Monta Ellis tallied 21 points and Shawn Marion scored 20 as the Dallas Mavericks routed the error-prone San Antonio Spurs 113-92 to level their opening-round NBA playoff series at 1-1 on Wednesday.
Dallas took advantage of some sloppy play by the Spurs and could easily be ahead 2-0 in the Western Conference series. They led by double digits in the fourth quarter of the first game, but ended up losing 90-85.
San Antonio turned the ball over 24 times on Wednesday, leading to 33 Dallas points.
“That’s the been the weak link for us throughout the year and it showed up tonight,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
In the other Western Conference contest on Wednesday, LaMarcus Aldridge scored 40-plus points for the second game in a row as the Portland Trail Blazers beat hosts the Houston Rockets 112-105 to seize a commanding 2-0 series lead.
Dallas snapped a 10-game losing streak against the Spurs and posted their first post-season victory since June 12, 2011, when they beat the Miami Heat to win the NBA championship.
Dirk Nowitzki finished with 16 points, while teammate Devin Harris scored 18. Jose Calderon scored all 12 of his points in the third quarter.
“I like our intensity right now,” Nowitzki said. “We can’t take the foot off the gas.”
Manu Ginobili finished with 27 points off the bench for San Antonio, while Tony Parker had 12 points and Tim Duncan 11 and seven boards.
Dallas host Game 3 of the best-of-seven series tomorrow.
“They are such a dangerous team and have such great players,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said of the Spurs. “We are mixing things up a lot and doing things we frankly don’t want to do. It’s a monumental task, but we’re in this thing to win. We can’t let up. Going back home, this is where he have to avoid any letup.”
Aldridge scored a Portland playoff record 46 points in Sunday’s overtime win, then scored 43 on 18-of-28 shooting on Wednesday at the Toyota Center.
“These two games are as well as I’ve seen him play. He’s very determined and focused,” Blazers head coach Terry Stotts said of Aldridge.
Damian Lillard tallied 18 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds for the Blazers, whose bench outscored Houston’s reserves 30-13.
Dwight Howard led Houston with 32 points and 14 rebounds, but was limited to seven points after halftime. James Harden netted 18 points, but needed 19 shots to get there. Through the first two games, Harden has shot just 29.8 percent from the field.
Taiwanese badminton player Lin Chun-yi had to settle for silver in the men’s singles at the Orleans Masters in France on Sunday after losing in the final to his French opponent. The 25-year-old Lin, ranked world No. 14, lost to Alex Lanier 13-21, 18-21 in a match that lasted 42 minutes at the Palais des Sports arena. It was the first time that the two players were facing each other in their professional careers. In the opener, Lin was slow to warm up, which gave the 20-year-old Lanier an opportunity to take an early lead with seven consecutive points. Despite
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi on Wednesday inflicted a first-round defeat on former badminton world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the All England Open. Lin came out of top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second, but the Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory. “If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me,” said Axelsen, the world No. 4. “Today’s opponent played a fantastic game; it was disappointing, but that is how it is.” “I just tried
Two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek on Thursday avenged her shock Paris Olympics loss to Zheng Qinwen with a 6-3, 6-3 win over the Chinese eighth seed, setting up a semi-final against 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the California desert. In the men’s singles, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz put on a show with his acrobatic shotmaking under the lights to close out the day’s action, overcoming a 4-1 second-set deficit to defeat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the women’s doubles. Swiatek, one of the gold medal favorites when she lost to eventual champion Zheng in the
RSS