Stephen Curry scored 29 points, while Klay Thompson had 26 with six three-pointers as the Golden State Warriors stayed ahead of Houston in the Western Conference standings with a 108-78 win against the Rockets in Houston on Sunday.
James Harden and Jeremy Lin scored 21 points apiece for Houston.
Golden State snapped a five-game losing streak to the Rockets and got some payback for a 140-109 loss in Houston on Feb. 5, the Warriors’ most lopsided defeat of the season. The Rockets scored a season-high point total in that one and a season-low point total on Sunday night.
Golden State also held Houston to season-low point totals in the first quarter (10) and first half (31) and won in Houston for the first time since Dec. 31, 2007.
“Obviously, tonight was bad in every which way that you want to look at it,” Lin said.
Both clubs got less than 30 percent shooting in the first eight minutes of the game, but the Warriors soon found a rhythm and started to dominate, holding a 23-point lead at halftime.
The Rockets made a 15-6 run in the third quarter on the Lin-Harden duo’s three-point shots and layup shots, and had narrowed the deficit to 59-50 by the 6:32 mark.
The momentum, though, was not brought into the final quarter. Coming into the game as the highest-scoring team in NBA, the Rockets only shot three-of-23 from the field.
“I’ve never seen us shoot like that before,” Lin said.
“We didn’t do anything right tonight and it was just one of those nights. We can dwell on it, or we can come out and kick the crap out of the next however-many opponents we have at home,” Lin was quoted by NBA.com as saying.
Meanwhile, the Miami Heat equaled the second-longest winning streak in NBA history, pulling away in the fourth quarter to beat the Toronto Raptors 108-91 for their 22nd consecutive victory.
LeBron James had 22 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, while Dwyane Wade added 24 points and nine assists for the defending NBA champions.
Chris Bosh finished with 18 points as the Heat equaled the mark set by the 2007-2008 Houston Rockets. The record is 33 games, set by the 1971-1972 Los Angeles Lakers.
In other games it was:
‧ Lakers 113, Kings 102
‧ Bucks 115, Magic 109
‧ Clippers 93, Knicks 80
‧ T-Wolves 97, Hornets 95
‧ Thunder 107, Mavericks 101
‧ Hawks 105, Nets 93
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
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