David West swished a 17-foot fadeaway shot with 0.5 on the clock to give the New Orleans Hornets a 91-89 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday and their ninth straight NBA win.
Chris Paul made a critical steal with 10 seconds left and finished with 24 points, nine assists and three steals.
West had 20 points for New Orleans, which overcame a 15-point first-half deficit and then held Oklahoma City to one basket during the final 4:19. He hit the Hornets’ final four baskets with jump shots of 16 feet or more.
Photo: Reuters
Kevin Durant scored 22 points for the Thunder, but missed all five of his shots in the fourth quarter, including several in the final minutes as the Hornets erased a late four-point deficit.
SPURS 113, WARRIORS 102
In Oakland, California, San Antonio endured Tim Duncan’s brief injury scare before beating Golden State.
Duncan went down with a left knee injury in the second quarter that had the entire Spurs bench worried. He returned to finish with 16 points and seven rebounds, alleviating fears after what initially appeared to be a serious fall.
Manu Ginobili had 20 points and seven assists as the NBA-leading Spurs cruised to an otherwise stress-free victory that clinched the Western Conference’s best record through games of Feb. 6. That means Spurs coach Gregg Popovich will coach the West squad in the All-Star game on Feb. 20 in Los Angeles.
Golden State’s David Lee had a season-high 31 points to go with 12 rebounds.
BULLS 92, BUCKS 83
In Chicago, Kurt Thomas scored 22 points to lead Chicago past Milwaukee. Thomas scored his most points since Jan. 25, 2005. He also had nine rebounds and five assists. Derrick Rose added 21 points and 10 assists for the Bulls.
The Bucks were led by Chris Douglas-Roberts, who scored a season-high 30 points, one shy of his career high.
PISTONS 103, MAGIC 96
In Orlando, Florida, Tracy -McGrady, Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye each scored 20 points to help Detroit beat Orlando.
The Pistons scored 26 points off 16 Orlando turnovers and shot 50 percent from three-point range to earn their first victory of the season over the Magic.
Orlando got 21 points off the bench from Ryan Anderson, but the Magic shot poorly from beyond the arc, connecting on just seven of 27 attempts as they lost their first game in four.
76ERS 105, SUNS 95
In Philadelphia, Thaddeus Young scored 24 points as Philadelphia downed Phoenix.
Elton Brand had 22 points and nine rebounds for a Sixers team that was on target from the beginning. Philadelphia shot nearly 60 percent for most of the game and built a 22-point lead in the third quarter.
Jared Dudley led the Suns with 23 points.
KNICKS 115, WIZARDS 106
In New York, the hosts snapped a six-game losing streak while dropping Washington to 0-21 on the road.
Amare Stoudemire ended a mini-slump with 30 points and Raymond Felton ended his dismal stretch with 17 points and 15 assists as the Knicks beat Washington for the seventh straight time at Madison Square Garden.
Nick Young scored 22 points for the Wizards, now more than halfway to the NBA’s first winless road mark in an 82-game schedule.
They are closing in on the longest road skid to open a season, 29 straight losses by the Dallas Mavericks in 1992-1993.
Washington committed 20 turnovers that led to 24 New York points.
GRIZZLIES 100, RAPTORS 98
In Toronto, Rudy Gay hit a tiebreaking jump shot with less than a second to play, giving Memphis victory over Toronto.
Zach Randolph had 17 points and 12 rebounds to lift Memphis over struggling Toronto.
Gay scored 21 points while Zach Randolph had 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who won their third straight, a season high. Randolph extended his team-record streak of double-doubles to 11.
Andrea Bargnani scored 29 points for the Raptors, whose losing skid reached eight games — their longest since 2005-2006.
Toronto finished zero for 13 from three-point range, failing to make a single three-pointer for the first time in 986 games, stretching back to 1998-1999.
The Raptors were the first team to ever have such a streak of more than 900 games.
KINGS 96, TRAIL BLAZERS 81
In Portland, Oregon, Sacramento beat Portland for only their fourth road victory of the season. Tyreke Evans had 26 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Wesley Matthews scored 21 points to lead Portland, which lost their first game in six.
In other NBA play, it was:
‧ Rockets 129, T’wolves 125
‧ Nets 103, Cavaliers 101
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite