Lamar Odom made a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left in overtime to give the Los Angeles Lakers a 110-109 victory over Boston on Thursday and snap the Celtics’ 12-game NBA winning streak.
In a contest between last year’s NBA finals combatants and likely title contenders for this season, Kobe Bryant scored 26 points with 10 rebounds and Pau Gasol had 24 and 14 for the Lakers.
It is the second time this season that Los Angeles has stopped a Boston winning streak, after its win on Christmas Day stopped a 19-game run by the Celtics.
PHOTO: AP
Paul Pierce scored 21 points for Boston and All-Star Ray Allen had 22, but he missed a desperation, off-balance shot at the buzzer while Boston fans screamed for a foul call.
Bryant, who scored 61 and 36 points in his previous two games, hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, the last with 1:30 left in regulation to make it 101-100 — the Lakers’ first lead of the half. But after Pierce made one of two free throws with 30 seconds left, Bryant’s attempted game winner banged off the rim.
After a timeout with 7.7 seconds left, Pierce dribbled the clock down before Bryant poked the ball away. Eddie House got it and put up a sideways, one-handed 3-point attempt at the buzzer that wasn’t close.
Bryant missed his last five shots of the game.
Gasol made one of two free throws to give the Lakers a 108-107 lead with 1:11 left in overtime, then Boston’s Glen Davis made a jumper — his only basket of the game after six misses. Bryant then Davis both missed before Davis fouled Odom for the winning free throws.
Pierce and Allen had half-chances in the dying seconds for Boston but could not find the winner.
JAZZ 115, MAVERICKS 87
In Salt Lake City, Utah, Deron Williams shook off a deep thigh bruise and scored 34 points and handed out 12 assists to lead Utah to a rout of Dallas.
Kyle Korver scored a season-high 20 points in his first start of the season, Ronnie Brewer scored 17 and Mehmet Okur added 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Jazz.
Josh Howard led Dallas with 18 points and Dirk Nowitzki scored 14 — needing 20 attempts to get there — but the Mavericks saw their four-game winning streak end. It was Dallas’ first loss since coach Rick Carlisle put Jason Kidd in charge of calling plays.
76ERS 99, PACERS 94
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Samuel Dalembert had 18 points and 20 rebounds, and Andre Miller and Andre Iguodala also had double-doubles to lead Philadelphia over Indiana.
The Sixers won only hours after they learned power forward Elton Brand needed season-ending surgery on his right shoulder. The Sixers improved to 11-8 this season without Brand, an encouraging sign their playoff push will continue without their US$80 million man.
Miller had 13 points and 12 assists, while Iguodala had 20 points and 11 assists.
Indiana dropped its third straight.
Not even a tense tete-a-tete in the gold-medal game on Friday could spoil the vibe at Paris’ biggest beach party. Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Brazil’s Ana Patricia got into a shouting match on either side of the net in the tiebreaking third set of the beach volleyball final of the Paris Olympics. The referee tried to keep the peace, but it was the Eiffel Tower Stadium DJ who cooled tempers on the sand by playing John Lennon’s Imagine over the PA system. The players laughed and clapped, the crowd applauded and sang along, Wilkerson was shown a yellow card and the top-ranked Brazilians
China yesterday celebrated one of its best Olympic performances, while some supporters declared China the true winners, if medals won by Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan were included. “We are number one out of sovereign countries,” read one comment with more than 1,300 likes on Sina Weibo. Many similar posts included images of an adjusted medal table with medals won by Hong Kong and Taiwan added to the Chinese total. Since Taiwan’s Olympic debut in 1956, its athletes have competed as “Formosa,” “Taiwan,” “the Republic of China,” and since 1984 as “Chinese Taipei.” Hong Kong competes separately from China. Team China racked up 40 gold
Taiwan’s streak of winning gold medals in weightlifting at the Olympic Games going back to 2008 on Friday came to an end as its weightlifter Chen Wen-huei placed sixth in the women’s 71kg final in Paris. Chen, who won bronze in the 64kg division in her Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, finished the event with a total of 236kg, successfully lifting the bar twice — 103kg in the snatch and 133kg in the clean and jerk. She attempted 140kg in her last clean and jerk after failing to clean 139kg on her second attempt. However, she was unable to stabilize the
Olympic Refugee Team breaker Manizha Talash, who fled Afghanistan to live in Spain, was disqualified from the breaking competition after she wore a cape saying “Free Afghan Women,” the World DanceSport Federation told reporters yesterday. B-girl Talash, 21, unveiled the blue top bearing the slogan on Friday just before the first duel of the whole competition, against India Sardjoe of the Netherlands. “Refugee athlete B-girl Talash ... was disqualified for displaying a political slogan on her attire in violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter,” the association said in a statement. That rule states that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious