Chris Bosh scored 23 points, including the winning three-pointer with 1.9 seconds remaining, as the Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs 88-86 on Sunday night with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers sitting out due to injuries.
Ray Allen had 14 points, Norris Cole added 13 and Mike Miller 12 for Miami (58-15), who swept the season series with San Antonio (55-18). By earning the head-to-head tiebreaker with San Antonio, the Heat essentially have a four-game cushion with nine remaining for the league’s best record and home-court advantage throughout the NBA playoffs.
Tim Duncan had 17 points and 12 rebounds, while Kawhi Leonard added 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Spurs, who had their seven-game home winning streak snapped. Danny Green and Tony Parker added 12 points apiece, while Stephen Jackson had 11.
Photo: Reuters
Bosh finished three for five on three-pointers, including the final shot from straightaway in the closing seconds. He yelled after making the shot and celebrated when Parker’s shot bounced off the backboard.
KNICKS 108, CELTICS 89
In New York, Carmelo Anthony had 24 points and 10 rebounds as the Knicks extended their winning streak to eight games and moved closer to ending Boston’s hold on the Atlantic Division title.
The Knicks beat the Celtics for the second time this week and won the season series for the first time since the 2003-2004 season, when they also went 3-1 against Boston. New York climbed back into a tie with Indiana in the race for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, which would mean a playoff meeting with the Celtics.
Jeff Green scored 27 points, while Paul Pierce had 24 points and 15 rebounds, as the Celtics had a two-game winning streak snapped. Boston have won the past five division titles since acquiring Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in 2007.
BULLS 95, PISTONS 94
In Chicago, Illinois, Luol Deng scored 28 points, while Jimmy Butler and Nate Robinson each added 16 as Chicago beat Detroit for the 18th straight time.
Rodney Stuckey scored 25 points and Greg Monroe added 18 points for the Pistons, who have not beaten the Bulls since 2008.
Chicago rallied from a 13-point deficit to tie the score 78-all with 9:27 remaining on Butler’s dunk after a steal. Robinson then fed Deng for a layup for an 80-78 lead, the Bulls’ first advantage since 1-0.
Deng and Robinson each hit three-pointers to extend the Bulls’ lead to 91-84. Stuckey’s layup cut Chicago’s lead to one with 1 minute, 27 seconds left, before Deng had a layup for a 94-91 lead. Charlie Villaneuva missed a three-pointer with 5.9 seconds left and Daequan Cook made a free throw.
HORNETS 112, CAVALIERS 92
In New Orleans, Greivis Vasquez scored 25 points and Ryan Anderson added 23 to lead the New Orleans Hornets to a 112-92 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night.
Anthony Davis had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Brian Roberts scored 15 and Eric Gordon 14 for the Hornets, who snapped a two-game losing streak. Davis’ double-double was his 17th, top among NBA rookies.
Kryie Irving returned from a shoulder injury and led the Cavaliers with 31 points and six assists. Cleveland, who lost their eighth straight, were 1-7 in Irving’s absence. Tristan Thompson, Wayne Ellington and Mareese Speights each scored 12 points for the Cavaliers, while Shaun Livingston had 11.
WIZARDS 109, RAPTORS 92
In Washington, Bradley Beal scored 24 points on his return to the lineup, leading Washington past Toronto.
Emeka Okafor had 19 points and 10 rebounds, while John Wall added 18 points and 10 assists for Washington. The Wizards won their seventh straight at home and moved into a tie with Toronto for 10th place in the Eastern Conference.
Jonas Valanciunas had 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Raptors, while Toronto leading scorer Rudy Gay scored 11 points.
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