Chicago hung on for a thrilling win against Washington, and Houston did the same against Portland on Friday to trim the deficits in their NBA playoff series to 2-1, while Brooklyn went up 2-1 with a home-court victory over Toronto.
Chicago, trailing 2-0 against Washington, badly needed a victory, and Jimmy Butler’s three-pointer with 24 seconds remaining delivered a 100-97 win over the Wizards.
Houston were in the same predicament, needing a road win to prevent falling into a 3-0 hole and they managed to pull it off in overtime, with Troy Daniels hitting a three with 11.9 seconds remaining in the added period to seal a 121-116 win against Portland.
Brooklyn, hosting a playoff game for the first time since relocating from New Jersey, edged Toronto 102-98 to claim the series advantage.
Chicago were pushed to victory principally by Mike Dunleavy, whose 35 point haul was only one short of his career high.
Dunleavy went 12-for-19 from the field — including a career-high eight three-pointers from 10 attempts — for the Bulls, who are attempting to become only the fourth NBA team to win a seven-game series after losing the first two at home.
Bradley Beal scored 13 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter for the Washington Wizards.
Houston’s James Harden broke out of a slump with a career playoff-best 37 points, and Dwight Howard added 24 points and 14 rebounds for the Rockets.
LaMarcus Aldridge had more than 40 points in each of Portland’s victories in the first two games in Houston, but Omer Asik did a good job of shutting him down in Game 3, holding the All-Star forward to 23 points. The Blazers were led by Damian Lillard’s 30 points.
Portland trailed by as many as 11 points in the final quarter, but Nicolas Batum hit a three-pointer with 41 seconds left to tie the game at 110.
Harden missed a half-court shot at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
Brooklyn’s Joe Johnson scored 29 points, including the clinching free throws with 3.1 seconds left, to give the Nets a valuable win.
Paul Pierce had 18 points, and he and Kevin Garnett provided the game’s signature plays late in the second quarter, a reminder that the Nets brought the veterans as much for their bravado as their basketball.
The Nets blew almost all of a 15-point, fourth-quarter lead.
DeMar DeRozan scored 30 points for the Raptors, who have lost 13 straight road playoff games. Patrick Patterson added 17 points, but missed two free throws with a chance to tie for Toronto.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite