Jeff Green scored 23 points, while Mike Conley added 21 with nine assists to lead the Memphis Grizzlies to a 97-86 victory over the struggling Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night.
Zach Randolph added 17 points for Memphis, who won their second straight. Marc Gasol scored 13 points, while Tony Allen finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Damian Lillard led the Trail Blazers with 27 points and seven assists. LaMarcus Aldridge scored 16 points, but did not play in the second half because of an injury to his left hand. C.J. McCollum finished with 13 points and Dorell Wright scored 10.
The Trail Blazers also played the second half without starting forward Nicolas Batum, who was sidelined with lower back pain. The team said X-rays on Aldridge’s hand were negative.
The loss was the season-worst fourth straight for Portland, who were creeping up the Western Conference standings a week ago.
The defeat dropped the Trail Blazers four games behind the Grizzlies for the second playoff seed in the West.
SUNS 117, ROCKETS 102
Eric Bledsoe scored a career-high 34 points as Phoenix withstood a fourth-quarter charge by Houston.
Bledsoe scored 23 by half-time and surpassed his previous career best of 33 points, set earlier this season, on a free-throw with about 1 minute remaining.
Phoenix led by 15 early in the fourth quarter when Houston used a 14-4 run to cut it to 105-100 with 5 minutes left.
Neither team had scored for about two-and-a-half minutes when P.J. Tucker made a three-pointer that started a 12-0 spurt by the Suns that secured the victory.
Donatas Motiejunas scored 18 points for the Rockets and James Harden added 16 after his career-high 50 in Thursday’s win over Denver.
Phoenix’s victory snapped a three-game winning streak for Houston and allowed the Suns to avoid a season sweep by the Rockets.
NETS 123, PACERS 111
Brook Lopez had 26 points and four blocked shots to lead Brooklyn over slumping Indiana.
Bojan Bogdanovic added 21 points and five rebounds off the bench, while Deron Williams scored 17 for the Nets, who have won four of five.
George Hill had 18 points and nine assists for the Pacers (30-39), who lost their fifth straight.
Brooklyn pulled away for good when Joe Johnson converted a three-point play and Bogdanovic made a three-pointer to put the Nets ahead 109-100 with 4 minutes remaining.
A win for the Pacers would have put them in sole possession of eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Instead, the Nets (29-39) closed the gap in a crowded race for the final playoff spot.
In other results, it was:
‧ Pistons 107, Bulls 91
‧ Warriors 106, Jazz 91
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
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