The Phoenix Suns improved to a perfect 9-0 home record with a 116-104 win over the San Antonio Spurs in Tuesday’s NBA action.
Amare Stoudemire had 28 points and 14 rebounds and reserve Goran Dragic contributed a career-high 18 points.
The Suns made 11 of 16 3-point attempts, while shooting 52 percent from the field.
Tim Duncan had a season-high 34 points and 14 rebounds for San Antonio.
LAKERS 96, BULLS 87
In Chicago, Kobe Bryant scored a season-high 42 points as Los Angeles won for the 12th time in 13 games, beating fading Chicago.
Down by a point entering the last quarter, the Lakers pulled away and sent Chicago to its 11th loss in 13 games.
Bryant, playing with a splint on his broken right index finger, scored 20 points in the first quarter alone.
Andrew Bynum added 11 points for the Lakers.
Luol Deng scored 21 for Chicago, as did Derrick Rose even though he sustained a rib injury in the first quarter.
ROCKETS 107, PISTONS 96
In Houston, Luis Scola and Aaron Brooks scored 23 points apiece as Houston snapped Detroit’s five-game winning streak.
The Rockets shot a season-high 54.7 percent (41 of 75) from the field.
Houston’s seven-time All-Star Tracy McGrady made his first appearance of the season, coming back from knee surgery.
In a cameo, McGrady sank a 3-pointer in the first quarter before sitting out the remaining three quarters.
Richard Hamilton scored 21 for the Pistons.
TRAIL BLAZERS 95, KINGS 88
In Portland, Oregon, LaMarcus Aldridge hit the go-ahead layup despite a bad ankle as Portland downed Sacramento.
Aldridge finished with 25 points and nine rebounds. He pulled the Blazers to 81-81 midway through the final quarter with an alley-oop layup.
Aldridge’s layup put Portland ahead 86-85 with three minutes left, and he hit another layup and added a free throw to give the hosts a four-point cushion with 1:37 left.
Tyreke Evans had 19 points for the Kings, who lost their seventh straight on the road.
HEAT 115, RAPTORS 95
In Miami, the hosts won a home game for the first time in more than three weeks, comfortably beating Toronto.
Michael Beasley tied his career high with 28 points and Dwyane Wade added 19 while sitting out the entire fourth quarter.
Beasley added 11 rebounds for the Heat, who snapped a four-game home slide.
Chris Bosh scored 28 points on 9-of-13 shooting for Toronto, but grabbed only two rebounds in 32 minutes.
In other NBA action it was:
• Cavaliers 99, Nets 89
• Bobcats 94, Knicks 87
‘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
RSS