Stephen Curry had 39 points, eight rebounds and nine assists and Golden State cruised to 109-98 victory over New Orleans on Saturday night, completing a sweep of their first-round playoff series.
Klay Thompson added 25 points for the Warriors, the NBA’s top overall seed, who will wait to host Game 1 of their second-round series against the winner of the Portland-Memphis matchup.
Draymond Green added 22 points and 10 rebounds for Golden State, who led 67-54 at halftime and widened the gap to as many as 24 points in the second half before the Pelicans briefly cut the deficit to single digits in the final minutes.
Anthony Davis had 36 points and 11 rebounds for the Pelicans and Eric Gordon had 29 points.
Golden State shot 50.6 percent from the field, including 13 of 24 from three-point range. Curry was six of eight from deep, while Thompson was four of seven and Green three of six.
BUCKS 92, BULLS 90
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jerryd Bayless made a layup at the buzzer off an inbounds pass, lifting Milwaukee over Chicago, drawing the Bucks within 3-1 in their Eastern Conference playoff series.
With 1.3 seconds left, Jared Dudley threw a high-arcing pass toward the basket from side court. Bayless caught the ball and quickly threw up the layup for the game-winning basket.
Bulls guard Derrick Rose walked away in frustration after trying to guard Bayless. The Bucks won their first playoff game in five years.
Chicago had a chance to win with the game tied at 90, but Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton tipped a dribble away from Rose to force a steal. Bucks coach Jason Kidd called a timeout to set up the final play.
Game 5 is today in Chicago.
Jimmy Butler had a playoff -career-high 33 points for the Bulls. Rose finished with 14 points, while Pau Gasol had 16 points and 10 rebounds.
O.J. Mayo finished with 18 points, including a three-pointer with 1 minute, 42 seconds left, while Dudley had 13 points and five assists while Bayless had 10 points.
NETS 91, HAWKS 83
In New York, Brook Lopez had 22 points and 13 rebounds, while Thaddeus Young added 18 points and 11 rebounds as Brooklyn cut Atlanta’s lead to 2-1 in the Eastern Conference series.
The Nets seized control with an 18-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters after the Hawks grabbed their first lead since the opening basket, then went on to beat the No. 1 seed for the first time in seven meetings this season.
Bojan Bogdanovic added 19 points for the eighth-seeded Nets, who can tie the series with another victory tonight in Game 4.
DeMarre Carroll scored a playoff career-high 22 points for the Hawks, who were denied what would have been their second 3-0 lead since moving to Atlanta in 1968. Paul Millsap added 18 points and 17 rebounds.
GRIZZLIES 115, TRAIL BLAZERS 109
In Portland, Oregon, Marc Gasol had 25 points and Memphis took a 3-0 lead in their playoff series with Portland.
Courtney Lee had 20 points and Mike Conley added 14 before leaving the game late in the third quarter with a facial injury. Memphis was already thin at point guard, with reserve Beno Udrih sidelined with a sprained right ankle.
Game 4 is tonight in Portland.
Nicolas Batum’s three-pointer got Portland as close as 94-91 with 2:23 left, but Tony Allen’s basket ended Portland’s 9-0 run and Randolph added free throws.
Batum finished with 27 points for the Blazers, who have dropped seven straight games, including four to wrap up the regular season, and C.J. McCollum added 26.
Zach Randolph had 16 points and the Grizzlies won their seventh straight against Portland, including a sweep of the four-game regular season series.
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
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