Manu Ginobili scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, as the San Antonio Spurs pulled away following the late ejection of Ben Wallace to defeat the Detroit Pistons 84-75 Thursday.
"I would rather be in the locker room than playing in a ... game like that," Wallace said afterward.
Detroit trailed 71-64 when Wallace was called for a loose ball foul with 6:07 remaining. Referee Steve Javie ejected Wallace for heatedly complaining.
Malik Rose hit the technical free throw and Hedo Turkoglu followed with a 3-pointer as part of a 6-0 run that put the Spurs ahead by 13. A basket by Tony Parker with 3:55 remaining completed an 18-4 run and gave San Antonio an 82-66 lead.
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said playing the Pistons was tough, given that he learned how to coach from Detroit's Larry Brown.
"It's like playing ourselves," said Popovich, who was an assistant in San Antonio under Brown for three-plus seasons. "We do a lot of the same things. We like the same kind of players."
The win pulled the Spurs within two games of Midwest Division leader Minnesota with 10 games remaining for both teams.
Hawks 84, Hornets 76
In Atlanta, Bob Sura had 23 points and a career-high 15 rebounds as Atlanta took advantage of the absence of Baron Davis to defeat New Orleans.
Davis, who leads the team with an average of 23.0 points, had a sprained left ankle. His status for Friday's home game against Phoenix was uncertain.
Chris Crawford and Jason Collier each scored 16 points for the Hawks, who limited New Orleans to 30 second-half points.
The Hornets shot just 4-for-24 from 3-point range, including 1-for-8 by Wesley and 2-for-10 by Armstrong.
New Orleans is fourth in the Eastern Conference standings but only 1 game ahead of fifth-place Milwaukee. When Davis missed six games with a similar ankle injury earlier this season, the Hornets went 2-4.
Wizards 103, Clippers 94
In Los Angeles, Larry Hughes scored 24 of his 30 points in the first half as Washington beat the Los Angeles Clippers to end a five-game road losing streak.
Hughes, playing his third game since coming off the injured list, shot 11-for-20 and tied a career high with 12 rebounds to help the Wizards win for only the third time in 13 games. It's the second straight season that they've swept the Clippers.
Jerry Stackhouse had 20 points and Steve Blake scored seven of his 17 points in the final 4:42.
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
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