Indiana widened their lead atop the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Eastern Conference with a powerful defensive performance to rout Washington 93-66 on Friday, while nearest rival Miami suffered another Big Apple defeat, being beaten by Brooklyn in double overtime.
Among the day’s other games, Kyle Korver’s late free-throws steered Atlanta past Houston 83-80, the Clippers recorded their biggest-ever win over the Lakers in the clash of Los Angeles rivals, and Stephen Curry’s late basket lifted Golden State over Boston.
Indiana’s David West scored 20 points and C.J. Watson had 16 for the league-leading Pacers, who used an 11-3 run in the third quarter to draw clear of Washington.
Brooklyn’s Joe Johnson scored 32 points as the rejuvenated Nets beat Miami 104-95 for their fifth straight win.
The Clippers’ Blake Griffin had 33 points and 12 rebounds to power his team to a 123-87 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Golden State’s Stephen Curry hit a go-ahead jumper with 2.1 seconds left to lift the Warriors past Boston 99-97.
Memphis’ Mike Conley matched his career-high with 31 points as the Grizzlies used a fourth-quarter burst to overwhelm Phoenix 104-99.
Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki scored 24 points to lead the Mavericks to a 107-90 victory over New Orleans.
Minnesota’s Nikola Pekovic scored 26 points in 27 minutes to push the Timberwolves past Charlotte 119-92.
Detroit’s Josh Smith had 22 points in an outstanding all-around game, helping the Pistons end a six-game skid with a 114-104 victory over Philadelphia.
Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving had 25 points and eight assists to lead the Cavaliers to a 113-102 win over Utah.
Chicago’s Carlos Boozer had 19 points and 13 rebounds as the Bulls won 81-72 at Milwaukee.
Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins had 24 points and 14 rebounds as the Kings beat the undersized Orlando 103-83.
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