Tony Parker scored 30 points and Manu Ginobili added 24 to help the San Antonio Spurs overcome a lethargic performance and beat the Orlando Magic 121-112 on Saturday night.
Kawhi Leonard added 17 points, Tiago Splitter scored 14, Danny Green netted 12 and Tim Duncan had 11 points and 10 rebounds as the Spurs (46-16) extended their winning streak to six games.
Tobias Harris scored 23 points, Nikola Vucevic added 19 and had 13 rebounds, while Arron Afflalo had 17 points for Orlando (19-45), who were swept in the season series.
Coming off an emotional high after roaring to a 111-87 victory over Miami two nights earlier in an NBA Finals rematch, San Antonio appeared listless against the Southeast Division’s last-placed team.
A Magic side led by former Spurs player and assistant Jacque Vaughn gave the Spurs a tense evening before they closed it out late.
Ginobili lured E’Twaun Moore into hitting his right triceps as he rose for an off-balance, fallaway, 14-foot jumper.
The Argentine guard made the free throw to complete the three-point play and give San Antonio a 114-104 lead with 2 minutes, 34 seconds remaining.
Leonard followed with a breakaway dunk off a turnover and Parker nailed a three-pointer to put the Spurs up 119-104 with just less than 2 minutes left.
In Milwaukee, Bradley Beal scored 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter to help the Washington Wizards avoid blowing a 28-point lead and beat the Milwaukee Bucks 114-107.
Washington opened a 71-43 lead in the second quarter, but the Bucks cut the deficit to 104-101 on a pair of free throws by Ersan Ilyasova with 2:13 to go.
Beal scored on a driving layup and hit a baseline three-pointer to give the Wizards a 109-101 lead with two minutes left on their way to winning their eighth in nine.
In the Staples Center, Blake Griffin had 27 points and eight rebounds, while Chris Paul added 19 points — including a lead-taking layup in the last minute — in the Clippers’ narrow 109-108 victory over the Atlanta Hawks that was their season-high seventh straight win.
The Pacific Division-leading Clippers got 13 points and 12 rebounds from DeAndre Jordan, in addition to 17 points from Matt Barnes on the eve of his 34th birthday..
DeMarre Carroll scored 19 points in Atlanta’s 14th loss in 15 games and sixth in a row.
In other NBA action, Carmelo Anthony shook off a horrid shooting start to score 26 and lead the New York Knicks to their third straight victory in a 107-97 defeat of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Elsewhere on Saturday, the Utah Jazz beat the Philadelphia 76ers 104-92 and the Memphis Grizzlies easily overcame the Charlotte Bobcats 111-89.
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Liverpool star Mohamed Salah on Tuesday said that he would leave the English club at the end of the Premier League season, marking an earlier-than-planned departure for one of the club’s greatest-ever scorers and soccer’s biggest names. The 33-year-old Egypt forward, who has scored 255 goals in 435 appearances for Liverpool, “reached an agreement” to quit the team a year before his contract was due to expire, the Premier League champions said. Salah’s form has dipped in his ninth year at Anfield, to such an extent that he was dropped for a stretch of games late last year — leading to the
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There were some big games to be played yesterday in the NBA, with the Atlanta Hawks to play the Detroit Pistons in a matchup pitting a Hawks team who are rolling against a Pistons team trying to lock up the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed. The Oklahoma City Thunder were to play the Boston Celtics, a showdown featuring the two most recent champions, while the Houston Rockets faced the Minnesota Timberwolves, a game that could factor mightily into Western Conference seeding. Elsewhere, the Washington Wizards were to play the Utah Jazz, with the Wizards on a 16-game slide visiting against a team
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