The Los Angeles Lakers hung on to beat the New Orleans Hornets 111-106 on Tuesday for their first three-game winning streak in five weeks.
Dwight Howard scored 24 points, while Kobe Bryant had 14 points and 11 assists in another pass-first performance for Los Angeles.
Earl Clark had 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Lakers, whose 18-point lead with five minutes to play dwindled to 102-101 with two minutes left, before Clark and Steve Nash hit big shots to clinch Los Angeles’ ninth straight win over New Orleans.
Photo: AFP
Eric Gordon scored 18 of his 25 points in the first half for the Hornets.
Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge hit a turnaround jump shot at the final buzzer as the Trail Blazers came back from a 21-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-104.
Aldridge finished with 29 points and 13 rebounds for the Trail, while J.J. Hickson had a season-high 26 points and 15 rebounds.
Dirk Nowitzki finished with 26 points for Dallas, who had won six of their last eight games.
In Auburn Hills, Michigan, Brandon Jennings scored 20 of his 30 points in the third quarter to lead the Milwaukee Bucks past the Detroit Bulls 117-90.
Rookie Andre Drummond had 18 points and 18 rebounds for Detroit, while Greg Monroe scored 14 points. Drummond became just the second teenager to have an 18-18 game since 1985-1986, joining Dwight Howard.
Klay Thompson scored a career-high 32 points to lead short-handed Golden State Warriors past the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-95.
Tristan Thompson had 18 points and 11 rebounds for Cleveland.
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