Paul Millsap scored 20 points and Al Horford added 19 as Eastern Conference-leading Atlanta topped the Minnesota Timberwolves 112-100 on Sunday, extending the Hawks’ club record with their 16th straight win.
Jeff Teague finished with 15 points and seven of Atlanta’s 30 assists as the Hawks won for the 30th time in 32 games.
Thaddeus Young had 26 points and Mo Williams added 20 for Minnesota. The Timberwolves, who are last in the Western Conference, have lost four straight and 20 of 22.
Photo: AFP
In Cleveland, LeBron James scored 34 points, including the first eight in the fourth quarter, as the Cavaliers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-98 for their sixth straight win.
James made a pair of three-pointers and a nasty fade-away jumper to give the Cavs a 91-80 lead. Later, the four-time MVP fed Kevin Love for a three-pointer with 3:38 left that put the Thunder away. The Cavs are 6-1 since James returned after missing eight games with a strained back and knee.
Kevin Durant scored 32 and Russell Westbrook had 22 for the Thunder, who went 3-2 on their longest road trip this season.
Photo: AFP
Miami’s Hassan Whiteside had an unconventional triple-double with a team record and career high 12 blocks to go with 14 points and 13 rebounds to help the Heat beat the Chicago Bulls 96-84.
Dwyane Wade scored 26 points, Chris Bosh finished with 20 and Luol Deng scored 15 in his return to Chicago.
Pau Gasol had 13 points and 17 rebounds for Chicago, giving him 50 over the past three games. Derrick Rose scored 19 for Chicago, but missed all six three-pointers.
Photo: David Richard, USA TODAY Sports
The Indiana Pacers defeated the Orlando Magic 106-99 to end a seven-game losing streak after David West scored 20 points and reserve Damjan Rudez added a career-high 18, while Blake Griffin and Chris Paul scored 23 points each to lead the Los Angeles Clippers past the Phoenix Suns 120-100.
In other games, the New Orleans Pelicans beat the Dallas Mavericks 109-106, the Golden State Warriors downed the Boston Celtics 114-111, the Washington Wizards edged the Denver Nuggets 117-115 in overtime, the Houston Rockets were 99-87 winners over the Los Angeles Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 101-95 and the Toronto Raptors edged the Detroit Pistons 114-110.
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