Oklahoma City Thunder opened up the biggest halftime lead in an NBA game for 21 years and went on to crush the Charlotte Bobcats 114-69 on Monday.
The 64-24 lead was the fifth-biggest halftime advantage in the NBA’s shot-clock era and the most since Golden State led Sacramento by 47 at the main break in a 1991 game.
Kevin Durant scored 18 points, while Russell Westbrook had 12 points and 11 assists for the Thunder, who pulled all their starters by early in the third quarter.
Also on Monday, Utah Jazz survived a close home game, surging in the second half to sneak past the Denver Nuggets 105-103, with Al Jefferson scoring a season-best 28 points and Derrick Favors sinking three late free throws.
The Nuggets had a chance to tie it with 3.6 seconds left, but Ty Lawson was double-teamed and passed too late for Corey Brewer to get off a final shot.
The Jazz, who improved to 6-0 at home, trailed by as many as 16 in the first half and were down 12 with 7:27 left in the third before going on a 14-2 run to tie it.
The Memphis Grizzlies maintained their status of holding the best record in the NBA, but were relatively lethargic in an 84-78 home win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol scored 19 points each for the Grizzlies, who trailed with 8:28 left, but closed the game on a 13-4 run.
An even-more-impressive finishing burst came from the Milwaukee Bucks, who downed the Chicago Bulls 93-92 despite having trailed by 27 points at one stage.
Ersan Ilyasova scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half for the Bucks, who surged back into the contest with a 31-4 run.
The win ended a run of nine straight losses at Chicago and kept the Bucks ahead of the Bulls atop the Central Division.
Chicago’s Richard Hamilton scored a season-high 30 points, but missed a shot at the buzzer that could have won it.
The Washington Wizards remain winless after 12 games following a humbling 118-92 home defeat by the San Antonio Spurs.
The Wizards are the 12th team in NBA history to start the season 0-12 according to statistics and are six away from equaling the New Jersey Nets’ record 0-18 start in the 2009 to 2010 season.
The Spurs had seven players in double figures as they continued their successful road trip, winning the first four games of a six-game away stint.
Unlike the Wizards, the New Orleans Hornets arrested a losing streak, winning their first game in eight by downing the Los Angeles Clippers 105-98.
Greivis Vasquez had 25 points and 10 assists for the Hornets, who restricted Clippers star Blake Griffin to making only one of nine shots in 35 minutes, finishing with a career-low four points before fouling out late.
Ryan Anderson and Jason Smith each scored 17 points for the Hornets.
The Detroit Pistons defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 108-101, with the victory set up by young guard Brandon Knight’s 16 first-half points.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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