A Chris Paul layup with 8.8 seconds left gave the Los Angeles Clippers a 100-98 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, keeping the Clippers in position for home-court advantage in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Paul scored 31 points and got past Thunder defensive specialist Thabo Sefolosha for the critical basket, squeezing the ball onto the rim to put the Clippers ahead.
The Thunder’s Kevin Durant missed a 3-point attempt that could have won it, hitting the back rim on a shot from the left wing.
Photo: Reuters
Durant led Oklahoma City with 22 points.
LAKERS 98, SPURS 84
In San Antonio, Andrew Bynum had 16 points and 30 rebounds — the most boards in an NBA game this season — as Los Angeles recorded a surprisingly comfortable win over San Antonio.
Metta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) scored 26 points for the Lakers, who made light of missing Kobe Bryant for a third straight game and handed the Western Conference’s second-place team one of their most embarrassing losses.
Bynum’s dominating night surpassed the previous NBA season-high of 25 rebounds.
Danny Green led the Spurs with 22 points.
CELTICS 88, HAWKS 86, OT
In Boston, Paul Pierce overcame a miserable shooting game with a key jumper in overtime that gave Celtic victory over Atlanta.
Rajon Rondo finished with a triple-double with 20 assists, 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Jeff Teague led the Hawks with 21 points.
GRIZZLIES 104, SUNS 93
In Memphis, Rudy Gay scored a season-high 32 points as Memphis won their fourth straight game with a victory over Phoenix.
Memphis outscored the Suns 17-6 after the game was tied with 6:27 seconds left. Dante Cunningham had six of his 10 points during that run.
Marcin Gortat had 19 points for Phoenix on 9 of 12 from the floor.
JAZZ 103, ROCKETS 91
In Houston, Gordan Hayward scored a season-high 29 points as Utah boosted their fading playoff hopes with a victory over Houston.
Paul Millsap added 21 points for the Jazz, who held the No. 10 spot in the Western Conference standings coming into the game.
The Jazz shot 51 percent (40 of 78) and led by as many as 18, taking advantage of Houston’s 36 percent shooting from the field.
In Wednesday’s other games it was:
‧ Knicks 111, Bucks 107
‧ Nuggets 113, Timberwolves
107
‧ Pacers 104, Cavaliers 98, OT
‧ 76ers 93, Raptors 75
‧ Trail Blazers 118, Warriors110
‧ Hornets 105, Kings 96
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later