Memphis maintained their overall NBA lead by winning 112-99 in Portland, Oregon, on Friday, ending the Trail Blazers’ nine-game winning streak.
The Grizzlies moved two games clear atop the Southwest Division, ahead of an injury-depleted Houston, who were comfortably beaten at home by the Los Angeles Clippers, while other key results saw Dallas win against Eastern Conference leaders Toronto and San Antonio won in the absence of their head coach, defeating Sacramento.
Memphis’ Marc Gasol had 26 points and nine assists, while Mike Conley added 21 points and 10 rebounds as the Grizzlies improved to an impressive 14-2 record. Conley only narrowly missed out on a triple-double, as he had nine assists.
Wesley Matthews scored 26 for the Blazers, who whittled a 15-point deficit back to four points in the fourth quarter, but could not sustain the momentum.
Dallas’ Monta Ellis scored 15 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter to guide the Mavericks to a 106-102 victory in Toronto.
Tyson Chandler had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Mavericks, who got a win on the occasion of coach Rick Carlisle’s 300th game. He is the third Dallas coach to reach the mark after Don Nelson and Dick Motta.
Kyle Lowry scored 25 points for the Raptors, who lost DeMar DeRozan to a groin strain in the third quarter and saw their Eastern Conference lead trimmed to three games.
The Los Angeles Clippers coasted to a 102-85 win in Houston, Texas, with Blake Griffin having 30 points and 10 rebounds.
Jamal Crawford added 21 points for the Clippers, who took the lead late in the first quarter and comfortably pulled away.
The Rockets were playing their fifth straight game without Dwight Howard (knee strain) and were also missing two other starters. James Harden had 16 points to lead Houston.
San Antonio notched a 112-104 home win over Sacramento, despite a second straight game without head coach Gregg Popovich, who has an undisclosed illness.
Popovich did meet with the players on the morning of the game, but his status for an upcoming four-game road trip is unknown.
Tony Parker had 27 points and Kawhi Leonard had 19 for the Spurs, who were led by assistant coach Ettore Messina.
Darren Collison and Ryan Hollins had 15 points each for the Kings.
Denver brought up their fourth successive home win, defeating Phoenix 122-97, with seven Nuggets reaching double figures.
Arran Affalo led the way with 22 points for the Nuggests, who had lost their previous five home games against the Suns.
Eric Bledsoe had 16 points to lead Phoenix, who had an off night shooting, connecting on 38.8 percent of their shots from the field.
Golden State made it eight straight wins with a 106-101 victory in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Marreese Speights scored 16 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, while Stephen Curry finished with 26 points, despite a poor shooting night from three-point range.
Brian Roberts scored 20 points for the struggling Hornets, who have lost eight straight games.
Atlanta held off New Orleans and won 100-91, with Jeff Teague scoring 26 points.
Chicago’s Jimmy Butler hit four free throws late in the game and finished with 22 points, guiding the Bulls to a 109-102 win in Boston.
Indiana’s Rodney Stuckey scored a season-high 24 points to help the Pacers defeat Orlando 98-83.
Milwaukee’s bench led the Bucks to a 104-88 win against Detroit, who suffered a seventh-straight defeat.
Minnesota hung on for a 120-119 win against the Los Angeles Lakers when Kobe Bryant’s three-point attempt missed as time expired.
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