Paul Pierce scored 12 of his 28 points in overtime to reach 20,000 points in his career and added a key steal with 27 seconds left to help the Boston Celtics beat the Milwaukee Bucks 105-102 on Wednesday night.
Ray Allen had 23 points for the Celtics, Rajon Rondo had 17 points and 15 assists, and Kevin Garnett scored 13 and grabbed eight rebounds.
Andrew Bogut led the Bucks with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Ersan Ilyasova and Carlos Delfino each scored 15 points. Brandon Jennings had 13.
LAKERS 112, KINGS 100
In Sacramento, California, Kobe Bryant had 30 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds to help the Los Angeles Lakers win its fifth straight game to open the season.
Pau Gasol added 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Lamar Odom scored 18 for the Lakers, who have won seven straight against the Sacramento Kings, their Northern California rivals.
Bryant had his 17th career triple-double and first since Jan. 21 last year.
Tyreke Evans scored 21 to lead the Kings. Francisco Garcia, Carl Landry and Beno Udrih each added 17.
HAWKS 94, PISTONS 85
In Atlanta, Georgia, Al Horford had six straight points in an 18-4 run to finish the game and the undefeated Atlanta Hawks beat winless Detroit.
Josh Smith had 22 points and 11 rebounds as the Hawks improved to five wins, remaining the only unbeaten team in the Eastern Conference.
Ben Gordon had 22 points, but it wasn’t enough for Detroit.
The Pistons are 0-5 for the first time since the 1980-81 season, when they started 0-7.
MAGIC 128, TIMBERWOLVES 86
In Orlando, Florida, Dwight Howard had 18 points, 16 rebounds and eight blocked shots to help the Orlando Magic set a club record for most points in the first half in a victory over Minnesota.
In other NBA action, it was:
‧ Mavericks 102, Nuggets 101
‧ Bobcats 85, Nets 83
‧ 76ers 101, Pacers 75
‧ Hornets 107, Rockets 99
‧ Jazz 125, Raptors 108
‧ Spurs 112, Suns 110
‧ Clippers 107, Thunder 92
‧ Warriors 115, Grizzlies 109
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