The Chicago Bulls staged a big third-quarter rally to help seal a 93-89 win over the Miami Heat on Thursday.
The victory enabled the Bulls (39-17) to snap the Heat’s three-game winning streak and moved the home team to within two games of second place Miami in the conference standings.
Miami (42-16) struggled through a disastrous third quarter to squander a 53-44 halftime lead, as the Bulls outscored the Heat 27-14, led by Luol Deng and Derrick Rose with 12 and 10 points respectively.
Photo: AFP
The teams took turns dominating in the fourth quarter, which was finally decided by Deng’s three-pointer to break an 89-89 tie with just 16 seconds remaining when Rose identified a double team as he drove the lane and passed to his wide open teammate.
Rose led the Bulls with 26 points and Deng scored 18 points in the second half to finish with 20.
Chris Bosh was limited to seven points for Miami on one-for-18 shooting from the field.
“They didn’t do anything,” Bosh said. “I just missed shots. They played good defense when it was time. That’s what they’re known for, but at the end of the day, I was what we call butt-naked wide open.”
NUGGETS 89, CELTICS 75
Kenyon Martin scored 18 points and newcomer Wilson Chandler added 16 as the Denver Nuggets closed the game with a 16-0 run to beat the Boston Celtics 89-75 on Thursday in Denver, Colorado.
Denver played their first game with the five new players they acquired in the trade that sent star forward Carmelo Anthony and veteran Chauncey Billups to the New York Knicks two days ago.
Paul Pierce hit a 3-pointer with 6 minutes remaining to give Boston a 75-73 lead, but the Celtics were held scoreless for the rest of the game.
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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
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