Cade Cunningham on Monday scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to spark the Detroit Pistons to their franchise record-tying 13th consecutive victory, a 122-117 triumph at Indiana.
The NBA Eastern Conference leaders improved to 15-2 and matched the longest win streaks in Pistons history, 13 in a row in the 2003-2004 and 1989-1990 seasons — both campaigns in which they won the NBA Finals.
“It’s amazing,” Cunningham said. “We play for the Detroit Pistons, a historic franchise. To be able to make history for a historic franchise like this is special.”
Photo: AP
Cunningham, who added six assists, saw his run of six consecutive 25-point and 10-assist games ended.
However, Caris LeVert added 19 points off the bench, and Jalen Duren had 17 points and 12 rebounds for Detroit.
Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin missed a potential tying three-pointer with 11 seconds remaining, and LeVert added two free throws to seal the Pacers’ fate.
At Toronto, Brandon Ingram scored a season-high 37 points while Scottie Barnes had 18 points and 11 rebounds as the host Raptors boosted their win streak to eight games by defeating Cleveland 110-99.
Toronto, on the team’s longest win streak since the 2019-2020 campaign, improved to 13-5, second in the East, while Cleveland fell to 12-7 as their three-game win streak ended.
“Brandon did a great job,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “He was obviously hot. We did a good job of finding him. He did a great job of getting to his spots and then getting good looks.
“I thought Brendon also did a great job defensively. He was rebounding the ball well. He was in right spots, getting deflections. He’s going both ways on the floor and really helping us to get wins,” he added.
At Brooklyn, New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns delivered 37 points and 12 rebounds while Jalen Brunson added 27 points to power the Knicks over the host Nets 113-100, despite 31 points by Brooklyn’s Noah Clowney.
Tyler Herro scored 24 points and Kel’el Ware added 20 points and 18 rebounds to ignite Miami in a 106-102 home triumph over Dallas, which boosted the Heat to 12-6 with their fifth win in a row.
Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic had a triple-double with 17 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds to spark the Denver Nuggets to a 125-115 victory at Memphis.
The Serbian center leads the NBA in assists and rebounds, and ranks sixth in scoring.
The Nuggets (13-4) had 29 points from Jamal Murray and 27 from Peyton Watson in capturing their 10th win in 12 games.
Portland, led by Jerami Grant’s 35 points, defeated host Milwaukee 115-103 while Zion Williamson had 29 points to lead eight double-figure scorers for New Orleans in a 143-130 victory over visiting Chicago.
The Houston Rockets, with Kevin Durant absent for personal reasons, rose to 11-4 with a 114-92 victory at Phoenix.
Amen Thompson had 28 points, seven rebounds and eight assists to lead the Rockets, who snapped Phoenix’s three-game win streak.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
RSS