The San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday dominated Toronto 110-82, handing the Raptors their worst defeat of the NBA season in a clash of elite teams.
Kawhi Leonard scored 25 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 23 as the Spurs, second in the Western Conference behind Golden State, raced to a big first-quarter lead that they would not relinquish.
Firing on all cylinders on their home floor, the Spurs led by 30 points going into the fourth quarter, which starters Leonard, Aldridge, Tony Parker and Pau Gasol all sat out.
The Spurs, who fell in overtime to Atlanta on Sunday, are now 6-1 this season in games after a defeat.
Parker added 15 points and his eight assists matched the total produced by the Raptors.
The Spurs had 32 assists, along with a season-high in blocked shots with 15.
Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan led all scorers with 26 points.
Terrance Ross poured in 17, Cory Joseph added 11 points and DeMarre Carroll hit for 10 for the Raptors, who are second in the East behind the Cleveland Cavaliers, but were showing signs of fatigue in the final game of a 13-day, six-game road trip.
It was a different story in Philadelphia, where Robert Covington laid in an inbounds lob from Dario Saric with two-tenths of a second remaining in the 76ers’ 93-91 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Philadelphia notched their second straight victory, but not before the Timberwolves erased a 26-point third-quarter deficit, knotting the score at 91-91 on Ricky Rubio’s three-pointer with 1.6 seconds left.
The Phoenix Suns beat Miami for the first time since Nov. 3, 2009, their 99-90 victory marking a sixth straight defeat for the reeling Heat.
In Detroit, Michigan, Paul George scored 32 points as the Indiana Pacers matched their season high in a 121-116 victory over the Pistons.
In Denver, Colorado, Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins scored a game-high 31 points to go with six rebounds and six assists in a 120-113 victory over the Nuggets.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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