Blake Griffin had 26 points, 11 rebounds and six assists as the Los Angeles Clippers , with Chris Paul back in the lineup, stormed to a 31-point lead in the first quarter before downing the Philadelphia 76ers 123-78 on Sunday.
Jamal Crawford scored 21 for the defending Pacific Division champions, who won 12 of their 18 games while Paul was sidelined with a separated right shoulder.
The seven-time All-Star point guard had seven points and eight assists in 23 minutes, while DeAndre Jordan had 20 rebounds and 10 points to help Los Angeles increase their division lead over Phoenix to four games.
Reserve Tony Wroten scored 21 points for the 76ers, who have lost six straight and 13 of 16 overall. Center Spencer Hawes missed all eight shots in 23 scoreless minutes and had just two rebounds.
In Orlando, Florida, Victor Oladipo had 23 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, as the Magic rallied to surprise the Indiana Pacers 93-92.
Indiana stole Orlando’s inbounds pass with 9 seconds left and Paul George was able to get off a 20-foot jumper. However, it was deflected and rebounded by the Magic, who ran out the clock.
George led the Pacers with 27 points. Lance Stephenson added 16. The loss ended Indiana’s win streak at four games.
In other NBA play, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant made 41 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists to help the Thunder beat the New York Knicks 112-100.
Reggie Jackson added 19 points and six assists, and Serge Ibaka had 16 points and nine rebounds for the Thunder, who were coming off a 103-102 loss to struggling Orlando on Friday.
Durant, the NBA’s leading scorer, came off best in his duel with New York’s Carmelo Anthony, the league’s No. 2 scorer. Anthony had 15 points on 5-for-19 shooting for the Knicks, who have lost four of five.
The Chicago Bulls defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 92-86 after Kirk Hinrich scored 19 points, while Joakim Noah had 18 points and 13 rebounds.
Taj Gibson added 18 points for the Bulls, who never trailed against an injury-hit Lakers squad missing Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Jordan Farmar, Nick Young, Jodie Meeks and Xavier Henry.
Center Chris Kaman scored a season-high 27 points off the bench for the Lakers.
In other games, rookie Mason Plumlee scored a season-high 22 points and matched his personal-best 13 rebounds as the Brooklyn Nets edged the New Orleans Pelicans 93-91, the Washington Wizards downed the Sacramento Kings 93-84, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Memphis Grizzlies 91-83 in overtime and the Dallas Mavericks were 102-91 winners over the Boston Celtics.
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