Blake Griffin scored 23 points, Chris Paul had 23 points and 11 assists and the Los Angeles Clippers put a crimp in the New Orleans Pelicans’ playoff hopes with a 107-100 victory on Sunday.
J.J. Redick scored 20 points and DeAndre Jordan finished with 16 rebounds and 12 points, helping the Clippers win their fourth in a row. They converted 18 Pelicans turnovers into 30 points and had a 25-6 advantage on second-chance points.
Anthony Davis led New Orleans with 26 points and 12 rebounds in 39 minutes after missing two games with a sprained left ankle. Tyreke Evans was sidelined due to the same injury and was replaced in the starting lineup by Norris Cole, who had 12 points before fouling out in the final minutes.
THUNDER 93, HEAT 75
In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Russell Westbrook had 12 points, 10 rebounds and 17 assists for his 10th triple-double of the season to lead Oklahoma City.
Enes Kanter had 27 points and 12 rebounds for the Thunder, who have won three in a row. Rookie Mitch McGary scored 14 points and Anthony Morrow had 12.
Kanter was expected to miss his second straight game with an ankle injury. However, he was cleared to play after morning shootaround, and then got off to a fast start with 15 points in the first quarter.
The Heat had five players score in double figures. Hassan Whiteside had 13 points, all in the first half, and Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers each scored 12.
RAPTORS 106, KNICKS 89
In Toronto, DeMar DeRozan scored 23 points, Tyler Hansbrough added a season-high 18 and the Toronto Raptors won for the third time in four games.
Jonas Valanciunas had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Lou Williams scored 13 and Greivis Vasquez had 12.
Lance Thomas scored 24 points and former Raptor Andrea Bargnani had 16 for the Knicks, who dropped their third straight and lost for the 10th time in 12 games.
Toronto point guard Kyle Lowry, who dressed but did not play in Friday’s loss at Chicago, was inactive due to a sore back suffered in a fall against Minnesota on Wednesday last week. Vasquez made his second straight start in Lowry’s place.
New York guard Alexey Shved, who came in averaging 22 points in his previous three games, suffered bruised ribs in a collision with Toronto’s James Johnson in the first half and was unable to return. Shane Larkin replaced Shved to start the third quarter. Shved finished with nine points in 17 minutes.
The Knicks also lost rookie Travis Wear to a sore back in the fourth.
HORNETS 109, TIMBERWOLVES 98
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mo Williams scored 24 points, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Al Jefferson each added 18 and Charlotte moved into eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
Gerald Henderson added 17 points for the Hornets, who snapped a three-game skid.
Gorgui Dieng led Minnesota with 16 points and Kevin Martin had 15 points and nine assists.
His team down by 13 in the first half, Williams provided a spark off the bench with his smooth shooting, just as he did in many of his 41 games with the Timberwolves this season.
Williams shot 10 for 16 from the floor in his first game at Target Center since the Wolves traded him to Charlotte on Feb. 10.
In other results, it was:
‧ Spurs 114, Hawks 95
‧ Cavaliers 108, Bucks 90
‧ Suns 98, Mavericks 92
‧ Nuggets 119, Magic 100
‧ Kings 109, Wizards 86
‧ Lakers 101, 76ers 87
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