The Dallas Mavericks lost Dirk Nowitzki to a knee injury in the second quarter, but still did enough to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 103-93 on Monday night for their 17th victory in 18 games.
Nowitzki, from Germany, scored 13 points before leaving in the second quarter with what the Mavericks said was a sore right knee.
Shawn Marion led the effort to replace him, scoring 20 points off the bench.
Dallas improved to 11-1 on the road this season, best in the NBA, and 24-5 overall.
Kevin Durant scored 28 points, one game after a season-high 44 points on Christmas Day against Denver. James Harden had 18 for the Thunder.
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle also missed the game due to a knee injury.
HAWKS 95, BUCKS 80
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Al Horford had 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Joe Johnson added another 15 points as the Hawks beat the Bucks.
The Hawks (20-13) were back in Milwaukee for the first time since winning a pivotal Game 6 in the first round of the playoffs last year to send the series back to Atlanta where they won to advance.
They were impressive once again, opening a double-digit lead in the first quarter and shooting 50.7 percent from the field for the game.
John Salmons scored 18 for the Bucks, who struggled in their first home game after a successful Western Conference trip.
MAGIC 104, NETS 88
In Newark, New Jersey, Dwight Howard had 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Magic to their third straight win with a victory over the Nets.
Hedo Turkoglu scored 20 points as the Magic had six players in double figures in beating the Nets for the third time in three meetings this season.
Orlando hit a dozen three pointers and shot 49 percent from the field, despite the team showing up less than 90 minutes before the game because one of its buses got stuck in a snow drift on the way to the venue.
Devin Harris scored 24 points to lead New Jersey, who lost for the eighth time in 11 games.
GRIZZLIES 96, RAPTORS 85
In Memphis, Tennessee, Zach Randolph scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half as the Grizzlies woke up from a slow start to beat the Raptors.
Tony Allen had 14 points and a season-high six steals, part of 15 Memphis steals on the night. Allen also had eight rebounds, also a season high.
Linas Kleiza led the short-handed Raptors with 22 points on 10-of-16 shooting. DeMar DeRozan finished with 18 points.
BOBCATS 105, PISTONS 100
In Charlotte, North Carolina, D.J. Augustin scored 27 points and Stephen Jackson added 23 as the new-look Bobcats held on to beat the Pistons to give interim coach Paul Silas a victory on his debut.
With Silas using new combinations and forcing the pace after replacing the fired Larry Brown just last week, the Bobcats built a 23-point lead and then nearly wasted it.
Ben Gordon missed two tying three-point attempts in the closing seconds, before Tyrus Thomas’ two free throws with one second left finally put it away for the Bobcats, ending a four-game losing streak.
Charlie Villanueva scored 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting for the Pistons.
In other NBA action, it was:
‧ Timberwolves 113, Hornets 98
‧ Trail Blazers 96, Jazz 91
‧ Rockets 100, Wizards 93
‧ Clippers 100, Kings 99
‧ Warriors 110, 76ers 95
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,
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