The Detroit Pistons beat the Golden State Warriors 115-101 on Friday to become the first Eastern Conference team to clinch an NBA playoffs berth.
Jalen Duren scored 23 points and Daniss Jenkins added 22 for the Pistons, who grabbed their 51st victory of the season despite the absence of star guard Cade Cunningham, who is out for at least two weeks with a collapsed lung.
Ausar Thompson came up with seven of the Pistons 16 steals. In all the Warriors had 26 turnovers, leading to 32 Detroit points.
Photo: Lon Horwedel / Imagn Images
“That was a point of emphasis for us going into the game, trying to figure out how our defense can create that chaos that we’re looking for,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
The Boston Celtics maintained their hold on second place in the East with a 117-112 come-from-behind victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Jaylen Brown scored 30 points and reserve Luka Garza scored 11 of his 22 in the fourth quarter as the Celtics held off the injury-depleted Grizzlies.
Photo: AP
Memphis took a four-point lead into the fourth quarter and were up 103-102 with 5 minutes, 33 seconds remaining, but Boston unleashed a 10-0 scoring run to snatch the victory and stay ahead of the third-placed New York Knicks — who edged the Brooklyn Nets 93-92.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 26 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, while Jalen Brunson added 17 rebounds and eight assists for the Knicks — who erased an early 13-point deficit then squandered a 14-point fourth-quarter lead before emerging with the win.
In Houston, the Rockets brought the Atlanta Hawks down to earth with a thud, ending the visitors’ 11-game winning streak with a 117-95 blowout victory.
Photo: AP
Kevin Durant scored 25 points, while Jabari Smith Jr added 23 points and nine rebounds for the Rockets.
Alperen Sengun added 15 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists as Houston bolstered their playoffs bid after back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 21 points to lead the Hawks, who slipped to seventh place in the East.
Photo: AP
Portland’s Jerami Grant scored the go-ahead three-pointer with 21.3 seconds as the Trail Blazers edged the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-104.
Julius Randle’s basket had put the Timberwolves up 104-103 when Grant got the ball on an inbound pass and drained a three to make it 106-104. Grant came up with a rebound on the other end and drilled a pair of free throws to seal the win.
Grant finished with 26 points and Deni Avdija had 25, while Donovan Clingan had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Blazers. Randle scored 19 points to lead the Timberwolves, who were again without injured All-Star Anthony Edwards.
In Denver, Jamal Murray scored 31 points, Tim Hardaway Jr added 23 off the bench and Nikola Jokic scored 22 points with eight rebounds and nine assists for the Nuggets in a 121-115 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
Jakob Poeltl’s 23 points led the Raptors, who led by as many as 11 points in the third quarter.
Murray scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and Hardaway added nine to fuel Denver’s comeback.
The score was knotted at 115-115 when Jokic’s fadeaway basket gave the Nuggets the lead for good with 44.9 seconds remaining.
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
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