The Houston Rockets cruised past the cold-shooting Cleveland Cavaliers 116-78 on Friday night at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, with Jeremy Lin scoring four points and six assists for Houston in just 20 minutes of play.
The Houston Rockets will then confront their archrivals, the San Antonio Spurs, the Indiana Pacers, the Memphis Grizzlies and the Los Angeles Clippers, moving toward the playoffs.
The Cavaliers were routed because star point guard Kyrie Irving missed the game. Irving, who has been named the recipient of the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as the 2011-2012 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year Award, reportedly may miss the rest of the season with a left shoulder sprain after missing six games for the Cavaliers. Irving, 20, is averaging 23 points, 5.7 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game this season.
Photo: Reuters
At the beginning of the game on Friday night, members of both teams had high hit rates, with the Rockets taking only a 28-25 lead over Cavaliers in the first quarter.
However, the Rockets reached 56.4 percent shooting in the first half of the game, with 42.86 percent from three-point range (six of 14). Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden and forward Carlos Delfino sank back-to-back three-pointers later as the Rockets stretched their lead into double digits.
In addition to Harden, the Rockets’ Omer Asik, Donatas Motiejunas, Chandler parsons, Patrick Beverley, James Anderson and Thomas Robinson all contributed more than 10 points, giving an early victory for the Rockets.
Shaun Livingston outperformed his teammates by scoring 14 points for the Cavaliers, who had dropped five in a row and nine of their last 11 games. Cleveland failed to reach 20 points in each of the last three quarters and shot 36 percent (31 of 86) for the game. Houston also had a 54-32 edge in rebounds.
Meanwhile, the Miami Heat extended their winning streak to 25 games after pulling away in the second half to beat the Detroit Pistons 103-89 on Friday.
LeBron James scored 29 points, Dwyane Wade added 19 and Shane Battier and Mario Chalmers scored 11 each for Miami, who shook off yet another slow start to move within eight wins of equaling the 1971-1972 Los Angeles Lakers for the longest winning streak in NBA history. The Heat also won at home for the 16th straight time.
James added eight rebounds and eight assists for Miami, whose magic number for clinching the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference is now three.
Greg Monroe finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds for Detroit, who dropped their 10th straight game.
Washington’s Trevor Ariza hit a career-high seven three-pointers on his way to 25 points and John Wall added 24 as the Wizards rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 103-100 in Kobe Bryant’s return from a two-game absence with a sprained left ankle.
Wall had 16 assists, and Nene scored 15 points for the Wizards, who won their second straight while improving to 7-26 on the road.
Bryant finished with 21 points and 11 assists, and Dwight Howard had 20 points and 15 rebounds for the Lakers.
In Orlando, Florida, Kevin Durant scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter and Russell Westbrook had 19 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder ended a two-game losing streak by beating the Magic 97-89.
Maurice Harkless scored 25 points and Jameer Nelson had 16 for Orlando, who lost their sixth straight.
New York clinched a playoff berth as Carmelo Anthony scored 37 points and Kenyon Martin added 19 points and 11 rebounds in the Knicks’ 99-94 win over the Toronto Raptors.
The defeat was a double blow for Toronto, who lost for the 11th time in 15 games and saw forward Rudy Gay leave in the second with a sore back. He did not return.
Alan Anderson scored a career-high 35 points, DeMar DeRozan had 18 and Jonas Valanciunas 10 for the Raptors.
San Antonio’s Tony Parker had 22 points in his return from an eight-game absence and Tim Duncan added 19 points and 16 rebounds as the Spurs sent the Utah Jazz to their third straight loss 104-97.
Kawhi Leonard added 21 points, including five in overtime, and Danny Green had 15 points for San Antonio, who remain 2.5 games ahead of Oklahoma City in the West.
Mo Williams scored 23 points, Al Jefferson had 18 and Alec Burks 14 for Utah.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 22 points, Shawn Marion had a double-double in his return from a calf injury to spoil Jason Terry’s return to Dallas with a 104-94 win over the Boston Celtics.
Terry scored eight in his first game in Dallas since leaving for Boston in free agency. The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Atlanta Hawks 104-93 for their second road win in as many nights and the Indiana Pacers downed the Milwaukee Bucks 102-78 for their third straight win.
In other games, the New Orleans Hornets beat the Memphis Grizzlies 90-83 and the Minnesota Timberwolves were 117-86 winners over the Phoenix Suns.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB