Blake Griffin scored 23 points, Chris Paul had 23 points and 11 assists and the Los Angeles Clippers put a crimp in the New Orleans Pelicans’ playoff hopes with a 107-100 victory on Sunday.
J.J. Redick scored 20 points and DeAndre Jordan finished with 16 rebounds and 12 points, helping the Clippers win their fourth in a row. They converted 18 Pelicans turnovers into 30 points and had a 25-6 advantage on second-chance points.
Anthony Davis led New Orleans with 26 points and 12 rebounds in 39 minutes after missing two games with a sprained left ankle. Tyreke Evans was sidelined due to the same injury and was replaced in the starting lineup by Norris Cole, who had 12 points before fouling out in the final minutes.
THUNDER 93, HEAT 75
In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Russell Westbrook had 12 points, 10 rebounds and 17 assists for his 10th triple-double of the season to lead Oklahoma City.
Enes Kanter had 27 points and 12 rebounds for the Thunder, who have won three in a row. Rookie Mitch McGary scored 14 points and Anthony Morrow had 12.
Kanter was expected to miss his second straight game with an ankle injury. However, he was cleared to play after morning shootaround, and then got off to a fast start with 15 points in the first quarter.
The Heat had five players score in double figures. Hassan Whiteside had 13 points, all in the first half, and Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers each scored 12.
RAPTORS 106, KNICKS 89
In Toronto, DeMar DeRozan scored 23 points, Tyler Hansbrough added a season-high 18 and the Toronto Raptors won for the third time in four games.
Jonas Valanciunas had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Lou Williams scored 13 and Greivis Vasquez had 12.
Lance Thomas scored 24 points and former Raptor Andrea Bargnani had 16 for the Knicks, who dropped their third straight and lost for the 10th time in 12 games.
Toronto point guard Kyle Lowry, who dressed but did not play in Friday’s loss at Chicago, was inactive due to a sore back suffered in a fall against Minnesota on Wednesday last week. Vasquez made his second straight start in Lowry’s place.
New York guard Alexey Shved, who came in averaging 22 points in his previous three games, suffered bruised ribs in a collision with Toronto’s James Johnson in the first half and was unable to return. Shane Larkin replaced Shved to start the third quarter. Shved finished with nine points in 17 minutes.
The Knicks also lost rookie Travis Wear to a sore back in the fourth.
HORNETS 109, TIMBERWOLVES 98
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mo Williams scored 24 points, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Al Jefferson each added 18 and Charlotte moved into eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
Gerald Henderson added 17 points for the Hornets, who snapped a three-game skid.
Gorgui Dieng led Minnesota with 16 points and Kevin Martin had 15 points and nine assists.
His team down by 13 in the first half, Williams provided a spark off the bench with his smooth shooting, just as he did in many of his 41 games with the Timberwolves this season.
Williams shot 10 for 16 from the floor in his first game at Target Center since the Wolves traded him to Charlotte on Feb. 10.
In other results, it was:
‧ Spurs 114, Hawks 95
‧ Cavaliers 108, Bucks 90
‧ Suns 98, Mavericks 92
‧ Nuggets 119, Magic 100
‧ Kings 109, Wizards 86
‧ Lakers 101, 76ers 87
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
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