Kobe Bryant rediscovered his scoring touch to tally 37 points and lead the Los Angeles Lakers to top spot in the Pacific division with a 108-99 win over the visiting Houston Rockets on Tuesday.
Bryant, who had connected on just 26 percent of his shots over his previous two games, finally caught fire against the Rockets, while teammate Andrew Bynum had 21 points and 22 rebounds as the Lakers got their fourth win in five games.
“I just had to make some adjustments,” Bryant said as he continues to play with an injured right wrist. “Some shots [it] hurts, some it doesn’t, so it’s inconsistent. But you have to find a rhythm.”
Los Angeles held an 82-81 lead with about 10 minutes remaining of a previously tight contest, but outscored the Rockets 18-8 over the next eight minutes, led by nine points from Bryant during the stretch.
Bryant made 14-of-29 shots and also had eight rebounds and six assists.
The win moved the Lakers (4-3) a half-game in front of the cross-town Clippers in the division. The Rockets (2-3), meanwhile, have lost all three of their road games this season.
Los Angeles grabbed a 53-38 advantage in rebounds led by 7-footer Bynum. After being suspended the first four games of the season because of a flagrant foul during the last post-season contest, Bynum has exploded back onto the scene with three straight double-figure games in points and rebounds.
BULLS 76, HAWKS 74
Luol Deng’s layup with 3.7 seconds to play lifted the Chicago Bulls to a nail-biting 76-74 comeback victory over the Atlanta Hawks in Chicago on Tuesday.
Derrick Rose scored 17 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter to rally the Bulls from a 19-point deficit. Coming out of a timeout with the score tied in the final seconds, Deng cut along the baseline and took a feed from Joakim Noah to put Chicago ahead.
Atlanta’s Joe Johnson shot an airball at the buzzer, giving the Bulls the win.
Rose had missed a runner with 21 seconds left, but Atlanta’s Jeff Teague then missed two free throws. Rose scored with 9.9 seconds left to put the Bulls up 74-73.
Al Horford, who led the Hawks with 16 points, was fouled and split two free throws with 7.7 seconds remaining.
JAZZ 85, BUCKS 73
In Salt Lake City, Al Jefferson scored a season-high 26 points to lead Utah past undermanned Milwaukee.
Paul Millsap had 13 points and 12 rebounds, hitting a jump shot to clinch the game with 1:07 to play.
Drew Gooden had 24 points and 12 rebounds for the Bucks, who missed the inside presence of center Andrew Bogut, who was absent for personal reasons, while Mike Dunleavy was out with groin pain.
Led by Brandon Jennings’ 4-for-19 performance, the Bucks shot just 31 percent and had 10 shots blocked by the Jazz, including a career-best five by Derrick Favors.
TRAIL BLAZERS 103, THUNDER 93
In Oklahoma City, LaMarcus Aldridge had 30 points and eight rebounds to help Portland beat Oklahoma City.
Wesley Matthews added 16 points for the Blazers, who held the Thunder to 34 percent shooting in the second half on an off night for All-Stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
Westbrook scored 22 points on 8-for-18 shooting and Durant finished with 19 points, while hitting eight of 26 shots. James Harden made his sixth career start and led the way for the Thunder with 23 points.
GRIZZLIES 113, KINGS 96
In Memphis, Rudy Gay scored 23 points in Memphis’ win over Sacramento.
Sam Young added 20 points for the Grizzlies, who outrebounded Sacramento 49-41.
With Memphis holding a double-digit lead for most of the second half, the Kings’ reserves got extended minutes. Rookie Jimmer Fredette scored 17 points to lead Sacramento.
CAVALIERS 115, BOBCATS 101
In Cleveland, Kyrie Irving scored 20 points and fellow rookie Tristan Thompson added 16, leading Cleveland past Charlotte.
Cleveland continued its strong three-point shooting, making 10 of 21 from behind the arc, having shot 16 and come within one longshot of equaling the franchise record on Sunday.
Charlotte has lost four straight since opening the season with a win. D.J. Augustin scored a season-high 26 points for the Bobcats.
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