Kevin Durant netted 40 points and Russell Westbrook scored 26 as Oklahoma City beat Denver 124-114 to hand the Nuggets their sixth loss in a row.
Durant matched a career best by hitting seven three-pointers and finished 13 of 19 from the floor. Mitch McGary added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder.
The Nuggets, who have lost 13 of 14, were led by Wilson Chandler’s 23 points. Kenneth Faried and Ty Lawson each added 22 for Denver, who also lost their sixth straight at home — their longest home skid since dropping seven in a row at the Pepsi Center from Feb. 6 to March 2, 2003.
Trailing by 14 at halftime, the Nuggets scored the first nine points of the third quarter to pull to 73-68.
However, Westbrook countered with a three-pointer to spark a 13-3 burst that put the Thunder back in front by 15.
WARRIORS 89, 76ERS 84
Stephen Curry scored 20 points, while Leandro Barbosa had 16 off the bench as Golden State snapped Philadelphia’s four-game home winning streak.
Klay Thompson and former Sixer Andre Iguodala added 13 points each for the Warriors (41-9), who have won four of five and two straight after opening their four-game road trip with a loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday.
Robert Covington scored 21 points to pace the 76ers (12-41), who committed 27 turnovers and shot seven for 24 from three-point range. Luc Mbah a Moute had 13 points and nine rebounds.
Golden State, the NBA’s second-best three-point shooting team, shot just seven for 29 from behind the arc.
HEAT 109, KNICKS 95
Chris Bosh scored 32 points and Mario Chalmers added 18 as Miami pulled away from New York.
Luol Deng and Norris Cole each scored 12 for the Heat, who posted their biggest comeback win of the season after trailing by 14 early.
Carmelo Anthony scored 26 points for the Knicks, who became the first NBA team this season to be guaranteed of finishing with a losing record. Anthony left in the fourth quarter to get his knee retaped, but never returned.
The Heat outscored New York 32-18 in the fourth.
Miami again was without Dwyane Wade, still sidelined by a strained hamstring.
HAWKS 117, TIMBERWOLVES 105
Al Horford scored a season-high 28 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while DeMarre Carroll added a career-best 26 points to lift Atlanta over Minnesota.
Paul Millsap had 19 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the Hawks (43-10), who bounced back from a loss to Memphis the previous night.
The NBA-leading Hawks have still not lost back-to-back games since Nov. 18. They shot 51 percent and outscored Minnesota 58-44 in the paint.
Kevin Martin scored 21 points for Minnesota, while Shabazz Muhammad had 18 points and eight rebounds in his first game since Jan. 9 because of a strained oblique.
The Timberwolves lost for the first time in four games.
WIZARDS 96, MAGIC 80
John Wall fell one point short of his first triple-double of the season, while Marcin Gortat had 14 points and 14 rebounds as Washington beat Orlando to sweep the season series.
Wall hit a three-pointer early in the third quarter — the first shot made from beyond the arc by either team — to open an 11-0 run that put Washington in control. He wound up with nine points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds after missing a floater with about 50 seconds left.
The Wizards have won two in a row following a five-game losing streak. They are now 4-0 against the Magic this season and have won the past eight matchups.
Evan Fournier scored 18 for Orlando, who are 1-2 under interim coach James Borrego.
Overall, the Magic have lost 12 of 13.
JAZZ 100, PELICANS 96
Gordon Hayward scored 25 of his 32 points in the second half as Utah overcame a 14-point, third-quarter deficit to defeat New Orleans.
Derrick Favors scored 18 and Enes Kanter had 14 points and 11 rebounds for Utah, who won their second straight while handing the Pelicans their second consecutive loss.
Eric Gordon tied a career high with seven three-pointers on eight attempts and finished with 31 points for the Pelicans. Tyreke Evans added 18 points and 10 assists.
New Orleans was unable to overcome the absence of leading scorer and rebounder Anthony Davis, who sprained his right shoulder on Saturday, and Ryan Anderson, who has a sore right elbow.
BUCKS 103, NETS 97
Khris Middleton scored 12 of his 18 points in the third quarter as Milwaukee rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat Brooklyn.
Jared Dudley added 19 points for Milwaukee, who won their fifth straight home game. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 12 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
After a poor-shooting first half, the Bucks turned up the defensive pressure and forced eight turnovers in the third quarter as they outscored Brooklyn by 16.
Jarrett Jack had 26 points for the Nets.
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