Tony Parker scored 23 points as the San Antonio Spurs completed their playoff first-round sweep of the injury-plagued Los Angeles Lakers with a 103-82 victory in Game 4 on Sunday.
Tim Duncan had 11 points and six rebounds for the second-seeded Spurs, who next face the winner of Denver’s series with Golden State in the second round.
They will get plenty of rest after flattening the Lakers, who finished without three regular starters in their first opening-round exit since 2007.
Photo: Reuters
In his final game before unrestricted free agency, Dwight Howard scored seven points before getting ejected early in the third quarter for arguing.
Pau Gasol had 16 points for the Lakers, who were swept from the post-season for the second time in three years, despite a late courtside appearance by Kobe Bryant on crutches.
HEAT 88, BUCKS 77
Photo: EPA
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, LeBron James scored 30 and Ray Allen had another big game against his old team as the Miami Heat advanced to the Eastern Conference semi-finals with a victory over the Bucks.
It was the first time the Miami Heat have swept a playoff series since James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade in Miami three years ago and the Heat did not even need Wade to do it.
The guard missed only the second post-season game of his career, and the first since 2005, with three bone bruises on his right knee, but the Heat still won handily, winning their fourth straight game by double digits.
Wade will get plenty of time to rest now, too.
The Heat next face the winners of the Brooklyn Nets versus the Chicago Bulls playoff series — Chicago lead 3-1 — and the next round is not scheduled to begin until Saturday.
WARRIORS 115, NUGGETS 101
In Oakland, California, Stephen Curry shook off a sore left ankle to score 22 of his 31 points in the third quarter, leading the Warriors past the Nuggets for a commanding 3-1 series lead.
Curry shot 10 of 16 from the floor and added seven assists in a dominant and dazzling display that rivaled his days in the NCAA tournament for tiny Davidson.
His five three-pointers in the third quarter lifted Golden State to a 20-point lead and their third straight victory in the frenetic and flashy series.
Jarrett Jack added 21 points and nine assists, while Andrew Bogut broke out in the first half with 12 points and five rebounds for the sixth-seeded Warriors, who can close out the Nuggets in Game 5 today in Denver, Colorado.
Ty Lawson scored 26 points and Andre Iguodala had 19 for the third-seeded Nuggets.
CELTICS 97, KNICKS 90, OT
In Boston, Jason Terry scored Boston’s last nine points as the Celtics weathered a strong comeback by the Knicks and avoided being swept with a overtime win.
Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 29 points as they forced a fifth game in the series, but it was Terry who provided the finishing touches.
In Game 3, he had been elbowed by J.R. Smith and the NBA suspended the Knicks guard for Sunday’s game.
New York had tied the game 84-84 after trailing by 20 points early in the third quarter. It was 88-88 before the Celtics regained control and took the lead for good on a three-pointer by Terry.
Carmelo Anthony, who led the Knicks with 32 points, hit a short jumper, but Terry connected on a 15-footer with 50 seconds remaining for a 93-90 lead.
After Anthony missed a three-pointer with 21 seconds to go, Terry was fouled and sank both free throws. He added a layup to close out the game.
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