Tim Duncan scored a season-high 34 points and grabbed 13 rebounds Thursday to lead the San Antonio Spurs to their fifth straight victory, 88-80 over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Allen Iverson scored 24, Kyle Korver had 17 and Corliss Williamson added 15 for the Sixers, who set a dubious team record by scoring just 6 points in the first quarter.
PHOTO: AFP
"It was a great game for us," Duncan said. "We played pretty good defense. They missed some shots and we gave ourselves a lead there. They did a hell of a job coming back, but we fought straight through."
Rasho Nesterovic had 16 points and 11 rebounds and Manu Ginobili scored 17 for San Antonio, which had lost four in a row in Philadelphia since winning on Nov. 22, 1999. The Spurs improved to 7-1, their best start since the 1991-1992 season.
"We didn't knock down shots available to us," Sixers coach Jim O'Brien said. "They did what they had to do ... They're a potential world champion"
Philadelphia finished its five-game homestand with two consecutive losses after winning the first three games.
Cavaliers 106, Bobcats 89
In Charlotte, North Carolina, LeBron James helped break the game open late in the second quarter by driving baseline for a windmill dunk as Cleveland downed Charlotte.
James' dunk was one of three crowd-pleasers among his 19 points.
It was the fifth consecutive victory for the Cavaliers and moved them two games over .500 for the first time since 1999 -- James' freshman year in high school.
Jeff McInnis scored 18 points for Cleveland, Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 16 and Newble scored 11.
Knicks 93, Rockets 92
In Houston, Jamal Crawford banked in a 3-pointer at the final buzzer to send New York past Houston for its first road win of the season. Crawford finished with 19 points, going 5-of-11 from the 3-point arc, and Kurt Thomas added 23 points and 14 rebounds to hand the Rockets their fourth loss in five games.
New York came back from an 11-point deficit to start the fourth quarter.
Tracy McGrady led the Rockets with 24 points and Yao Ming added 23 points and 11 rebounds.
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung on Sunday topped the men’s horizontal bar event at the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, scoring 15.233 to take his third title this season. Tang delivered an outstanding performance in the final, earning a difficulty score of 6.500 and an execution score of 8.633 with a 0.1 stick bonus. His closest competitor was Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, who finished second with 14.933 points. It was Tang’s third gold medal in the FIG World Cup series this year, following his horizontal bar wins in Azerbaijan on March 8, and in Turkey on March
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Ninad Malwade was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
OBJECTIVE REACHED: ’Now for us, it’s about getting healthy, making sure everybody is ready to go, and we can ramp up,’ the Atlanta Hawks’ C.J. McCollum said after the game The Atlanta Hawks on Friday secured an NBA playoff berth with a 124-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers as the Boston Celtics locked up the Eastern Conference second seed with a lopsided win of their own. C.J. McCollum scored a game-high 29 points for the Hawks, who came into the contest at sixth in the East and still in danger of falling into the play-in tournament that would see the seventh-through 10th-placed teams battle for the last two playoff berths in each conference. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson scored 18 points apiece, and Dyson Daniels added a triple-double of 13
RSS