Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant scored 35 points as the Thunder held off a late rally by the Los Angeles Clippers to win 108-104 in Sunday’s clash of NBA divisional leaders.
Russell Westbrook had 29 points and 10 assists as the Thunder ended a three-game road skid, bouncing back less than 48 hours after losing at Denver.
Chris Paul scored 26 points, while Blake Griffin and Jamal Crawford added 20 apiece for the Clippers.
In other key games, Miami tied a franchise record with their 14th straight win, defeating New York, Indiana beat Chicago to increase the gap between the Central Division leaders to four games, San Antonio routed Detroit despite missing Tony Parker and the Los Angeles Lakers pipped Atlanta by a point to keep up their playoff hopes.
Miami’s LeBron James had 29 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists as the Heat rallied to beat the New York Knicks 99-93.
Dwyane Wade added 20 points for the Heat.
The defending NBA champions won their sixth straight on the road by controlling the final minutes against a team that had a pair of 20-point wins over them this season.
James shook off a third-quarter leg injury and was back in top form by the finish, putting it away by coming up with a steal and throwing down a dunk with 23 seconds left.
Indiana’s David West scored 31 points and George Hill added 21, leading the Pacers past the Chicago Bulls 97-92.
Chicago were led by Marco Belinelli and Jimmy Butler, who each had 20 points.
San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili scored 17 points, while Tim Duncan had 16 points and 11 rebounds as the Spurs routed the Detroit Pistons 114-75.
The Spurs rolled to their most lopsided victory of the season in their first game since Parker was injured. He will miss about a month with a sprained ankle.
Los Angeles’ Kobe Bryant scored 11 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter and hit the go-ahead layup with nine seconds left, leading the Lakers over the Atlanta Hawks 99-98.
The Lakers blew a 16-point lead in the second half, before Bryant scored their last six points.
Houston’s Chandler Parsons scored a career-high 32 points on 12-for-13 shooting as the Rockets beat Dallas 136-103.
Jeremy Lin and James Harden added 21 points apiece, and Lin had nine assists for the Rockets.
Memphis’ Tayshaun Prince had 14 points, while Marc Gasol added 12 points and 11 assists as the Grizzlies cruised to a 108-82 victory over the Orlando Magic.
Washington’s John Wall scored the final six points of the game leading the Wizards past the Philadelphia 76ers 90-87.
Sacramento’s John Salmons scored 22 points, while Jason Thompson had 18 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Kings to a 119-83 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats.
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