The Boston Celtics moved closer to wrapping up the NBA's top record overall by avenging last weekend's loss in New Orleans and beating the Hornets 112-92 on Friday.
Paul Pierce scored 27 points, Kevin Garnett added 21, and Eastern Conference leader opened its advantage to six games over the idle Detroit Pistons with 10 games left.
The Hornets had a five-game winning streak halted and saw their Western Conference lead cut to one game over San Antonio.
Hawks 106, Bulls 103
In Atlanta, the home team held on after nearly blowing a 22-point lead against a slumping Chicago, giving themselves some breathing space in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Atlanta opened the gap to New Jersey to one-and-a-half games in the race for the last playoff spot.
Mike Bibby scored 30 points for the Hawks, who were up 72-50 with 7 minutes left in the third quarter.
The Bulls twice closed within a point in the final minutes and almost forced overtime. Ben Gordon, who scored 16 points in the fourth, got off a long 3-point attempt that rimmed out as the horn sounded.
Jazz 121, Clippers 101
In Salt Lake City, Carlos Boozer scored 34 points and Deron Williams had 32 to overcome the loss of the three other Utah starters and beat a reeling Los Angeles.
Mehmet Okur and Ronnie Brewer were unavailable through illness and Andrei Kirilenko left in the first quarter with a calf injury, but Williams and Boozer topped 30 points together for the first time.
Pacers 123, Nets 115
In Indianapolis, Danny Granger scored 26 points as Indiana downed New Jersey.
The Pacers moved within a game of the Nets, and two-and-a-half games of Atlanta, which holds the last Eastern Conference playoff berth.
Suns 107, 76ers 93
In Philadelphia, Amare Stoudemire scored 22 points to lead Phoenix over Philadelphia.
Raja Bell had 20 for the Suns, who avoided their first three-game losing streak of the season.
Raptors 103, Knicks 95
In Toronto, Chris Bosh had 29 points and 10 rebounds as Toronto beat New York.
Rasho Nesterovic added 18 points for the Raptors.
The Knicks have won just two of their past 15 games.
Spurs 99, Timberwolves 84
In San Antonio, the home side picked up its sixth straight win with a victory over Minnesota.
Manu Ginobili 16 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter for the Spurs, whose winning streak had moved them from fifth in the Western Conference to second, and now only behind New Orleans on percentage.
Magic 103, Bucks 86
In Milwaukee, Orlando brought up a franchise-record 24th road victory with a win over Milwaukee.
Dwight Howard had 25 points and 11 rebounds for the Magic, who won only 15 road games last season.
The Bucks lost their ninth game in 10.
Wizards 114, Kings 108
In Sacramento, California, Antawn Jamison had 25 points and 12 rebounds as Washington used a big third quarter to beat Sacramento.
Grizzlies 114, Lakers 111
In Los Angeles, Rudy Gay led five players in double figures with 28 points as Memphis downed Los Angeles.
The Lakers lost despite getting 53 points from Kobe Bryant against the NBA's worst road team.
Bryant scored 50 or more points for the 23rd time and the second this month. The Lakers fell to 16-7 when he gets that many.
Bobcats 96, SuperSonics 93
In Seattle, Raymond Felton hit a crucial basket along with a pair of free throws in the final minute to help lift Charlotte over Seattle.
Felton hit a 20-footer with 49.8 seconds left to give the Bobcats a 92-91 lead. The Sonics lost the ball on the next possession, and their chance to respond.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan on Wednesday finished with 15 medals at the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Hong Kong, taking home four gold, five silver and six bronze medals across the age group divisions. Taiwan ranked third on the medal table after South Korea with 17 golds and the US with eight golds at the five-day competition. “Your athletes have proven themselves as the best in the world,” World Taekwondo president Choue Chung-won said at the closing ceremony of the martial art contest that was attended by a record 1,727 athletes from around the world. On the first day of the competition at the Hong Kong
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
RSS