Cleveland’s losing streak reached 22 games — one short of the NBA’s single-season record — as Danny Granger scored 23 points and Darren Collison added 22 to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 117-112 win over the Cavaliers.
Unless they can win today in Memphis, the Cavs (8-41) will match the league’s all-time mark for consecutive futility, a record shared by the 1995-1996 expansion Vancouver Grizzlies and 1997-1998 Denver Nuggets.
Ramon Sessions scored 25 points and Antawn Jamison had 21 for Cleveland.
Thunder 104, Hornets 93
At Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant continued a scoring tear with 43 points and 10 rebounds and led a key fourth-quarter run as Oklahoma City beat New Orleans.
Durant eclipsed 40 points for the third time in four games, and he leads the NBA with five 40-point games this season.
David West had 20 points and 15 rebounds and Chris Paul scored 15 points for New Orleans, which has lost three of four following a 10-game winning streak.
Mavericks 113, Knicks 97
At New York, Dirk Nowitzki had 29 points and 11 rebounds, and Dallas took control in the third quarter before beating New York for its sixth straight victory.
Jose Barea added 22 points and Tyson Chandler had 15 points and 11 boards for the Mavericks, who outscored the Knicks 26-6 to open the second half and went on to their fifth consecutive win in New York.
Danilo Gallinari scored 27 points and Amare Stoudemire finished with 21, but missed all five shots in the second half before leaving for good as the Knicks went deep into their bench.
Grizzlies 102, Timberwolves 84
At Minneapolis, Rudy Gay had 22 points, seven assists and seven rebounds, and Zach Randolph added 23 points and 13 rebounds to lead Memphis over Minnesota.
Sam Young scored 18 points and the Grizzlies dominated the league’s best rebounding team on the boards, 47-38, to win their fourth straight game.
Michael Beasley scored 19 points for the Timberwolves and Kevin Love had just 10 points and 10 rebounds, narrowly getting his 34th straight double-double.
Bobcats 97, Pistons 87
At Auburn Hills, Michigan, Stephen Jackson scored a season-high 39 points as Charlotte beat Detroit.
Former Pistons center Kwame Brown added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Bobcats, who snapped a two-game losing streak.
Detroit were missing Rodney Stuckey (shoulder) and Jason Maxiell (back). Ben Gordon led the Pistons with 20 points.
76ers 106, Nets 92
At Newark, New Jersey, Lou Williams scored 26 points and Jrue Holiday had 11 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for his first career triple-double to lead Philadelphia over New Jersey.
Jodie Meeks added 10 of his 15 points in a 14-2 third-quarter run that broke the game open and led to the ejection of Nets coach Avery Johnson for arguing a non-call after Nets point guard Devin Harris apparently was fouled by Elton Brand.
Andre Iguodala added 16 points and Brand had 15 and 10 rebounds for the 76er.
Harris, Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries all had 16 points for New Jersey.
Hawks 100, Raptors 87
At Atlanta, Joe Johnson scored a season-high 37 points, and Josh Smith had 18 points and 11 rebounds as Atlanta handed Toronto its 13th straight loss.
The Hawks have won two of three and five of eight.
Toronto’s losing streak is the team’s longest since it dropped 13 in a row from Feb. 12 to March 7, 2002.
Amir Johnson scored 20 points and DeMar DeRozan added 16 for Toronto, which dropped to 5-22 on the road.
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