Stephen Curry scored 34 points and had nine assists as the Golden State Warriors rallied from an early 17-point deficit to beat Oklahoma City 114-109 on Thursday night after Thunder star Kevin Durant left with a sprained right ankle.
Durant scored a season-high 30 points on 10-for-13 shooting in a spectacular first half that ended with him stepping on Marreese Speights’ foot. The Thunder said Durant had a mild ankle sprain, and the NBA MVP did not return.
Oklahoma City had won seven straight games, which was the longest active streak in the league after Memphis snapped Golden State’s 16-game winning streak on Tuesday night.
Photo: USA TODAY
Curry added seven rebounds and Klay Thompson scored 19 points for the Warriors, who played without injured center Andrew Bogut (right knee) and forward David Lee (left hamstring) again.
Russell Westbrook led the Thunder with 33 points.
Photo: AFP
PELICANS 99, ROCKETS 90
Anthony Davis had 30 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks to lead New Orleans over Houston.
The Pelicans trailed by one early in the fourth quarter before using a 7-0 run to take a 79-73 lead and they did not trail again.
Ryan Anderson scored the last five points in that spurt to help New Orleans snap a six-game skid in Houston.
Jrue Holiday added 16 points with 10 assists for New Orleans and Anderson had 16 points.
James Harden scored 21 and Dwight Howard had 17 points with 13 rebounds for the Rockets, who lost for just the second time in nine games.
Harden entered leading the NBA in scoring and had scored more than 40 points in two of his last three games. However, he had a tough night by his standards and made just eight of 23 shots.
BULLS 103, KNICKS 97
Jimmy Butler scored a career-high 35 points as Chicago beat New York in a game missing All-Stars Derrick Rose and Carmelo Anthony.
Playing without Rose, who sat out with an illness, the Bulls got another strong game from Butler. He was 11 of 21 from the floor with four three-pointers, five rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
Still, the Bulls had trouble shaking a short-handed New York team who have lost three straight and 13 of 14.
Pau Gasol scored 20 points for Chicago, who went on a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter to take an 87-77 lead.
The Knicks were led by Tim Hardaway Jr, who scored 23 points, including five three-pointers.
Anthony was sidelined with a sore left knee. New York were also without Andrea Bargnani (right hamstring), Cleanthony Early (right knee), Iman Shumpert (left shoulder) and J.R. Smith (left foot).
BUCKS 108, KINGS 107
Brandon Knight scored 20 points as Milwaukee spoiled DeMarcus Cousins’ return to the struggling Sacramento Kings.
With their inside game lacking due to missing players, the Bucks shot well from the perimeter for much of the night in winning their third in four games. They went 10 of 14 from three-point range in the first half and made 13 overall from beyond the arc.
O.J. Mayo and Jared Dudley added 19 points apiece for Milwaukee, outscored 48-26 in the paint.
Playing for the first time in more than three weeks, Cousins looked fatigued at times, but still had 27 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in nearly 33 minutes for the Kings.
He missed a 15-foot jumper at the buzzer that would have won it.
Cousins sat out 10 straight games with viral meningitis, and the Kings went 2-8 in his absence. He last played on Nov. 26 at Houston.
Ben McLemore scored 22 points, while Rudy Gay had 20 points and nine rebounds. Sacramento have dropped five straight and 10 of 12.
The Kings were playing their second game since the surprise firing on Sunday of coach Michael Malone, who was replaced by interim coach Tyrone Corbin.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB