The Milwaukee Bucks, missing key starters, stunned the travel-weary Los Angeles Lakers 100-89 on Saturday, helped by a herculean effort from Drew Gooden.
The Bucks (8-11) were without leading rebounder Andrew Bogut, who has a broken ankle, while second top scorer Stephen Jackson sat out the game with suspension.
Gooden filled the void with 23 points — 18 coming in the second half — and eight rebounds, Mike Dunleavy and Ersan Ilyasova scoring 15 points each coming off the bench.
The loss dropped Los Angeles (11-9) to a woeful 1-7 on the road.
Gooden hit a three pointer late in the first quarter to spark a 17-0 Milwaukee run that extended into the second quarter to turn a six-point deficit into an 11-point lead at 34-23.
“I’ve been working on that day-in and day-out, and the best thing I like about it is coach [Scott Skiles] is giving me the confidence to shoot it,” Gooden told reporters. “I have to thank my coach and my teammates for having the faith in me shooting that three, and it is helping our offense.”
Outside of a brief Lakers surge near the end of the third quarter that trimmed the Bucks lead to three points, Milwaukee maintained a comfortable grip on the lead.
Dunleavy scored 10 points in the first half but went silent in the second half until scoring five points in a 40-second span in the final two minutes of the game.
That spurt helped push the Bucks’ lead back to an insurmountable 11 points.
“As so often happens, they made a little run at us and we had to make some big shots and big plays — and tonight we made them,” Skiles said.
Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with a near triple double, including 27 points, nine assists and eight rebounds, while the Bucks limited Andrew Bynum to 15 points.
Spaniard Pau Gasol grabbed 15 rebounds, but scored just 12 points.
“Before the game, the question was: ‘How are we going to guard Bynum and Gasol?’ And I kept saying they’ve got to guard us also,” Skiles said. “We put them in as many pick-and-roll situations as possible. We made [Lakers coach] Mike Brown have to switch the coverage numerous times.”
“They got a little confused out there on certain occasions and it led to open jump shots or we made a play to the open man,” Skiles said.
Brown lamented his team’s poor play away from home.
“I just hope that we don’t need a home crowd to get us juiced, to play the right way,” he said. “We’re not bringing it mentally nor physically when we’re playing on the road.”
ROCKETS 97, KNICKS 84
In Houston, Texas, the Rockets made it nine wins in 10 games by beating the New York Knicks, moving equal top of the Southwest Division.
Chase Budinger scored 19 points and Samuel Dalembert grabbed 14 rebounds for the Rockets, who shot 49 percent (38 of 77) to improve to 9-2 at home this season.
Houston blew open a close game in the third quarter as the Knicks’ offense sputtered again without Carmelo Anthony. New York failed to reach 90 points for the fifth time in seven games.
Amare Stoudemire scored 23 points for the Knicks, who went five for 26 from three-point range.
76ERS 95, PISTONS 74
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, birthday boy Andre Iguodala recorded the eighth triple-double of his career with 10 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds as Philadelphia beat struggling Detroit.
Iguodala, on his 28th birthday, received an ovation from the crowd when he secured his triple-double with a defensive rebound with 7 minutes, 34 seconds remaining.
Lou Williams scored 17 points for the Sixers, who improved to 10-2 at home.
Tayshaun Prince returned for the Pistons after two games away tending to a family matter, but scored only six points. Greg Monroe led Detroit with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
SUNS 86, GRIZZLIES 84
In Phoenix, Arizona, Jared Dudley made two free throws with 3.3 seconds remaining to lift Phoenix over Memphis.
Dudley finished with a season-high 20 points and Steve Nash added 21 for the Suns, who snapped a three-game losing streak.
Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol had 18 points each for the Grizzlies, who have dropped three straight.
Memphis had a chance to win, but Mike Conley missed a three-pointer at the buzzer.
JAZZ 96, KINGS 93
In Salt Lake City, Utah, Gordon Hayward scored a season-high 21 points as Utah beat Sacramento and spoiled Jimmer Fredette’s return to the city.
Fredette, who was last year’s national player of the year in college basketball with Brigham Young University, had a chance to give the Kings the win with 4.2 seconds left, but launched an air-ball three-point attempt.
Hayward’s free throw sealed it for Utah, who got 20 points from C.J. Miles.
Tyreke Evans led Sacramento with 31 points on 12-of-20 shooting.
WIZARDS 102, BOBCATS 99
In Charlotte, North Carolina, JaVale McGee scored 22 points and had 10 rebounds as Washington defeated fellow struggler Charlotte for the second time in a week.
The matchup between two teams tied for the fewest wins in the NBA came down to the final shot, but Matt Carroll’s three-point attempt at the buzzer fell short.
McGee had a chance to seal the game with less than six seconds to go, but missed two foul shots. However, that was about all McGee didn’t do right, as shot nine of 14 from the field. Like many others this season, McGee exposed Charlotte’s poor interior defense, using an effective hook shot in the lane.
Kemba Walker became the third Bobcats player to register a triple-double, recording 20 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
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