 98
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