Cleveland’s LeBron James had 25 points and 11 assists in a strong second-half performance that guided the Cavaliers to a 105-91 home victory over NBA Southwest Conference leaders Memphis on Sunday.
James netted 16 of his points in the second, while Dion Waiters scored 13 points in the fourth for a total of 21 as the Cavaliers shot a season-best 61 percent from the field.
Marc Gasol had 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Grizzlies.
The Cavaliers have won eight of their past nine home games to move within one game of Chicago for the Central Division lead.
Washington missed a chance to build a lead in the Southeast when they lost 104-92 at home against Phoenix to snap a six-game winning streak.
Eric Bledsoe and Markieff Morris each scored 17 points for the Suns, who completed a perfect three-game road trip, having lost their previous six.
Rasual Butler’s 17 points led the Wizards, who dropped into a tie with Atlanta atop the Southeast.
Meanwhile, New Orleans took a tight victory at Oklahoma City, with Anthony Davis scoring 38 points to lead the Pelicans to a 101-99 win.
It was the third-highest point total of Davis’ career. He made 16 of 22 shots and had 12 rebounds.
Jrue Holiday had 11 points and matched a career high with 15 assists for the Pelicans.
Russell Westbrook scored 29 points for the Thunder, but he missed a three-pointer that could have given Oklahoma City the lead in the closing seconds.
Elsewhere, Toronto downed New York to open a 10-game lead in the Atlantic Division and push its winning streak to six with a 118-108 home win.
Lou Williams and Kyle Lowry each scored 22 points for the Raptors, who led from start to finish and are already a yawning 18 games above the Knicks in the division, having only played 28 games.
Carmelo Anthony scored 28 points for New York, who have lost 15 of their past 16 games.
In Miami, the Heat ended a run of five successive home-court defeats by downing Boston 100-84.
Luol Deng had 23 points and James Ennis scored 10 of his 16 in the fourth quarter for the Heat, who for the first time in 154 games played without any of their former Big Three: Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were injured and James now plays for Cleveland.
Tyler Zeller scored 22 points for the Celtics, who had won their previous three games.
Also on Sunday it was:
‧ Kings 108, Lakers 101
‧ Nets 110, Pistons 105
‧ Pacers 100, Timberwolves 96
‧ 76ers 96, Magic 88
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