Tiago Splitter had 21 points and 10 rebounds as the San Antonio Spurs ended the Oklahoma City Thunder’s five-game winning streak with a 105-93 victory on Monday night.
Kawhi Leonard scored 17 points, Danny Green had 16 and Tim Duncan finished with 13 as San Antonio (49-15) rebounded from their second-worst home loss ever to maintain the Western Conference’s top record. Manu Ginobili had 12 points and Boris Diaw added 11 as the Spurs’ reserves outscored their counterparts 34-16.
Kevin Durant had 26 points, while Russell Westbrook added 25 for Oklahoma City (47-17), who lost their sixth straight in San Antonio. Serge Ibaka was the only other player in double figures, adding 13 points and 16 rebounds.
Photo: EPA
San Antonio’s defense was the difference, turning an evenly matched battle into their third victory in four games without Tony Parker. The All-Star point guard is going to miss another three weeks with a sprained left ankle.
WARRIORS 92, KNICKS 63
In Oakland, California, Stephen Curry scored 26 points, while David Lee had 21 as Golden State routed New York for their most lopsided win of the season.
Almost two weeks after his 54-point masterpiece at Madison Square Garden, Curry shared the spotlight with his co-captain in front of a sellout crowd announced at 19,596. He was four-for-seven from three-point range, and Lee finished with 10 rebounds and eight assists after helping the Warriors go ahead by 27 points in the third quarter.
Carmelo Anthony had 14 points and 10 rebounds after missing New York’s previous three games because of nagging right knee.
NUGGETS 108, SUNS 93
In Phoenix, Arizona, Kosta Koufos scored a career high 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting, mostly from point-blank range, as Denver ran their winning streak to nine games.
Corey Brewer added 20 points and Ty Lawson 19 as the Nuggets matched their longest winning streak of the season.
Denver dominated points in the paint 74-32, including an assortment of soaring dunks.
Wesley Johnson scored 18 and Marcus Morris 16 for the Suns. Hamed Haddadi scored a career-high 13 for Phoenix.
76ERS 106, NETS 97
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Spencer Hawes had 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Jrue Holiday added 15 points and 11 assists, as Philadelphia snapped a five-game losing streak.
Hawes also had seven assists. Thaddeus Young had 16 points and 10 rebounds in coach Doug Collins’ 100th victory with the team.
Deron Williams had 27 points and 13 assists for the Nets, who had won three in a row.
Philadelphia grabbed control in the second quarter and never trailed in the second half. It was a rare feel-good win for a team that had high expectations before center Andrew Bynum was lost indefinitely with knee injuries.
Evan Turner also scored 16 points for the Sixers, and Dorell Wright had 10.
JAZZ 103, PISTONS 90
In Salt Lake City, Utah, Mo Williams scored 20 points and Al Jefferson had 16, helping Utah stop a four-game slide.
Reserves Marvin Williams and Enes Kanter added 14 points apiece for the Jazz (33-31), who moved into a tie with the idle Los Angeles Lakers for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Utah had dropped seven of eight overall.
Rodney Stuckey, Greg Monroe and Jonas Jerebko each had 15 points for the Pistons (23-43), who lost their sixth straight game.
Detroit point guard Brandon Knight sprained his left ankle in the first quarter and did not return. His leg buckled after he was fouled by Jazz guard Randy Foye on a drive to the basket.
It has been a rough couple of days for Knight, who was on the receiving end of a monster dunk by DeAndre Jordan in Detroit’s 129-97 loss against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night.
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