Stephen Curry on Thursday scored 46 points to propel the Golden State Warriors to a hard-fought 113-104 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, in a win that kept the Warriors a half game behind the Phoenix Suns for the best record in the NBA.
The Suns, led by 30 points from Devin Booker, warmed up for a Christmas Day marquee clash against Golden State with a 113-101 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Phoenix.
Trailing by three at halftime, Phoenix outscored the Thunder 37-21 in the third period to take control, pushing their lead to as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter.
Photo: AFP
Back in San Francisco, Curry drained eight three-pointers and Gary Payton Jr added four from beyond the arc on the way to 22 points for the Warriors, who thwarted a late Grizzlies rally.
Ja Morant scored 21 points for Memphis, who tied the score at 102-102 with 2 minutes, 3 seconds remaining.
Golden State responded with a basket from Juan Tosco-Anderson. Payton made a three-pointer and Curry drove for a layup as the Warriors pulled away again.
“Vintage Steph,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Curry’s fifth 40-point game of the season. “That’s about as good as it gets against a very physical defense with great size. For him to get 46, he showed every bit of his talent and will tonight.”
The San Antonio Spurs used a three-point barrage to withstand a 36-point performance from LeBron James in a convincing 138-110 victory over the Lakers in Los Angeles.
“They’ve been one of the hottest teams in the league over the last 10 games, they’ve been playing exceptional basketball,” James said of the Spurs. “Every mistake that we had, every breakdown we had, they made us pay.”
END OF AN ERA
Drew Eubanks scored 30 points off the bench, Derrick White added 23 and the Spurs drained 18 three-pointers in the victory in the last game at Staples Center before the name of the downtown Los Angeles arena changes to the Crypto.com Arena today.
The Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform reportedly purchased the rights to the arena name for US$700 million over 20 years.
In other games on the last day of action before the NBA’s five-game Christmas Day slate, Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 10 of his 15 points in the final four minutes, as the short-handed Atlanta Hawks held off the Philadelphia 76ers 98-96.
The Hawks were without seven players because of COVID-19 protocol concerns, but they still managed to pull off the upset in Philadelphia, where Sixers star Joel Embiid missed a potential tying shot as time expired.
“With all the things that have happened here in the last, really, month of the season, coming to Philly on a back-to-back, a good team that has had our number this year, these guys responded to the challenge of getting up and playing harder and playing together and playing for 48 minutes,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said.
Cam Reddish scored 18 points and John Collins had 17 for the Hawks, whose seven COVID-19 absentees included star Trae Young.
The Sixers were also dealing with absentees — four of them because of COVID-19 — fielding their 17th different starting lineup of the season.
The rise in cases around the NBA as the US copes with a nationwide COVID-19 surge has seen a raft of players drafted into action from the developmental G-League and backup players called on to carry the load for many teams.
In other Thursday games, it was:
‧ Pacers 118, Rockets 106
‧ Pelicans 110, Magic 104
‧ Wizards 124, Knicks 117
‧ Heat 115, Pistons 112
‧ Bucks 102, Mavericks 95
‧ Jazz 128, Timberwolves 116
‧ Hornets 115, Nuggets 107
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
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