Houston’s James Harden scored 34 points to lead the Rockets to a convincing 105-83 win over Golden State, strengthening their hold on second place in the NBA’s Southwest Division.
Elsewhere, Oklahoma City’s dominance of New Orleans continued, as did Portland’s over lowly Utah, while Boston jumped Denver and hung on for victory.
Harden shot 13 for 22 from the field and 7 for 9 on free throws two nights after shooting 3 for 17 — including 0 for 10 on three-pointers.
Houston’s Dwight Howard had 22 points and 18 rebounds, going 12 for 20 on free throws as the Rockets finished 25 for 39 from the line.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 22 points and five assists, but was just 5 of 14 from the field while making all 11 free-throw attempts.
Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant scored 29 points as the Thunder beat New Orleans 109-95, their ninth-straight defeat of New Orleans.
Russell Westbrook added 25 for the Thunder.
Ryan Anderson scored 18 for the Pelicans, who were again without power forward Anthony Davis and lost Tyreke Evans to a sprained ankle late in the third quarter.
Portland’s Wesley Matthews scored 24 points as the Trail Blazers beat Utah 130-98 to make it 15 wins from 16 against the Jazz.
LaMarcus Aldridge added 20 points and 15 rebounds for the Northwest Division leaders, who set a franchise record with 17 three-pointers.
Boston’s Kris Humphries came off the bench and had a season-high 18 points and seven rebounds for the Celtics, who scored the first 14 points of the game against Denver and held on for a 106-99 win.
Jordan Crawford had 22 points and eight assists for the Celtics, who are 1.5 games clear atop the Atlantic Division despite a 9-12 record that would rank no better than fifth in any division in the Western Conference.
Ty Lawson scored 20 points for the Nuggets.
Atlanta’s Kyle Korver set the NBA record for consecutive games with a three-pointer as the Hawks beat Cleveland 108-89 on Friday.
Korver’s has at least one three-pointer in 90-straight games, breaking the mark set by Dana Barros.
Al Horford scored 22 points to lead the Hawks.
Dion Waiters scored a season-high 30 points for the Cavaliers, but starters Kyrie Irving and Alonzo Gee went scoreless.
Phoenix’s Markieff Morris made his first 11 shots in a 25-point performance, which led the Suns to a 106-97 win over Toronto.
Charlotte’s Jeffery Taylor matched a career high with 20 points, leading six Bobcats in double figures, who combined for a 105-78 win over Philadelphia.
Los Angeles’ Jodie Meeks made two three-pointers in the final minutes to finish with 19 points and lift the Lakers past Sacramento 106-100 in what was expected to be their last game before Kobe Bryant returns.
Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton scored a career-high 29 points as the Bucks outlasted Washington and won 109-105 in overtime.
New York ended a run of seven-straight home losses with a 121-83 win over Orlando, with Carmelo Anthony scoring 20 points and collecting 11 rebounds.
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