Stephen Curry scored 16 of his 28 points in the third quarter as the Golden State Warriors ran their NBA-record start to 22-0 by beating the Brooklyn Nets 114-98 on Sunday night.
Draymond Green added 22 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Klay Thompson scored 21 for the Warriors, who won their 26th game in a row overall in the regular season, one behind the 2012-2013 Miami Heat for the second-longest streak in NBA history.
Coming off consecutive 40-point games, Curry was having a relatively quiet night — he missed his first three free throws — before helping the Warriors regain control against a team that nearly beat them this season and looked capable of finishing the job this time.
Photo: EPA
THUNDER 98, KINGS 95
Russell Westbrook had his third triple-double of the season with 19 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds, as Oklahoma City rallied late to beat Sacramento.
Kevin Durant committed 10 turnovers, but hit the go-ahead jumper with 23 seconds left and two free throws with 4.4 seconds left to cap a 20-point, nine-rebound outing for Oklahoma City.
The Thunder won their fourth straight home game. Since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City, it is 14-0 against Sacramento at the Chesapeake Energy Arena and 23-4 overall.
NBA assists leader Rajon Rondo had 10 to go with seven points for the Kings. Rudy Gay scored 20 points for Sacramento, while the Kings missed a chance to force overtime when Marco Belinelli air balled on a three-point attempt from the corner in the final seconds.
GRIZZLIES 95, SUNS 93
Jeff Green’s dunk on an alley-oop inbound pass from Courtney Lee with 0.5 seconds left gave Memphis a victory over Phoenix.
The Suns’ last chance to tie the game came on Eric Bledsoe’s shot from the right corner. The two-point attempt was long, sending Phoenix to their fourth straight loss, despite a late rally that pulled the Suns even.
Marc Gasol led Memphis with 22 points. The inbound pass from Lee capped a fourth quarter in which he scored 13 of his 18 points. Mike Conley had 12 points, while Mario Chalmers finished with 11. Green and Zach Randolph scored 10 points apiece.
Bledsoe led the Suns with 23 points and six assists, and also had seven rebounds. Brandon Knight scored 17 points and Mirza Teletovic had 14. Alex Len had 12, while Jon Leuer finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
MAVERICKS 116, WIZARDS 104
Wesley Matthews scored 28 of his season-high 36 points in the second half as Dallas beat Washington.
He hit 10 three-pointers overall and eight in the second half. The Mavericks took the lead early in the third quarter and pulled away in the fourth.
John Wall led Washington with 28 points, but injured his right leg colliding with Dallas’ Jeremy Evans and was helped off the court with 1 minute, 14 seconds left.
Dirk Nowitzki had 19 points, while Raymond Felton added 11 points and 10 rebounds. Deron Williams helped with 11 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.
The injury-plagued Wizards dressed just 10 players for the third time in eight days.
PISTONS 111, LAKERS 91
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 22 points, while Andre Drummond added 18 points and 15 rebounds as Detroit beat Los Angeles in Kobe Bryant’s last visit to Detroit.
Reggie Jackson added 20 points as the Pistons won their fourth straight.
Lou Williams scored 21 points, while Julius Randle added 15 points and 11 rebounds as Los Angeles lost for the ninth time in 10 games.
Bryant received a standing ovation before the game, when the arena went dark while Pistons public address announcer John Mason read off his long list of achievements, graciously skipping the loss to Detroit in the 2004 NBA Finals.
Bryant missed his first nine shots, and when he finally made one — a three-pointer midway through the third quarter — the fans gave him his second ovation of the night and a brief “KO-BE” chant broke out.
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