LeBron James, unhindered by the mask protecting his broken nose, poured in 31 points on Thursday to lead Miami to a 108-82 NBA rout of the New York Knicks.
James played for the first time since his nose was broken in a victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder a week earlier.
He sat out the Heat’s victory over Chicago on Sunday and said before the game he was a little concerned that the black protective mask obscured his vision just a bit.
Photo: Steve Mitchell, USA TODAY
“More than the fit, it’s just the peripheral vision gets a little slurred, looking to the left, looking to the right and having a little piece of plastic that you can kind of see,” he said.
However, on the floor the four-time NBA Most Valuable Player did not seem to be bothered, connecting on 13 of his 19 attempts from the floor.
Dwyane Wade added 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting for Miami, who shot 60.3 percent overall and pulled away for their sixth straight victory with a dominant third quarter.
The reeling Knicks dropped their fourth straight.
Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points for New York and Tyson Chandler delivered a double-double of 19 points and 16 rebounds.
The Knicks, down by as many as 16 in the second quarter, trimmed the deficit to 55-50 at halftime.
The Heat hit 12 of their 17 attempts in the third quarter, outscoring the visitors 32-14 to take firm control of the contest.
Wade capped an 11-0 scoring run with a three-point play that put Miami ahead by a 75-61 margin with less than four minutes remaining in the third.
James scored seven points in a 10-0 run that left the outcome in little doubt heading into the fourth period.
Knicks guard Raymond Felton, who was arrested on gun charges two days earlier, shot one-of-seven from the field for two points.
Felton, facing charges of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm, can travel and play with the Knicks until a hearing on June 2.
Anthony said before the game that while interest in the matter could be a distraction for the Knicks, he thought game time was a respite for Felton and the rest of the team.
“I think the gym, the arena, is a place you can come and just kind of leave all that stuff behind for the two-and-a-half hours that you’re in there,” Anthony said.
In other play, it was:
‧ Indiana 101, Milwaukee 96
‧ Washington 134, Toronto 129
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