Carmelo Anthony hit 30 points as the Denver Nuggets bounced back from two consecutive losses to thump the in-form Oklahoma City Thunder 119-90 on Wednesday.
After below-average shooting efforts in the two defeats, Anthony started with 15 points in the first quarter and finished with 11 field goals from 19 attempts.
“It’s a confidence booster for us,” Anthony told reporters after suffering from dehydration prior to the game and being administered fluids earlier in the day. “OKC [Oklahoma] is a playoff team right now. For us to go out there and do what we did tonight boosts our confidence.”
The streaking Oklahoma City (36-24), winners of 12 of their last 14 games, struggled throughout, with leading scorer Kevin Durant limited to just 19 points.
Denver (40-21) led by nine points at half-time, then scored 14 straight midway through the third to open up a 27-point advantage.
The Nuggets led by as much as 41 in a dominating effort that saw the home team make more than 50 percent of their shots. Denver remained a half-game behind the Dallas Mavericks for second place in the Western Conference.
The game featured a matchup between two of the leading three scorers in the NBA in Durant and Anthony, but only one leading player shone.
Anthony had shot a combined 14-for-40 in previous games against the Lakers and Suns but returned to form while adding eight rebounds and five assists.
J.R. Smith had 18 points and four three-pointers off the bench for the Nuggets.
James Harden tallied 19 and Serge Ibaka recorded 15 points and 13 rebounds for Oklahoma City, who are making a push for the playoffs with its young roster. Despite the loss, the Thunder are sixth in the competitive West.
CELTICS 104, BOBCATS 80
In Boston, Paul Pierce scored 27 points to lead the Boston to a comfortable win over Charlotte.
Boston’s Nate Robinson had 16 points, including three 3-pointers in a 90-second span bridging the first and second quarters to key a 16-0 run.
SUNS 127, CLIPPERS 101
In Los Angeles, Phoenix breezed to its second rout in six days against the Clippers, sweeping the four-game season series.
Amare Stoudemire had 30 points and 14 rebounds and Channing Frye scored 23 points, including four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to help Phoenix build its margin to 29 points with 6:45 remaining.
Chris Kaman had 24 points and nine rebounds for the Clippers.
In other games, it was:
• Grizzlies 104, Hornets 100
• Hawks 112, 76ers 93
• Magic 117, Warriors 90
• Trail Blazers 102, Pacers 79
• Mavs 112, Timberwolves 109
• Cavaliers 111, Nets 92
• Bucks 100, Wizards 87
• Kings 84, Rockets 81
• Knicks 128, Pistons 104
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