Damian Lillard on Friday night scored a career-high 51 points and had seven assists and six steals to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a stunningly dominant 137-105 victory over the NBA-leading Golden State Warriors.
C.J. McCollum added 21 points and seven assists for Portland in the first game after the All-Star break for both teams. The Trail Blazers have won four straight and nine of 10 to improve to 28-27, the first time they have been over .500 since they were 3-2 on Nov. 4 last year.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors (48-5) with 31 points and five assists. Draymond Green added 14 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, but also had nine turnovers. Golden State had won 11 straight.
Photo: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY
The Blazers used a stifling defense throughout the game, but especially in the third quarter, when they forced the defending champions into 13 turnovers. Portland led 104-79 after three and the lead could have been bigger if the Blazers had been able to convert more of those turnovers into points.
SPURS 119, LAKERS 113
In Los Angeles, Tony Parker scored 25 points in San Antonio’s victory over Los Angeles in the final matchup between Kobe Bryant and longtime Western Conference adversary Tim Duncan.
Bryant is retiring at season’s end, with the Lakers way out of the playoff picture at 11-45. Bryant and Duncan have each led their clubs to five NBA titles and have at least one league Most Valuable Player (MVP) award to their credit — in addition to MVPs of the NBA Finals and NBA All-Star Games.
Bryant had 25 points in 29 minutes, and Duncan finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds to help San Antonio complete a four-game season sweep. The Spurs (46-9) are three games behind defending champions Golden State in the race for the league’s best record.
PACERS 101, THUNDER 98
In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Monta Ellis scored 27 points to help Indiana beat Oklahoma City.
Paul George had 22 points and 10 assists, Ian Mahinmi matched a career high with 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and Myles Turner had 16 points and a career-high six blocks for the Pacers.
George Hill had nine points and nine assists and matched a career high with 11 rebounds for Indiana. The Pacers have won six of nine.
Kevin Durant had 31 points and eight rebounds, and Russell Westbrook had 23 points and a career-high 18 assists for the Thunder. Oklahoma City had won 14 of 16.
NETS 109, KNICKS 98
In New York, Brook Lopez scored 33 points as Brooklyn beat New York to hand the Knicks their seventh straight loss.
The Nets buried the Knicks under two big second-half runs and put six players in double figures in a strong showing in front of new general manager Sean Marks, who was hired on Thursday.
Lopez shot 13 of 23 from the field and added eight rebounds in dominating twin brother Robin, who had 10 points and seven boards.
Carmelo Anthony had 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists for the Knicks. Interim coach Kurt Rambis continues to say the playoffs are the Knicks’ goal, but they might have blown any shot of that by losing 11 of their past 12 games since they were 22-22. They have dropped both games under Rambis after Derek Fisher was fired on Feb. 8.
In other results, it was:
‧ Bulls 116, Raptors 106
‧ Rockets 116, Suns 100
‧ Heat 115, Hawks 111
‧ Magic 110, Mavericks 104, OT
‧ Wizards 98, Pistons 86
‧ Hornets 98, Bucks 95
‧ Grizzlies 109, Timberwolves 104
‧ Kings 116, Nuggets 110
‧ Pelicans 121, 76ers 114
‧ Jazz 111, Celtics 93
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite