The Orlando Magic overcame a season-high 24 turnovers to beat the Phoenix Suns 111-99 on Tuesday and tighten its grip on the NBA’s Southeast Division.
Dwight Howard had 21 points and eight rebounds in a bruising battle with Shaquille O’Neal, as Orlando went 10 points clear atop its division. The Magic has the league’s fourth-best record overall.
O’Neal finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds, outmuscling his original team for most of the night before he lost his cool late, again drawing boos by the Orlando crowd. His technical foul with 3:38 left contributed to nine straight points for the Magic that gave them a 10-point lead to put the game out of reach.
PISTONS 110, NUGGETS 95
In Auburn Hills, Michigan, Detroit overcame a strong performance by former favorite to beat Denver.
Chauncey Billups scored a season-high 34 points in his return to the Palace, but the Pistons still defeated a Nuggets team missing a suspended Carmelo Anthony.
The Pistons have won three straight for the first time in two months to move a game over .500 in a season that was stunted by a trade that sent Billups to Denver for Allen Iverson. Iverson missed his third straight game with a back injury.
The Nuggets suspended Anthony for the game after he refused to go to the bench when coach George Karl tried to take him out of their previous game.
Denver’s lead in the Northwest Division has been sliced to just one game over Portland.
LAKERS 99, GRIZZLIES 89
In Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant scored 31 points to lead Los Angeles over Memphis and avoid the Lakers’ first three-game skid of the season.
Memphis, 3-24 on the road, kept it relatively close until the Lakers managed to pull away from a 54-51 lead early in the third quarter.
ROCKETS 107, RAPTORS 97
In Houston, the hosts extended their home-court winning streak to 10 games by downing Toronto.
Carl Landry matched a career high with 22 points, while Luis Scola added 20 points and 16 rebounds.
The Rockets moved a game ahead of New Orleans and Portland in the Western Conference standings.
NETS 99, BUCKS 95
In Milwaukee, Jarvis Hayes hit a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 18 seconds left to lift New Jersey over Milwaukee.
Brook Lopez scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Nets, who moved within half a game of the Bucks in the race for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
In other NBA games it was:
• Bobcats 96, Bulls 80
• Pacers 117, Kings 109
• Warriors 118, Timberwolves 94
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
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