The San Antonio Spurs prevailed in a clash of the NBA leaders against the defending champions, beating the reeling Los Angeles Lakers 97-82 on Tuesday.
Tony Parker scored 23 points and DeJuan Blair had 17 points and 15 rebounds, leading an unlikely Spurs cast that handed the Lakers their third straight loss.
Los Angeles’ Kobe Bryant finished with 21 points on 8-of-27 shooting. He missed 13 in a row at one point, and might be fuming again after criticizing his teammates following a Christmas Day loss to Miami.
PHOTO: AFP
The Spurs improved to 27-4, among the best starts in NBA history.
The Lakers dropped to 21-10 — the first time since 2007 they’ve reached 10 losses this early.
CELTICS 95, PACERS 83
In Indianapolis, Indiana, Paul Pierce scored 21 points to lead Boston over Indiana.
Ray Allen added 17 for the Celtics, who were without point guard Rajon Rondo, missing his fifth straight game with a sprained ankle.
The Celtics improved to 4-1 without him and maintained the best record in the Eastern Conference.
Brandon Rush led the Pacers with 17 points.
RAPTORS 84, MAVERICKS 76
In Dallas, Texas, rookie Ed Davis scored a career-high 17 points and pulled down 12 rebounds as undermanned Toronto upset Dallas.
Linas Kleiza and DeMar DeRozan added 16 points apiece for the Raptors, who were missing several key players but took advantage of the injury absence of Dallas’ top scorer, Dirk Nowitzki.
Toronto had dropped its previous 10 games in Dallas.
Jason Terry scored 18 points for the Mavericks, who had won 17 of their previous 18.
NUGGETS 95, TRAIL BLAZERS 77
In Denver, Colorado, an undermanned Denver won their first game in four by downing Portland.
Chauncey Billups scored 18 points while J.R. Smith and Nene added 17 points apiece for the Nuggets, who were without forward Carmelo Anthony for a fourth consecutive game following the death of his sister. The Nuggets said Anthony will also miss the next game before rejoining the team today.
LaMarcus Aldridge had 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who lost their fifth straight at Denver.
BULLS 90, BUCKS 77
In Chicago, Carlos Boozer had 24 points and nine rebounds to lead the Chicago Bulls past the Milwaukee Bucks.
Luol Deng scored 24 points for the Bulls, who have won 11 of 13 games.
John Salmons scored 18 points for the Bucks, who shot a season-low 32.1 percent.
Chicago pulled away for good midway through the fourth quarter by going on a 16-4 run.
MAGIC 110, CAVALIERS 95
In Cleveland, Ohio, Orlando made a season-high 19 3-pointers in a victory over Cleveland.
Orlando won its fourth straight by breaking open a close game in the fourth quarter with leading scorer Dwight Howard fouled out on the bench from late in the third. The Magic extended a one-point lead at the break to a 17-point advantage with four minutes, 23 seconds to play.
Gilbert Arenas scored 22 points and fellow newcomer Jason -Richardson added 20 for the Magic.
The Cavaliers lost for the 14th time in 15 games.
HEAT 106, KNICKS 98
In Miami, the hosts held off a big fourth-quarter rally to beat New York.
Dwyane Wade scored a season-high 40 points, while LeBron James and Chris Bosh each finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds for Miami, which is 15-1 in its past 16 games and has beaten the Knicks seven straight times.
Miami led by as many as 22, then saw the lead cut to three before Wade’s 3-pointer with just less than two minutes remaining helped save the Heat.
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