Rodney Hood scored 30 points as the Jazz turned Kobe Bryant’s last visit to Utah into the worst loss of his career with a 123-75 victory on Monday night that matched the Lakers’ largest defeat in franchise history.
The Jazz had their biggest offensive night of the season and remained in the No. 7 slot in the Western Conference playoff race, one game ahead of the Houston Rockets.
The 48-point defeat matched the margin in the Lakers’ 142-94 loss to the Clippers on March 7, 2014, when Bryant was out with an injury.
Photo: AP
Hood and the Jazz put the game away early with a 17-2 start. The second-year guard was five for five from the field for 14 first-quarter points. He had 30 at halftime, including eight three-pointers, but missed his career high for a game by two points.
THUNDER 119, RAPTORS 100
Russell Westbrook had 26 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds in his 16th triple-double of the season, while Kevin Durant scored 34 points as Oklahoma City beat Toronto for their eighth straight victory.
Westbrook has seven triple-doubles this month, the most in a month since Michael Jordan had seven in April 1989. He has the most in a season since Magic Johnson had 17 in 1988-1989.
Oklahoma City have the NBA’s longest current winning streak and the team’s longest since a 10-game run from Jan. 16 to Jan. 31, 2014.
DeMar DeRozan had 19 points and Norman Powell added 18 for the Raptors, who lost at home for just the fourth time this year.
SPURS 101, GRIZZLIES 87
LaMarcus Aldridge had 31 points and 13 rebounds to lead San Antonio over Memphis.
Aldridge connected on 11 of 16 shots and was nine of 11 from the line as San Antonio won, despite resting stars Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, who did not make the trip to Memphis.
Patty Mills finished with 17 points, while Kyle Anderson had 13 points and a career-best seven assists. Boris Diaw added 13 points.
Vince Carter led Memphis with 14 points, while JaMychal Green finished with 12. Matt Barnes had 11 points and nine rebounds for Memphis, who lost their third straight game.
San Antonio shot 51 percent from the field, while Memphis struggled at 40 percent.
HEAT 110, NETS 99
Dwyane Wade had 30 points and nine assists, while Hassan Whiteside scored a career-high 27 points off the bench as Miami pulled away to beat Brooklyn.
Josh Richardson finished with 16 points in a spot start, while Justise Winslow added 13 for Miami, who clamped down defensively in the second half.
Brook Lopez scored 26 points for Brooklyn, who had their streak of seven straight games with 100 or more points — the team’s longest in two years — come to an end. Thaddeus Young made his first 10 shots and scored 20 for the Nets, who got 14 from Sean Kilpatrick.
Wade has averaged 27.1 points in his past seven games against the Nets.
He shot 14 for 19 from the field on Monday, helping ensure that Joe Johnson’s first game against his former team was a winning one.
MAVERICKS 97, NUGGETS 88
Reserve J.J. Barea scored 18 points and had 11 assists to help short-handed Dallas halt a three-game skid with a win over Denver.
Dwight Powell had 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter as Dallas moved into a virtual tie with Houston for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
It was a much-needed win for the Mavericks in a month that has not been friendly to them. They are 4-10 and have gone from five games over .500 on March 1 to two games below.
The Mavericks had seven players score in double figures, including all of their starters.
Will Barton had 23 points for the Nuggets, who finished with 21 turnovers. The Mavericks turned it over just three times.
In other games, it was:
‧ Timberwolves 121, Suns 116
‧ Pelicans 99, Knicks 91
‧ Clippers 114, Celtics 90
‧ Trail Blazers 105, Kings 93
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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
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