Portland completed a season sweep of Denver for the first time in 15 years by beating the Nuggets 102-96 on Saturday, moving within three games of the NBA Western Conference lead.
In the Eastern Conference, Indiana maintained their two-game lead over Miami by struggling past lowly Boston, the Los Angeles Clippers widened their lead in the Pacific Division by crushing New Orleans and Houston held on to beat Detroit.
Portland’s Robin Lopez scored 18 points and LaMarcus Aldridge returned from an injury to add 16 for the Trail Blazers, who won their fifth straight.
Photo: Robert Mayer / USA TODAY
Denver, by contrast, have lost five straight, despite Kenneth Faried, Randy Foye and Evan Fournier scoring 16 points apiece.
Indiana had difficulty in dispatching Boston, winning 102-97, with Paul George scoring 10 of the Pacers’ final 12 points.
George led the Pacers with 25 points and Evan Turner added 17 as Indiana won their fourth straight game.
Jeff Green had 27 points for the Celtics, who have lost six of seven.
The Clippers had the luxury of resting Chris Paul and Blake Griffin in the fourth quarter and still cruised to a 108-76 win over New Orleans.
Paul had 21 points and eight assists, while Griffin added 20 points.
Tyreke Evans had 22 points and nine rebounds for New Orleans.
Houston opened a big early lead and hung on beat Detroit 118-110, with Terrence Jones leading the way with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Jones finished 10 of 15 from the floor as Houston shot 50 percent for the game, including 61 percent in the first half. Houston scored 41 points in the first quarter. James Harden added 20 points and 12 assists.
Rodney Stuckey had 23 points on 10-of-17 shooting off the bench for the Pistons, who have lost seven of their past eight.
Miami won their seventh straight game, beating lowly Orlando 112-98, with LeBron James scoring 20 points, having switched to a clear face mask to protect his broken nose.
Dwyane Wade scored 24 points for the Heat, who shot 58 percent. James’ newer mask seemed to bother him more than the black one did, and he frequently took it off when the clock was stopped.
Tobias Harris led Orlando with 20 points.
Memphis used a big second half to overwhelm Cleveland, winning 110-96. Zach Randolph had 23 points and 14 rebounds.
Minnesota beat Sacramento 108-97, with Kevin Martin scoring 26 points to help the Timberwolves reach a .500 record.
Washington won their sixth game in a row, beating Philadelphia 122-103, with Trevor Ariza making eight three-pointers and scoring a career-high 40 points.
Brooklyn’s Marcus Thornton scored 12 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter to guide the Nets to a 107-98 win over Milwaukee.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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