Luol Deng scored 17 points and added nine rebounds as the Chicago Bulls used a balanced scoring attack to beat the San Antonio Spurs 92-85 in their season opener on Thursday.
Derrick Rose finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Bulls, who lost to the Boston Celtics in a hard-fought seven-game first round playoff series last year.
Tyrus Thomas also scored 13 points, while Kirk Hinrich added 14 points off the bench. Joakim Noah had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Bulls.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Tim Duncan scored a game-high 28 points and 16 rebounds for the Spurs who had only one other player in double figures. Manu Ginobili scored 12 points and had six rebounds for San Antonio, who opened the season on Wednesday with a victory over New Orleans.
■BLAZERS V NUGGETS
REUTERS, PORTLAND, OREGON
Carmelo Anthony scored 41 points and 19 in the decisive fourth quarter to propel the Denver Nuggets past the Portland Trail Blazers 97-94 on Thursday.
Anthony made two free throws with less than two seconds remaining after Portland fluffed a series of free throws to surrender an 85-80 lead with five minutes remaining.
Center Greg Oden had a chance to snatch victory for Portland when sent to the foul line with four seconds left and his team down by a point, but missed both attempts.
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Chris Wood has fired Nottingham Forest into surprise UEFA Champions League contention and now the striker wants to score the goals to help New Zealand make history at the FIFA World Cup. New Zealand are strong favorites to qualify out of the Oceania region over the next week and reach the World Cup for only the third time. At the country’s two previous appearances at the finals, in 1982 and 2010, they have failed to win a match in six attempts. With Wood captaining the side and leading from the front, he told local media yesterday that the current squad can finally deliver
Paolo Banchero on Sunday scored 24 points as the Orlando Magic overturned a 13-point deficit to end the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game unbeaten streak with a gutsy 108-103 road victory. Cleveland, the runaway Eastern Conference leaders, had looked poised to extend their franchise-record winning run after surging clear of Orlando early in the third quarter, but after a season where they have staged hefty winning comebacks of their own, the tables turned on Cleveland in the face of a furious burst of Orlando scoring. The Magic outscored Cleveland 35-23 in the third quarter, with Franz Wagner leading the charge with nine points and
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