James Harden scored 33 points and LeBron James missed a pair of free throws with 4.2 seconds left in overtime, helping the Houston Rockets hold on for a 105-103 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.
James hit a three-pointer with 43.5 seconds left to get Cleveland within one point. Harden and James got tangled up on Houston’s next possession, but no foul was called and the shot clock expired.
James drove into the lane and was fouled by Josh Smith, but missed both free throws to finish three for 11 at the line.
Harden, who had his 26th 30-point game this season, added a free throw and Cleveland missed a three-pointer at the buzzer.
James finished with 37 points after resting during Friday night’s loss in Indiana. He returned for a chippy contest that had multiple technicals and a flagrant foul by Harden on James.
The Cavaliers had a chance to win in regulation, but James held the ball until right before the buzzer and his jump shot bounced off the rim.
Golden State’s Stephen Curry scored 37 points, making four straight free throws to clinch it in the final seconds as the Warriors erased a 26-point deficit to beat the Boston Celtics 106-101.
Golden State won for the seventh time in nine games and ended Boston’s three-game winning streak.
Klay Thompson scored 20 for the Warriors, Harrison Barnes had 17 and Draymond Green scored 11 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.
Isaiah Thomas scored 20 points off the bench for Boston.
In Chicago, DeAndre Jordan had 26 rebounds and Chris Paul scored 28 points to lead the Los Angeles Clippers past the Chicago Bulls 96-86.
Los Angeles were behind 76-75 when Jamal Crawford made a three-pointer with 8 minutes, 2 seconds left. The Clippers never trailed the rest of the way.
After a scoreless first half, Crawford had 16 points in the final two quarters.
Bulls rookie reserve Nikola Mirotic scored a career-high 29 points.
The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 108-101 after Serge Ibaka had 18 points and 14 rebounds, while D.J. Augustin added 18 points and nine rebounds.
Enes Kanter had 16 points and 15 rebounds as the Thunder, playing without injured Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, ended a two-game losing streak.
Jeremy Lin had 20 points, eight assists and six rebounds for Los Angeles.
In Sunday’s other games, Damian Lillard scored nine of his 31 points in the fourth quarter, while LaMarcus Aldridge had 26 points and 15 rebounds as the Portland Trail Blazers downed the Sacramento Kings 110-99; the Charlotte Hornets beat the Orlando Magic 98-83; the Indiana Pacers trounced the Philadelphia 76ers 94-74; and the New Orleans Pelicans were 99-92 winners over the Denver Nuggets.
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