Tony Parker scored 19 points as the San Antonio Spurs won 109-84 on Sunday night, beating the New Orleans Hornets for the second time in a week.
Matt Bonner added 14 points, hitting four of five 3-point attempts as the Spurs improved their NBA-best win-loss record to 17-3 and matched their best start through 20 games since the 2007 to 2008 season.
Chris Paul had 16 points for the Hornets, who have lost four of five and were blown out from the start. They trailed by 38 and lately look nothing like the team that opened with eight straight wins.
However, this win will likely be overshadowed by news on Sunday that Hornets owner George Shinn has agreed to sell the club to the NBA. A person familiar with the decision told reporters the deal could be completed within days.
Pistons 102, Cavaliers 92
In Auburn Hills, Michigan, -Richard Hamilton scored 27 points and Rodney Stuckey added 24 points and 11 assists to help Detroit beat Cleveland.
Both teams came into the game off embarrassing performances.
Cleveland lost its last two games by a combined 62 points, including the highly anticipated return of LeBron James.
Meanwhile, the Pistons were beaten at home by an Orlando team missing Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson and two other key players because of the flu.
Antawn Jamison led Cleveland with 22 points.
Nuggets 108, Grizzlies 107
In Denver, Colorado, Nene scored 27 points and Arron Afflalo added 25 as Denver held off Memphis to give coach George Karl his 999th NBA victory.
Karl, talking with the Nuggets about an extension through the 2011 to 2012 season, is 999-677 for a winning percentage of .596. Rudy Gay led the Grizzlies with 24 points.
Knicks 116, Raptors 99
In Toronto, Amare Stoudemire had 31 points and a season-high 16 rebounds and Wilson Chandler added 21 points as New York extended its road winning streak to seven.
Landry Fields had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Raymond Felton had 18 points for the Knicks, who matched their longest road winning streak since a seven-game run between Dec. 27, 1994, and Jan. 22, 1995.
Amir Johnson had a season-high 22 points and a a career-high 16 rebounds for Toronto.
Celtics 100, Nets 75
In Newark, New Jersey, Nate -Robinson scored 21 points starting in place of an injured Rajon Rondo, leading Boston to its seventh straight victory.
Rondo was a last-minute scratch because of hamstring and foot injuries.
Jordan Farmar led New Jersey with 16 points.
Suns 125, Wizards 108
In Phoenix, Arizona, Steve Nash was 8 of 8 from the field, made all four of his foul shots, scored 20 points and had a season-high 17 assists to help Phoenix keep Washington winless on the road this season.
Hakim Warrick had a season-high 26 points for the Suns.
Andray Blatche topped the Wizards, 0-10 on the road, with a season-high 24 points.
Thunder 114, Warriors 109
In Oklahoma, Kevin Durant scored 28 points in his first game back from a knee injury and Russell Westbrook added 19 points and 13 assists for Oklahoma City.
Stephen Curry scored a season-high 39 points and ignited the Warriors’ rally from a 21-point deficit to cut it to three in the final minute.
Oklahoma City made its first 29 free throws before Durant and Westbrook missed three in the final two-and-a-half minutes to let Golden State stick around. The Thunder finished 37 for 40 from the foul line.
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