Kawhi Leonard matched a career high with 26 points as the San Antonio Spurs rolled past the Oklahoma City Thunder 113-88 on Tuesday night for their eighth straight victory.
The defending NBA champions have won each game during their streak by double digits and by an average of 20.9 points. Tim Duncan had 12 points, nine rebounds and four blocks for the Spurs, who still have a shot at the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
San Antonio point guard Tony Parker left the game with tightness in his right Achilles tendon and did not return.
Photo: EPA
Russell Westbrook scored 17 points for the Thunder, who lost their fourth straight and fell a half-game behind the New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference standings.
PELICANS 103, WARRIORS 100
In New Orleans, Anthony Davis scored 23 of his 29 points in the second half, including two free throws with 9 seconds left, as New Orleans moved into eighth place in the Western Conference by beating Golden State.
Stephen Curry scored 25 points, hitting five three-pointers, but his final attempt that would have tied the game went in and out.
That allowed the Pelicans to move back into the West’s last playoff spot by half a game over Oklahoma City, who lost to San Antonio.
Quincy Pondexter had 20 points for New Orleans, including his fourth three of the game to tie it at 95.
Draymond Green had 24 points for Golden State and Andrew Bogut blocked nine shots.
HEAT 105, HORNETS 100
In Miami, Goran Dragic scored 28 points, his most since coming to Miami in a February trade, as the Heat helped their playoff chances by topping Charlotte.
Luol Deng scored 21 for the Heat, who snapped a four-game losing streak. Dwyane Wade had 19 and Hassan Whiteside added 12 on six-for-eight shooting for Miami.
Gerald Henderson led the Hornets with 29 points. Kemba Walker scored 17, Mo Williams had 15, Bismack Biyombo had a 12-point, 12-rebound night and Marvin Williams grabbed 13 rebounds for Charlotte.
Down 11 early in the fourth, Charlotte trimmed their deficit to three on three occasions — surely bringing back memories of how Miami wasted a 15-point late lead in what became a 99-98 loss at Detroit on Saturday.
The Heat hung on this time.
HAWKS 96, SUNS 69
In Atlanta, Georgia, the Hawks set a single-season franchise high with their 58th victory, getting 16 points each from DeMarre Carroll and Jeff Teague in a win over Phoenix.
Mike Muscala, starting for injured All-Star forward Paul Millsap, finished with 16 points and Al Horford added 14 for the Eastern Conference champion Hawks.
The Suns missed 31 of 40 shots from the field in the second half to score a season low.
Gerald Green, with 15 points, was the only Phoenix player to score in double figures. Eric Bledsoe, ejected in the third quarter for arguing with officials, led the Suns’ starters with nine points.
The 1986-1987 and 1993-1994 Hawks each won 57 games in the regular season.
CLIPPERS 105, LAKERS 100
In Los Angeles, Blake Griffin and J.J. Redick scored 27 points apiece and the Clippers completed a 4-0 season sweep of their downtrodden Staples Center cotenant.
Chris Paul had 19 to go over 13,000 in his career for the Clippers, who have won four in a row and 11 of 12. They beat the Lakers for the second time in 48 hours, winning 106-78 after leading by 43.
The Lakers hung around in the rematch and even led by four points early after never leading on Sunday. Jordan Clarkson led them with 20 points, all in the first three quarters. Tarik Black added 16 points and Wesley Johnson 15.
DeAndre Jordan had 17 rebounds and Paul had 10 assists for the Clippers.
KINGS 116, TIMBERWOLVES 111
In Sacramento, California, Omri Casspi scored 16 of his career-high 31 points in the third quarter and Sacramento overcame a sluggish start to beat Minnesota.
The Kings gave up 31 points in the first quarter and were misfiring offensively until Casspi and Rudy Gay got going to help Sacramento end their five-game losing streak.
Sim Bhullar, Sacramento’s 7-foot-5 center, made history when he checked in for the final 16.1 seconds, becoming the first player of Indian descent to play in an NBA game.
Casspi went 12 of 20 from the floor and made four three-pointers, three in the pivotal third quarter. Gay had 33 points, seven rebounds and five assists in his first game back after suffering a concussion last week.
Kevin Martin matched his season high of 37 points and had eight assists for the Timberwolves.
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