Ty Lawson scored 25 points, while Andre Miller had 20 points and nine assists as the Denver Nuggets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 114-104 on Tuesday night to win a 13th straight game for the first time since joining the NBA.
The Nuggets trailed by one at halftime, but took control in the third quarter and never let Oklahoma City reclaim the lead.
Denver moved within 3.5 games of the Thunder in the Northwest Division and became the first team this season to beat Oklahoma City three times.
It was also a big win in the chase for home-court advantage in the playoffs for Denver, who are level with Miami for the NBA’s best home record at 30-3.
Kevin Durant had 34 points and Russell Westbrook chipped in 25 for Oklahoma City, who lost at home for just the fifth time this season.
PACERS 95, MAGIC 73
In Indianapolis, Indiana, Paul George scored 19 points, while Tyler Hansbrough had 14 points and 14 rebounds, leading Indiana to a rout of struggling Orlando.
The Pacers improved to 27-8 at home, despite playing without second-leading scorer David West because of a sprained lower back.
Maurice Harkless and Arron Afflalo each had 10 points for the Magic, who lost their fourth straight on a night they shot just 31.8 percent from the field and coach Jacque Vaughn was ejected in a flurry of four technical fouls with 4 minutes, 47 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Pacers led 62-44 in the third and the Magic could get no closer than 12 the rest of the way.
BUCKS 102, TRAIL BLAZERS 95
In Milwaukee,Wisconsin, Brandon Jennings scored 24 points and Monta Ellis added 21 to help Milwaukee hang on for a victory over Portland.
Ellis added nine rebounds, eight assists, three steals and matched a career high with three blocks for Milwaukee, who outscored Portland 31-8 in the second quarter — the Trail Blazers’ fewest points in any period this season. The Blazers shot a woeful two-of-20 from the field in the quarter.
Portland then fought back with 64 second-half points to make things interesting.
Wesley Matthews hit seven three-pointers and scored 28 points, while LaMarcus Aldridge added 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who lost for the 10th time in their past 11 road games.
KINGS 116, CLIPPERS 101
In Sacramento, California, Marcus Thornton had 25 points and Toney Douglas scored 17 of his 19 in the fourth quarter as the Sacramento Kings rallied from eight down in the final 11 minutes to stun the Los Angeles Clippers 116-101.
DeMarcus Cousins and Tyreke Evans added 17 points apiece for the Kings, who beat the Pacific Division-leading Clippers for the first time in more than two years.
They did it behind a stellar effort off the bench from Thornton and a smothering defense that held Los Angeles to just five buckets in the final quarter.
Blake Griffin had three of them, finishing with 26 points, four rebounds and five assists for the Clippers.
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