Tony Parker scored 20 points and 14 assists as the NBA-leading San Antonio Spurs extended a miserable Christmas for the Washington Wizards 94-80 on Sunday night.
The Spurs improved to 24-6, rebounding from a 123-101 loss to Orlando on Thursday night that ended their winning streak at 11. The league leaders in three-point percentage, San Antonio shot 10 of 24 from long range.
Manu Ginobili scored 21 points and George Hill added 11 for the Spurs.
Rashard Lewis, acquired last week from Orlando, had 21 points for Washington, playing without suspended forwards Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee. They were suspended for one game for conduct detrimental to the team.
The Washington Post said Blatche and McGee were involved in an altercation outside a club early on Friday. The newspaper reported that two league sources said the players cursed at each other and exchanged punches. The Post reported another source said police were called to break up the fight.
CLIPPERS 108, SUNS 103
In Los Angeles, rookie Blake Griffin scored 28 points and 12 rebounds for his 18th straight double-double to help the Los Angeles Clippers beat Phoenix for the first time in 10 games.
Eric Gordon scored 24 points and Baron Davis had 15 points and nine assists. Newly acquired Mickael Pietrus had a season-high 25 points for Phoenix, while Steve Nash finished with 21 points and 15 assists.
BULLS 95, PISTONS 92, OT
In Auburn Hills, Michigan, Carlos Boozer had 31 points and 11 rebounds, while Derrick Rose added 23 points and a career-high 12 rebounds in Chicago’s overtime victory.
Detroit sent the game to overtime when Charlie Villanueva tipped home a missed shot with 0.6 seconds left. The Pistons missed three shots on the possession, but grabbed all three offensive rebounds.
Tayshaun Prince led Detroit with 17 points.
TIMBERWOLVES 98, CAVALIERS 97
In Cleveland, Ohio, Michael Beasley scored on a driving layup with 5.9 seconds left and finished with 28 points to help Minnesota end their seven-game losing streak.
Beasley scored after Antawn Jamison’s basket with 10.6 seconds left gave Cleveland the lead.
Luke Ridnour scored 23 points to help Minnesota improve to 7-24.
Kevin Love added 16, including 14 in the fourth quarter, and had 18 rebounds for his NBA-leading 26th double-double. Jamison led Cleveland with 24 points. The Cavaliers are 1-13 in their last 14 and 8-22 overall.
In other NBA action, it was:
‧ Hornets 93, Hawks 86
‧ Grizzlies 104, Pacers 90
‧ 76ers 95, Nuggets 89
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
RSS