Courtney Lee scored a season-high 24 points, including the closing two free throws, as the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 90-87 on Tuesday in Marc Gasol’s return to the lineup.
Zach Randolph had 23 points and 13 rebounds on the night his inside partner came back after missing almost eight weeks with a left knee injury. Gasol played 24 minutes and finished with 12 points. Mike Conley had 19 points and seven assists for Memphis, who won their third straight.
Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 37 points, converting 15 of 28 shots. Reggie Jackson scored 17, but also committed seven of Oklahoma City’s 19 turnovers. Serge Ibaka finished with 11 points and four blocks as the Thunder lost their third in their past four.
Photo: Justin Ford / USA TODAY
PACERS 116, KINGS 92
In Indianapolis, Paul George scored 31 points, making four three-pointers, as Indiana snapped Sacramento’s three-game winning streak.
David West had 16 points and eight rebounds, and Lance Stephenson added 13 points, five rebounds and five assists for the Pacers (30-7), who have won five of six.
The victory clinched the Eastern Conference coaching spot for Frank Vogel, since the Pacers are guaranteed to have the best winning percentage in the conference through games of Feb. 2, with Miami’s Erik Spoelstra ineligible after coaching last year.
DeMarcus Cousins had 31 points and 13 rebounds, and Rudy Gay scored 12 points for the Kings (13-23), who scored under 100 points for the first time in 12 games.
BOBCATS 108, KNICKS 98
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Al Jefferson scored a season-high 35 points and Kemba Walker had 12 of his 25 in the fourth quarter as Charlotte snapped New York’s five-game winning streak.
The Bobcats were in need of a win after losing three straight games and eight of their last 10.
Walker was four-of-four from the field in the fourth quarter, including three-pointers on back-to-back possessions. He also finished with seven rebounds and five assists.
Gerald Henderson chipped in with 17 points for Charlotte (16-23), and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had eight points and seven rebounds after sitting out the last 19 games with a broken left hand.
Carmelo Anthony had 20 points and six rebounds as the Knicks (15-23) lost in Tyson Chandler’s return to the lineup after missing four games with bronchitis.
CAVALIERS 120, LAKERS 118
In Los Angeles, Luol Deng hit five three-pointers while scoring 27 points, while Anderson Varejao added 18 points and 18 rebounds as Cleveland beat spiraling Los Angeles.
Dion Waiters scored 13 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter as the Cavaliers improved to 4-16 on the road. They also won for coach Mike Brown in his return to Staples Center to face the Lakers, who fired him early last season.
Jodie Meeks hit six three-pointers while scoring a season-high 26 points in injury-plagued Los Angeles’ fifth straight defeat. Nick Young scored 28 points, but the Lakers have lost 11 of 12 heading into a punishing seven-game road trip.
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