LeBron James scored 36 points as the Miami Heat moved back atop the Eastern Conference standings by running past the Indiana Pacers 98-86 on Friday night.
The Heat scored the first 16 points of the second half and were not in trouble again. Miami (54-25) leads the Pacers (54-26) by a half-game in the East race.
Mario Chalmers scored 13, Udonis Haslem added 11 and Chris Bosh and Ray Allen each scored 10 for the Heat.
Photo: USA TODAY
Paul George scored 22 for Indiana, who received 18 from David West, 12 from Luis Scola and 11 from Lance Stephenson. Pacers center Roy Hibbert had only five points and one rebound, grabbing it with just over 2 minutes left in the game.
Miami has games against Atlanta, Washington and Philadelphia left. Win them all, and the Heat would have home-court advantage through at least the East finals.
KNICKS 108, RAPTORS 100
In Toronto, Carmelo Anthony scored 30 points, while Amare Stoudemore had 24 points and 11 rebounds as New York preserved their slim playoff hopes.
J.R. Smith had 15 points, Raymond Felton 12 and Iman Shumpert scored eight of his 11 in the fourth quarter as the Knicks won for the first time in three games.
DeMar DeRozan scored 26 points and Kyle Lowry had 25, but the Raptors failed to match the franchise record for victories in a season (47) and disappointed a sellout crowd that had hoped to watch them clinch the Atlantic Division title for the second time in franchise history.
Toronto later clinched the division when the Nets lost to Atlanta.
SPURS 112, SUNS 104
In San Antonio, Danny Green had a career-high 33 points as San Antonio rallied from a 21-point deficit to clinch the league’s best record.
Kawhi Leonard scored 18 points and Tony Parker added 18 points and three assists in his return from a two-game absence due to a back injury.
Green was seven-for-10 on three-pointers in pushing San Antonio (62-18) to victory without Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, who both sat out the second game of a back-to-back for rest.
Eric Bledsoe had 30 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists to lead Phoenix (47-32), who fell into a tie with Memphis for the West’s eighth seed. Gerald Green scored 27 points, Markieff Morris added 20 points and Channing Frye had 13.
HAWKS 93, NETS 88
In New York, Paul Millsap had 27 points and 10 rebounds to help Atlanta move to the verge of a playoff spot.
The Hawks could have clinched the final Eastern Conference berth had the Knicks lost in Toronto. Instead, Atlanta remained two games up with three to play, needing just one more win or New York loss to secure their post-season place.
Jeff Teague added 22 points for the Hawks, who won for just the fifth time in 13 games and are only 36-43, but that might be good enough in the East. He frequently took advantage of a matchup with little brother Marquis, forced to play extended minutes while the Nets rested some regulars.
WIZARDS 96, MAGIC 86
In Orlando, Florida, Nene scored 17 points, while Bradley Beal added 16 as Washington overcame a sluggish offense.
John Wall had 10 points and 12 assists for the Wizards, who ended a two-game losing streak. Trevor Booker finished with 14 points and Marcin Gortat had 12.
Arron Afflalo led Orlando with 19 points, but the Magic shot just four-for-15 in the fourth quarter and saw their two-game winning streak end. Jameer Nelson had 12 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds for Orlando, while Kyle O’Quinn added 13 points and nine rebounds.
Struggling from the perimeter nearly the entire game, Washington kept their focus in the paint in the fourth quarter. Leading 83-82 with just over four minutes to play, the Wizards scored nine straight points on two dunks, two layups and a free throw to push the lead to 10 points.
CELTICS 106, BOBCATS 103
In Boston, Avery Bradley scored 22 points, while Phil Pressey had a career-high 13 assists as Boston held off Charlotte’s late surge to snap a nine-game losing streak.
Boston led 104-103 before Jared Sullinger made two free throws with 2.5 seconds left. Charlotte called timeout then got the ball to Jannero Pargo, who missed a straightaway three-point shot as time expired.
The Bobcats were led by Al Jefferson with 32 points and 10 rebounds and Gary Neal with 13 points.
THUNDER 116, PELICANS 94
In Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant scored 27 points, while Russell Westbrook added 24 as Oklahoma City clinched at least the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.
Serge Ibaka added 16 points, 10 rebounds and a season-high eight blocks for the Thunder, who won their third straight.
The Thunder shot 54 from the field, made 23 of 27 free throws and committed just 11 turnovers. Oklahoma City led by 25 points at the end of the third quarter, so Durant and Westbrook rested in the fourth.
Darius Miller scored a career-high 18 points and Austin Rivers had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Pelicans. New Orleans was without injured starters Anthony Davis (back) and Eric Gordon (left knee tendinitis).
GRIZZLIES 117, 76ERS 95
In Memphis, Tennessee, Marc Gasol had 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Mike Miller added 19 points as Memphis made a strong push in the third quarter to beat Philadelphia.
Tony Allen scored 15 points to help the Grizzlies preserve their playoff hopes.
Memphis pulled into a tie with Phoenix for the Western Conference’s final post-season spot when the Suns later lost to San Antonio. The Grizzlies own the tiebreaker by winning the season series with the Suns.
In other NBA action, it was:
‧ Bulls 106, Pistons 98
‧ Timberwolves 112, Rockets 110
‧ Bucks 119, Cavaliers 116
‧ Trail Blazers 111, Jazz 99
‧ Warriors 112, Lakers 95
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