The undefeated Golden State Warriors survived a late scare before stretching their winning streak to 25 consecutive games with a 112-109 victory against the Toronto Raptors on Saturday.
Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry scored 15 of his game-high 44 points in the fourth quarter for the Warriors, who are off to a 21-0 start to the season, including 11-0 on the road.
“We expect teams to fight and come back when we are on the road and that is what they did,” Curry said. “We made some shots, got a few stops along the way and pulled it out.”
Photo: Dan Hamilton, USA TODAY Sports
The Warriors have won 25 straight regular-season games dating back to last season. Their streak started with a 116-105 win over Portland in April.
The Raptors trailed by as many as 13 points in the first quarter and by 10 points at halftime. Toronto took the lead at 85-84 in the final quarter.
Toronto led 98-95 when their forward Luis Scola made two free throws with just over four minutes to play in the fourth, but Curry tied it with a three-pointer.
Curry made two free throws with 18 seconds remaining for a 108-105 Warriors lead. Kyle Lowry cut the margin to one point with a basket before Warriors guard Klay Thompson made a pair of free throws with seven seconds to play.
The lead was down to one when Scola made two free throws with 6.2 seconds left. Curry made both his free throws and Toronto’s Cory Joseph turned over the ball with three seconds to play as it rolled out of bounds into the hands of rapper and Raptor fan Drake, who was sitting courtside.
Thompson added 26 points for the Warriors, while Draymond Green had 16 points and nine rebounds. Center Festus Ezeli scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Golden State.
Guard Lowry led the Raptors with 41 points and seven assists in front of a crowd of 20,100 at the Air Canada Centre arena in Toronto.
“He made some tough shots. He was the catalyst for them in the second half. We were going back and forth. Thankfully I made one more play,” Curry said of Lowry.
DeMar DeRozan added 16 points for the Raptors, who have lost two straight. Center Lucas Nogueira tallied 14 points while guard Joseph and forward DeMarre Carroll had nine each.
Curry scored 16 points to lead Golden State to a 32-21 first-quarter lead.
Golden State were scheduled to play the fourth game of a seven-game road trip yesterday at Brooklyn against the Nets.
“We will rely on our depth as we go into Brooklyn,” Curry said.
Heat 99, Cavaliers 84
LeBron James took the night off and the Cleveland Cavaliers paid a heavy price, losing 99-84 to James’ former team the Miami Heat at the American Airlines Arena. Cleveland decided to rest James after he played 45 minutes in New Orleans on Friday night.
Heat fans jeered their ex-star player, chanting, “LeBron is tired,” drawing a big smile from James.
Without James, the Heat were too much for Cleveland, who have lost their last 10 games in Miami.
Dwyane Wade scored a game-high 19 points for the Heat, who improved to 12-6 after winning their last two games.
Cleveland have lost three straight contests.
Miami was also led by point guard Goran Dragic, who had 17 points and eight assists.
Nuggets 108, 76ers 105
In Philadelphia, Forward Danillo Gallinari scored 24 points, including the go-ahead dunk with 47.9 seconds left, as the Denver Nuggets rallied for a 108-105 victory over the 76ers.
Guard Will Barton added 16 points and nine rebounds for Denver, who reeled off 10 successive points late in the fourth quarter.
Reserve guard Jameer Nelson scored 10 points, including the game-tying jumper with 1:26 remaining. He also assisted on Gallinari’s dunk.
Forward Robert Covington scored 18 points to lead Philadelphia (1-20), who were without rookie center Jahlil Okafor, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, who was serving the second game of a disciplinary suspension.
In other NBA action, it was:
‧ Hornets 102, Bulls 96
‧ Bucks 106, Knicks 91
‧ Spurs 108, Celtics 105
‧ Jazz 122, Pacers 119 (OT)
‧ Clippers 103, Magic 101
‧ Rockets 120, Kings 113
‧ Trail Blazers 109,
Timberwolves 103
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