Russell Westbrook on Wednesday night recorded his 35th triple-double of the season with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists as the Oklahoma City Thunder cruised to a 122-97 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Westbrook, who made all six of his field-goal attempts and all six of his free throws, has recorded five triple-doubles against Philadelphia, his highest total against any NBA team.
He needs six triple-doubles in Oklahoma City’s final 11 games to tie Oscar Robertson’s single-season record, set during the 1961-1962 season.
Nik Stauskas led the 76ers with 20 points, reaching the 20-point mark in consecutive games for the first time in his career.
BULLS 117, PISTONS 95
In Chicago, Nikola Mirotic recorded a season-high 28 points as Chicago beat Detroit.
Mirotic shot 12 of 15 and made four of six three-point attempts to lead Chicago to an easy win after dropping eight of 10.
Jimmy Butler added 16 points and 12 assists.
Joffrey Lauvergne filled in for suspended center Robin Lopez and outplayed Andre Drummond with 17 points and seven rebounds, while rookie Paul Zipser added a career-high 15 points.
NUGGETS 126, CAVALIERS 113
In Denver, Colorado, Wilson Chandler scored 18 points in his return from a pulled groin and provided stellar defense on LeBron James in Denver’s victory over Cleveland.
The Nuggets bounced back from consecutive heartbreaking last-second losses to Houston with a signature win that increased their lead to one-and-a-half games over idle Portland in the race for the final playoff spot in the West.
Will Barton scored 20 points, Kenneth Faried added 17 and Jamal Murray had 15 off the bench for Denver, who also got 21 points from Gary Harris and 16 from Nikola Jokic.
In other results, it was:
‧ Celtics 109, Pacers 100
‧ Hornets 109, Magic 102
‧ Wizards 104, Hawks 100
‧ Bucks 116, Kings 98
‧ Jazz 108, Knicks 101
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