Brook Lopez scored 22 points as the Brooklyn Nets blew past LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the fourth quarter for a 104-95 victory on Thursday at the Barclays Center in New York City.
James was scoreless and missed both shots in the fourth quarter after he scored 30 points on 13-for-14 shooting through three. Lopez had the final five points in a 14-0 run down the stretch as the Nets surged past the Eastern Conference leaders.
Shane Larkin added 16 points and seven assists for the Nets in his return to the starting lineup. Bojan Bogdanovic had 12 points.
Photo: Anthony Gruppuso - USA TODAY
It looked as if James would rescue his teammates when he scored 15 points in a dominant third quarter. He started 10-for-10 and his first miss came when it appeared teammate Timofey Mozgov knocked him off balance on a tip-in attempt.
James started the fourth quarter on the bench and the Nets took advantage. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson scored six quick points, and the Cavs’ lead was 92-90 before the Nets hit them with the decisive spurt.
THUNDER 113, JAZZ 91
In Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant had 20 points, nine assists and eight rebounds to help the Thunder beat Utah for their sixth straight victory.
Russell Westbrook’s streak of triple-doubles ended at three. He had 15 points, nine assists and seven rebounds before sitting out the fourth quarter because the game was in hand.
Dion Waiters scored 17 points, Enes Kanter added 16, and the Thunder shot 54 percent from the field. They will take the NBA’s longest current winning streak into their home game today against San Antonio.
Trey Burke scored 17 points and Trey Lyles added 14 for the Jazz.
KNICKS 106, BULLS 94
In New York, Carmelo Anthony scored 26 points and Kristaps Porzingis had 19 as the Knicks beat Chicago to sweep the home-and-home series.
Derrick Williams added 13 points, Jose Calderon 12 and Arron Afflalo 11 for New York. The Knicks beat the Bulls 115-107 on Wednesday night in Chicago.
Derrick Rose led Chicago with 30 points. Jimmy Butler had 19 and Taj Gibson 10. The Bulls dropped one-and-a-half games behind Detroit for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
CLIPPERS 96, TRAIL BLAZERS 94
In Los Angeles, J.J. Redick hit a 21-foot jumper as time expired to lift Los Angeles past Portland.
With 1.1 seconds left on the clock, Chris Paul inbounded the ball to Redick cutting off a screen, and he made the basket from just inside the arc.
Paul and Jamal Crawford each scored 25 points for the Clippers. DeAndre Jordan added 12 points and 13 rebounds for Los Angeles.
Damian Lillard scored 18 points and C.J. McCollum added 17 to lead the Trail Blazers, who lost for the eighth time in 12 games. Ed Davis scored 12 points, Mason Plumlee had 11, and Maurice Harkless added 10 points and eight rebounds for Portland.
The loss cut the Blazers’ lead to one game over Dallas and Utah for sixth place in the Western Conference with nine games to play.
PACERS 92, PELICANS 84
In Indianapolis, Illinois, Myles Turner scored 24 points and had a career-high 16 rebounds on his 20th birthday, while C.J. Miles added 19 points as Indiana beat New Orleans.
The Pacers have won two straight, but lost Paul George in the third quarter with what was initially described as a bruised right leg. The three-time All-Star did not return.
Alexis Ajinca led New Orleans with 22 points and Tim Frazier had a career-high 18.
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