Aaron Brooks hit a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left to hold off a furious Boston rally and help the Houston Rockets beat the Celtics 108-102 in the NBA on Monday.
Brooks scored 24 points for the Rockets, who ended a five-game losing streak despite playing without leading scorer Kevin Martin.
Houston was up 106-94 with 3:13 left before Marquis Daniels made a jumper and then Ray Allen and Paul Pierce followed with three-pointers to make it a four-point game.
Photo: Reuters
Kyle Lowry had 17 points and eight assists and Luis Scola added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Rockets.
Allen scored 19 for Boston and Daniels had season highs of 19 points and seven rebounds for the Celtics, who have lost two straight without star Kevin Garnett.
Garnett has been out since late December with a strained right calf, but the team hopes he will be able to return against Sacramento today.
Photo: Reuters
Bobcats 96, Grizzlies 82
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Stephen Jackson scored 27 points and the Bobcats stayed hot under new coach Paul Silas with a victory over listless Memphis.
A crowd of about 1,000 fans braved a snowstorm that shut down much of the city to watch the Bobcats move to 5-2 since former coach Larry Brown was fired.
D.J. Augustin added 18 points and nine assists and Matt Carroll scored 12 points for Charlotte.
Zach Randolph had 15 points and 15 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who lost their second straight. Memphis missed 33 of its first 42 shots to fall behind by 16 points in the second quarter.
Bulls 95, Pistons 82
In Chicago, Derrick Rose scored 29 points and Carlos Boozer added 27 points and 11 rebounds to rally Chicago past Detroit.
Luol Deng added 17 points and eight rebounds for the Bulls, who have won seven straight home games.
The Bulls erased Detroit’s 12-point halftime lead midway through the third quarter behind Boozer. He scored nine quick points to even the score at 61 with 4:54 left in the quarter.
Tayshaun Prince scored 15 points and Austin Daye added 14 for the struggling Pistons, who fell to 3-17 on the road.
Pistons guard Richard Hamilton played, despite his name circulating in a blockbuster three-team trade centering around Carmelo Anthony.
The reported deal would reunite Chauncey Billups and Hamilton in New Jersey along with Anthony.
Hamilton finished with two points off the bench, shooting 0-for-5 from the field.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB