Austin Daye had 22 points and Tim Duncan added 19 as the San Antonio Spurs earned their 14th straight win with a 113-91 victory on Monday that sent the Philadelphia 76ers to their 25th consecutive loss.
Philadelphia will face Houston tomorrow with the dubious distinction of being a loss shy of tying the NBA record for consecutive losses set by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010-2011.
Kawhi Leonard and Patty Mills scored 15 points each, while Cory Joseph added 12 for San Antonio, who maintained the league’s best record at 54-16. The Spurs did not play starters Tony Parker, Tiago Splitter and Danny Green, but did not need them against the lowly 76ers.
Thaddeus Young and Michael Carter-Williams each scored 19 points, Byron Mullens added 15 and Elliot Williams had 14 for Philadelphia (15-56).
HEAT 93, TRAIL BLAZERS 91
In Miami, LeBron James scored 32 points, including a layup with 11.4 seconds left, while Chris Bosh capped his 30th birthday by blocking Damian Lillard’s layup in the final moments as the Miami Heat escaped with a win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Bosh finished with 15 points, while Chris Andersen had 13 points and 11 rebounds for Miami, who won for just the fifth time in 12 games. Mario Chalmers added 11 points for the Heat.
Lillard led the Blazers with 19 points on three-for-15 shooting. Mo Williams scored 17, Wes Matthews had 15, Nicolas Batum 11 and Robin Lopez 10 for Portland, who were down 17 with a little more than 9 minutes remaining.
ROCKETS 100, BOBCATS 89
In Charlotte, North Carolina, James Harden scored 31 points and Dwight Howard had a double-double in his return to the court as the Houston Rockets defeated the Charlotte Bobcats for their fourth straight win.
Harden had 14 points in the pivotal third quarter and finished 11-of-19 from the field. Terrence Jones added 18 points and seven rebounds in the victory.
Howard had missed the previous three games with an ankle injury, but Houston won all three without him by an average of 23 points. He finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Kemba Walker had 22 points, while Al Jefferson had 20 points and 11 rebounds for Charlotte, who lost for only the second time in 11 games at home.
SUNS 102, HAWKS 95
In Atlanta, Georgia, Eric Bledsoe scored 20 points to lead five Phoenix players in double figures as the Suns won their fourth in a row, beating the Atlanta Hawks to pull even with Dallas for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Suns buried the Hawks from three-point range, knocking down 12 of 24 beyond the arc. Bledsoe made all three of his long-range attempts, while Channing Frye was four of nine.
In other NBA action, it was:
‧ Bulls 89, Pacers 77
‧ Thunder 117, Nuggets 96
‧ Grizzlies 109, Timberwolves 92
‧ Pelicans 109, Nets 104, OT
‧ Pistons 114, Jazz 94
‧ Clippers 106, Bucks 98
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