Stephen Curry on Saturday drilled the game-winning three-pointer in the Golden State Warriors’ thrilling 113-112 NBA victory over former teammate Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns.
Curry made nine three-pointers on the way to 30 points, but the 35-year-old star saved his best for last.
In a back-and-forth battle that featured 22 lead changes, the Warriors trailed 112-110 with 3.3 seconds remaining when Curry caught an awkward inbound pass from Brandin Podziemski, turned and unleashed a long trey that put Golden State ahead with 0.7 seconds remaining.
Photo: AP
It was just one more signature moment for Curry, a four-time champion and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player with the Warriors, who are struggling this season to maintain their status as Western Conference contenders.
Devin Booker scored 32 points to lead the Suns, with his turnaround jump shot with 35.6 seconds left to play giving Phoenix a 112-110 lead. Durant added 24, but on the Suns’ last-gasp inbound play he could not get a shot up.
Elsewhere, the Dallas Mavericks, fueled by 32 points from Luka Doncic and 25 from Kyrie Irving, routed the high-flying Oklahoma City Thunder 146-111, notching a fourth straight victory to match their longest winning streak of the season.
Daniel Gafford added 19 points and nine rebounds as he made his Mavs debut along with P.J. Washington — both acquired at the trade deadline.
Doncic found both newcomers for alley-oop dunks in the first quarter, when Dallas took a 47-30 lead.
Doncic outshined Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a battle between the league’s top two scorers.
Doncic, the NBA scoring leader, added eight rebounds and nine assists, and had the luxury of resting in the fourth quarter.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 25 points with six rebounds and five assists, but the Thunder — who went into the contest just a half a game behind Minnesota for the Western Conference lead — trailed by as many as 41 and dropped a second straight contest.
Irving added eight assists, delivering the 4,000th of his career in the second quarter.
Mavs coach Jason Kidd was delighted to see both Gafford and Washington mesh seamlessly with their new teammates, indicating they provide just what Dallas need as they try to climb from eighth in the West.
“I thought Gafford was great on both ends,” Kidd said. “P.J., he just let the game come to him. The pace was high [and] we didn’t have to run anybody’s minutes up. Just a lot of good stuff.”
As the Thunder faltered, the Los Angeles Clippers moved into second place in the West with a tougher-than-expected 112-106 victory over the league-worst Detroit Pistons.
Paul George scored 15 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter as the Clippers battled back from a 13-point deficit early in the third quarter.
Kawhi Leonard added 24 points for the Clippers, who had seized a quick 12-2 lead in front of their home fans only for the Pistons to hit back.
Detroit led by five going into the final period, but the Pistons could not contain the Clippers down the stretch.
The Cleveland Cavaliers pushed their winning streak to nine games with a 119-95 victory over the Raptors in Toronto.
Jarrett Allen scored 18 points and pulled down 15 rebounds as eight Cavaliers players scored in double figures.
The Philadelphia 76ers, trying to keep their playoff aspirations on track despite the injury absence of NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid, halted a four-game losing streak with a 119-113 victory over the Wizards in Washington.
Tyrese Maxey scored 28 points and Buddy Hield added 23 in his second game since joining the Sixers in a trade.
The Orlando Magic, fueled by 36 points from Franz Wagner, rallied late in regulation and beat the Chicago Bulls 114-108 in overtime.
In Charlotte, the Hornets snapped a 10-game losing streak with a 115-106 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Miles Bridges scored 25 points, while new arrival Vasilije Micic added 18 points and nine assists.
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
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
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
RSS