James Harden on Thursday scored 38 points to lead the Houston Rockets to a 112-85 victory over the Denver Nuggets in a battle of Western Conference contenders.
Reigning MVP Harden added six rebounds and six assists in 32 minutes on the floor, as the Rockets blew past a Nuggets team boasting the second-best record in the West behind the Golden State Warriors.
“I think it’s important for our confidence, our rhythm, our chemistry,” said Rockets center Clint Capela, who added 17 points and 15 rebounds. “We did a good job tonight to keep them under 25 points a quarter.”
Photo: AP
Eric Gordon added 18 points and Austin Rivers chipped in 15 for the Rockets, who out-scored the Nuggets 40-19 in the second quarter to seize control of the contest.
Elsewhere, the Utah Jazz’s playoff berth was confirmed thanks to the Sacramento Kings’ 121-118 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.
The playoff-bound Toronto Raptors encountered little resistance from the Knicks in a 117-92 victory in New York.
Forward Pascal Siakam led the Raptors with 31 points as Toronto improved to 53-23 — second in the East behind the Milwaukee Bucks, who improved to 57-19 with a 128-118 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
However, the Bucks got a jolt as MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo hit the floor and grabbed his right ankle after a fourth-quarter dunk and departed the contest.
He missed two games last week after spraining the same ankle in a game against Philadelphia, but said he wants to try to play through into the playoffs.
“I’m definitely working on it, trying to get it healthy, stronger,” Antetokounmpo said. “Usually when you sprain your ankle, you stay out for two, three, four games, but I don’t like missing games. I’ve got to work through it while playing.”
The Philadelphia 76ers strengthened their hold on the third seed in the East with a 123-110 victory over Brooklyn that saw the Nets slip a notch to seventh — the penultimate playoff spot.
Joel Embiid scored 39 points, pulled down 13 rebounds and handed out six assists.
The Detroit Pistons found themselves in sixth in the East after a valuable 115-98 victory over the Orlando Magic — who dropped out of a playoff spot into ninth place with the defeat coupled with the Miami Heat’s 105-99 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
The Heat, coming off a loss to Orlando on Tuesday, got themselves back in playoff position at No. 8 with a 105-99 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
Goran Dragic marked his return to Miami’s starting lineup with a triple-double of 23 points, 11 assists and 12 rebounds.
It was the Slovenian guard’s first triple-double with the Heat and his first since he was with the Houston Rockets in 2010-2011.
It gave him bragging rights over the Mavericks’ Slovenian rookie sensation Luka Doncic, who finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
It was a first NBA clash between the two players who teamed up to lead Slovenia to the 2017 Euro Basket title.
The game also saw the 35th and final meeting between two iconic players — Miami’s Dwyane Wade and the Mavs’ Dirk Nowitzki.
Wade has announced this is his final season, while Nowitzki seems to still be nursing thoughts of returning for a 22nd campaign.
Although the Mavs have struggled on the road, they led 29-26 after one quarter and 59-49 at halftime.
The Heat knotted the score at 62-62 early in the third, but Dallas edged ahead 82-75 going into the final frame before Miami managed to seal the win.
“He looks like he’s got a couple years left,” Nowitzki said of Wade. “He can still take games over, he’s making good decisions with the ball, he’s still athletic enough to get by people, so to me he looks great.”
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