The Indiana Pacers remained the NBA’s only unbeaten team this season after Paul George scored 23 points and Lance Stephenson had the first triple-double of his career in a 95-79 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday.
Indiana became the NBA’s seventh team to open the season with eight wins and no losses since 2000 — two more wins than the club’s previous best start — and they followed a familiar script in the battle between last season’s conference runner-ups by dominating the glass, dominating the second half and divvying up top honors.
Stephenson finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high 12 assists. George Hill scored 13 points and Roy Hibbert added five more blocks to his NBA-leading total.
Memphis were led by Marc Gasol with 15 points and Zach Randolph with 12.
The San Antonio Spurs rolled to an easy 109-85 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers as Danny Green scored 18 points and Tony Parker had 14.
The defending Western Conference champions are off to a 7-1 start following consecutive wins in New York and Philadelphia.
Evan Turner scored 20 points and Spencer Hawes had 17 for the Sixers, who could not give coach Brett Brown a better effort in his first game against his former team.
Atlanta’s Al Horford scored 24 points as the Hawks handed Charlotte Bobcats coach Steve Clifford a 103-94 loss in his first game back since undergoing a heart procedure.
Jeff Teague had 14 points and 12 assists, while Cartier Martin chipped in with 16 points.
Josh McRoberts led the Bobcats with 19 points and seven assists. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 16 points, but none in the second half.
Al Jefferson had 10 points and seven rebounds in his first game back from an ankle injury.
In Boston, Avery Bradley scored 24 points as the Celtics beat the Orlando Magic for the second time in four days with a 120-105 win.
Kelly Olynyk, Jordan Crawford and Jeff Green each had 16 points for Boston, who have won four straight after opening the season with four losses under first-year coach Brad Stevens.
Arron Afflalo had 18 points and seven assists, Victor Oladipo scored 17 points, while Nikola Vucevic had 15 points and 10 boards for Orlando, who dropped their 16th straight road game.
Blake Griffin had 25 points and 10 rebounds for the Clippers and Chris Paul added 21 points as Los Angeles held off the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-107 after Nikola Pekovic missed a tip-in at the buzzer.
Love missed first and Pekovic came up just short to end the Wolves’ two-game winning streak.
Paul had 11 assists, Jamal Crawford scored 18 points, while DeAndre Jordan had 14 points and 11 rebounds to help the Clippers improve to 3-0 at home.
Kevin Martin scored 30 points, Pekovic had 25 points, while Love had 23 points and 19 rebounds for the Wolves.
In Monday’s other games, Chicago’s Derrick Rose had 16 points before leaving in the fourth quarter with an apparent injury as the Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 96-81, the Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Detroit Pistons 109-103 and the Denver Nuggets downed the Utah Jazz 100-81.
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
RSS