LeBron James scored 14 points in the fourth as the Miami Heat extended their winning streak to 13 with a 98-91 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.
James finished with 18 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds and had a clutch three-pointer in the fourth for the Heat, who snapped the Grizzlies’ eight-win streak.
The Heat’s Dwyane Wade finished with 22 points and eight assists in the win.
Marc Gasol scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while Mike Conley and Zach Randolph had 14 points each for the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies eight straight wins tied their most in franchise history dating back to their days as the Vancouver Grizzlies.
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said Grizzlies used their size effectively to prevent the Heat from generating scoring chances.
James, who carried the Heat on his back for most of last month, got some help this time. He started slowly on Friday and for awhile it looked like he might be held to under 10 points in a game for the first time in more than six years.
The Heat have won 11 in a row at the AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Grizzlies gave the Heat a scare as they turned Friday’s game into a classic matchup of Miami’s offense and Memphis’ defense.
Heading into Friday’s game, the Grizzlies were allowing an average of 89.5 points per game, best in the league.
ROCKETS 118, MAGIC 110
AP, ORLANDO, Florida
James Harden had 24 points, and Chandler Parsons and Carlos Delfino added 21 each as Houston rallied in the fourth to beat Orlando.
The Rockets stopped a two-game skid and ended a five-game losing streak to the Magic. Houston trailed by two, before using an 11-0 run to seize control.
In other play, it was:
‧ Indiana 93, Toronto 81
‧ NY Knicks 96, Washington 88
‧ Boston 94, Golden State 86
‧ LA Clippers 105, Cleveland 89
‧ Dallas 98, Brooklyn 90
‧ New Orleans 100, Detroit 95
‧ San Antonio 130, Sacramento 102
‧ Utah 98, Charlotte 68
‧ Phoenix, 92 Atlanta 87
‧ Denver 105, Oklahoma City 103
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