DeMar DeRozan scored 26 points, while Kyle Lowry had 13 points and a season-high 14 assists as the resurgent Toronto Raptors extended their season-best winning streak to four games by beating the Indiana Pacers 95-82 in the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Wednesday.
Terrence Ross scored 18 points, and Jonas Valanciunas had 13 points and nine rebounds as the Raptors (15-15) ended Indiana’s five-game winning streak, and improved their record to .500 after 30 games for the first time since Jan. 6, 2010.
The Raptors have won eight of 10 games since Dec. 13, when the majority of the players acquired from Sacramento in the Rudy Gay trade made their Toronto debuts.
Photo: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY
Roy Hibbert fouled out with 16 points and Paul George had 12 for the Pacers, who recorded a season-worst 23 turnovers. Indiana had won nine of their previous 12 meetings with Toronto, including four straight in Canada.
In other games on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Clippers handed the Charlotte Bobcats their 17th straight road loss against Western Conference opponents in a 112-85 rout, the Philadelphia 76ers defeated the slumping Denver Nuggets 114-102, the Dallas Mavericks held off the Washington Wizards 87-78 and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the New Orleans Pelicans 124-112.
Blake Griffin scored 13 of his 31 points in the final 7 minutes, 5 seconds and Jared Dudley got 11 of his 20 points in the third quarter for the Pacific Division-leading Clippers.
Dudley faced his second former team in two games, making seven of 10 shots against the club that selected him with their first pick in the 2007 NBA draft and traded him to Phoenix after one season. He had nine points against the Suns on Monday in the Clippers’ 107-88 loss.
Chris Paul had 17 points and 14 assists for the Clippers, who beat the Bobcats for the sixth straight time.
Philadelphia’s Evan Turner scored 23 points and Thaddeus Young added 17 to lead seven different 76ers players in double figures.
The 76ers won their second straight game away from home, days after beating the Los Angeles Lakers to halt a 13-game road losing streak.
J.J. Hickson had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Nuggets, who dropped their eighth game in a row. It is the team’s longest skid since losing the final eight games of the 2002-2003 season.
Washington (14-15), meanwhile, failed in their attempt to rise above .500 for the first time since Oct. 31, 2009.
The Wizards led 74-70 with 4:58 to play, but the Mavericks scored nine straight points on a three-pointer by Vince Carter, a hook shoot by Brandan Wright, two free throws by Carter and a jumper by Monta Ellis.
Washington did not score again until John Wall, who led the Wizards with 22 points, made two free-throws with 46 seconds to play.
Ellis finished with 23 points and Carter had 13.
Minnesota shot 55.7 percent and forced a season-high 18 turnovers from the Pelicans to cruise to victory.
Nikola Pekovic had 22 points and seven rebounds, Kevin Love had 21 points and six rebounds, and Ricky Rubio had 14 points, nine assists, eight rebounds and three steals for the Timberwolves (16-16), who needed a win over New Orleans (14-16) in the jockeying for position in the tough Western Conference.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
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