Jason Kidd and Antoine Wright celebrated the first anniversary of their trade from the New Jersey Nets a day early on Wednesday, leading the Dallas Mavericks to a 113-98 victory over their former team.
Kidd opened the game with three early 3-pointers and scored 23 points. He also had 10 assists. Wright hit three 3-pointers and scored 13 of his 20 points in the third quarter.
Josh Howard had 24 points and 10 rebounds, and Dirk Nowitzki had 23 points and nine rebounds for Dallas, 7-2 since Kidd was put in charge of the offense.
LAKERS 129, WARRIORS 121
At Oakland, California, Kobe Bryant scored 30 points and Pau Gasol added 24 points and 13 rebounds as Los Angeles rallied past Golden State.
Lamar Odom scored 22 points for the Lakers, who have improved the NBA’s best record to 44-10 with back-to-back wins following the All-Star break. Los Angeles trailed late into the fourth quarter, but made a 17-3 run beginning with back-to-back 3-pointers by Trevor Ariza, who finished with 17 points.
CAVALIERS 93, RAPTORS 76
At Toronto, LeBron James had 20 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas added 22 points in Cleveland’s win over Toronto.
Needing two rebounds and one assist in the final quarter for his 21st career triple-double, James had six points but only one rebound before leaving the game for good with just over 3 minutes remaining.
In other NBA games it was:
• Hornets 117, Magic 85
• Timberwolves 111, Heat 104
• Nuggets 101, 76ers 89
• Suns 142, Clippers 119
• Bobcats 103, Pacers 94
• Bulls 113, Bucks 104
• Hawks 105, Kings 100
• Trail Blazers 94, Grizzlies 90
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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