Cleveland’s LeBron James had 25 points and 11 assists in a strong second-half performance that guided the Cavaliers to a 105-91 home victory over NBA Southwest Conference leaders Memphis on Sunday.
James netted 16 of his points in the second, while Dion Waiters scored 13 points in the fourth for a total of 21 as the Cavaliers shot a season-best 61 percent from the field.
Marc Gasol had 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Grizzlies.
The Cavaliers have won eight of their past nine home games to move within one game of Chicago for the Central Division lead.
Washington missed a chance to build a lead in the Southeast when they lost 104-92 at home against Phoenix to snap a six-game winning streak.
Eric Bledsoe and Markieff Morris each scored 17 points for the Suns, who completed a perfect three-game road trip, having lost their previous six.
Rasual Butler’s 17 points led the Wizards, who dropped into a tie with Atlanta atop the Southeast.
Meanwhile, New Orleans took a tight victory at Oklahoma City, with Anthony Davis scoring 38 points to lead the Pelicans to a 101-99 win.
It was the third-highest point total of Davis’ career. He made 16 of 22 shots and had 12 rebounds.
Jrue Holiday had 11 points and matched a career high with 15 assists for the Pelicans.
Russell Westbrook scored 29 points for the Thunder, but he missed a three-pointer that could have given Oklahoma City the lead in the closing seconds.
Elsewhere, Toronto downed New York to open a 10-game lead in the Atlantic Division and push its winning streak to six with a 118-108 home win.
Lou Williams and Kyle Lowry each scored 22 points for the Raptors, who led from start to finish and are already a yawning 18 games above the Knicks in the division, having only played 28 games.
Carmelo Anthony scored 28 points for New York, who have lost 15 of their past 16 games.
In Miami, the Heat ended a run of five successive home-court defeats by downing Boston 100-84.
Luol Deng had 23 points and James Ennis scored 10 of his 16 in the fourth quarter for the Heat, who for the first time in 154 games played without any of their former Big Three: Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were injured and James now plays for Cleveland.
Tyler Zeller scored 22 points for the Celtics, who had won their previous three games.
Also on Sunday it was:
‧ Kings 108, Lakers 101
‧ Nets 110, Pistons 105
‧ Pacers 100, Timberwolves 96
‧ 76ers 96, Magic 88
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
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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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