San Antonio took advantage of Los Angeles being without injured All-Star Chris Paul and comfortably beat the Clippers 116-92 in Saturday’s clash of the NBA divisional leaders.
The win moved the Spurs into equal second in the Western Conference standings, behind new leader Oklahoma City, who got a super performance from Kevin Durant in their comeback win over Minnesota and moved above Portland, who were narrowly beaten at home by Philadelphia.
San Antonio’s Tiago Splitter had 22 points before leaving with a shoulder injury and Tim Duncan added 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Photo: EPA
Jamal Crawford scored 24 points for the Clippers, who missed Paul after he suffered a shoulder injury on Friday against Dallas.
Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant scored 23 of his season-high 48 points in the fourth quarter and hit the winner with four seconds to play, rallying the Thunder from 13 points down in a 115-111 victory over Minnesota.
Durant went 7-for-11 from the field and hit four three-pointers in the final quarter, while Derek Fisher scored 13 points for the Thunder, who won despite being outscored 46-66 in the key.
Kevin Love played the entire second half and finished with 30 points, 14 rebounds and five assists for the Wolves. However, he missed four free throws in the final 27s to let this one slip away. The last three came when he was fouled on a three-point shot with 2.2s to go and the Wolves down by two.
Indiana, the overall league leader, improved to 26-6 by beating New Orleans 99-82, overcoming a seven-point halftime deficit.
Paul George had 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead four Pacers in double figures, with Lance Stephenson scoring 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
Indiana went on a 14-0 run over a 4 minute 12 second span of the third quarter as the Pelicans missed seven-straight field goals.
Eric Gordon finished with 21 points for the Pelicans, but only four in the second half.
Philadelphia made it four-straight wins — all on the road — by beating Portland 101-99, led by 30 points from Thaddeus Young.
Evan Turner added 23 points for the 76ers, and rookie Michael Carter-Williams had 16, but fell hard on the court at the final buzzer when he was trying to keep Damian Lillard from scoring the tying basket. After a few moments he got up holding his head.
Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge had 29 points and 14 rebounds for his 20th double-double this season.
Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh each had 20 points, helping the Heat rally for a 110-94 win over state rival Orlando.
Rashard Lewis added 18 points for the Heat, who have now won 22 consecutive games against divisional rivals, moving within one victory of tying Boston’s record set in 1961.
Jameer Nelson led Orlando with 21 points.
Chicago’s Mike Dunleavy scored 11 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, steering the Bulls to a 91-84 victory against Atlanta.
Phoenix’s Gerald Green had 24 points and a career-high five steals starting in place of the injured Eric Bledsoe, pushing the Suns to a 116-100 win over Milwaukee.
Charlotte arrested a season-worst five-game losing skid by defeating Sacramento 113-103, with Kemba Walker scoring 30 points.
Brooklyn’s Paul Pierce had 17 points to move up to 19th place on the NBA’s career scoring list, above Allen Iverson, helping the Nets down Cleveland 89-82.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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