Anthony Davis had 25 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots as the New Orleans Pelicans pulled away from the reeling Los Angeles Lakers for a 109-102 victory on Wednesday night.
Tyreke Evans had 19 points and 11 assists for New Orleans. Ryan Anderson and Jrue Holiday each added 17 points.
Kobe Bryant scored 33 on 10-of-28 shooting, one night after setting the NBA record for most missed field goals in a career.
Carlos Boozer had 16 points and Jeremy Lin 15 for the Lakers, who dropped to 1-7.
The Lakers were as close as 63-60 in the middle of the third quarter, but the Pelicans closed the period on a 22-12 run that included nine points from Holiday.
New Orleans outscored Los Angeles 60-34 in the paint and shot 54.9 percent compared to 41.7 percent for the Lakers.
TRAIL BLAZERS 130, NUGGETS 113
In Denver, Damian Lillard had 27 points and a season-high nine assists as Portland used a huge first half to hand skidding Denver their sixth straight defeat.
The Trail Blazers led 84-50 at halftime, one basket from matching the team record for points in a half (86) set against Golden State on Jan. 5, 1986.
Portland showed no signs of fatigue, despite expending plenty of energy the night before in coming back from a 23-point deficit to hold off Charlotte at the buzzer.
Robin Lopez scored 15 of his 19 points in the decisive first half. LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 12.
Ty Lawson had 32 points for the Nuggets, who went on a 15-0 run in the third quarter and still trailed by 21.
ROCKETS 113, TIMBERWOLVES 101
In Mexico City, Mexico, Dwight Howard had 22 points and 10 rebounds, while James Harden scored 23 points and added 10 assists as Houston beat Minnesota in the NBA’s first regular-season game to be played south of the US border since 1997.
Howard, who missed the Rockets’ only loss of the season on Saturday against Golden State, came back strong. He was nine-of-16 from the field and blocked four shots in 33 minutes.
Trevor Ariza had 19 points and Kostas Papanikolau scored a career-high 14 for the Rockets (7-1), who tied Memphis for the best record in the Western Conference.
With point guard Ricky Rubio sidelined indefinitely after spraining his left ankle on Friday last week, the Timberwolves lost their third in a row. Corey Brewer scored 18 points for Minnesota.
The teams played without a problem nearly a year after a game between the San Antonio Spurs and Timberwolves was canceled because a short circuit in a generator room sent smoke and fumes inside the Mexico City Arena during warmups.
PACERS 81, HEAT 75
In Miami, Chris Copeland scored 17 points and put Indiana ahead to stay on a layup with 43 seconds left, while Roy Hibbert had 16 points and 15 rebounds to help the undermanned Pacers beat Miami.
Donald Sloan added 15 points for Indiana, who have won two straight after a 1-6 start.
Dwyane Wade scored 20 for Miami, who trailed by seven in the fourth quarter before tying the game twice, but never recapturing the lead.
The Pacers outrebounded Miami 53-28, and the Heat missed 10 of 18 free throws. Chris Bosh was held to a season-low nine points on three-for-13 shooting.
Miami had three late shots at the lead, but a jumper by Luol Deng missed, Hibbert blocked a dunk attempt by Deng, and Bosh airballed a three-pointer.
Indiana were missing six players, including four-fifths of their starting lineup from the last Pacers-Heat meeting — that being Game 6 of last season’s Eastern Conference finals. Hibbert was the lone returning first-stringer from that rivalry.
In other NBA action, it was:
‧ Wizards 107, Pistons 103
‧ Thunder 109, Celtics 94
‧ Magic 97, Knicks 95
‧ Hawks 100, Jazz 97
‧ Suns 112, Nets 104
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Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
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