The Dallas Mavericks completed a surprise series victory over the higher-ranked San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday, while the Rockets’ bid for a second-round berth was grounded when Houston lost to the Portland Trail Blazers.
The sixth-seeded Mavericks rode Dirk Nowitzki’s 31-point performance to a 106-93 Game Five victory in San Antonio to claim their best-of-seven Western Conference series by a 4-1 margin.
Houston, who could have joined the Mavericks in the second round with a win, lost 88-77 at Portland but still lead the series 3-2.
PHOTO: AFP
In other games, the Boston Celtics overcame the stubborn Chicago Bulls 106-104 in overtime and the Orlando Magic cruised to a 91-78 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, giving both winning teams 3-2 advantages in their Eastern Conference match-ups.
In San Antonio, Nowitzki hit 11-of-17 shots for game scoring honors but the German forward received plenty of support as the Mavericks turned back San Antonio’s two-man tandem of Tim Duncan and Tony Parker.
Duncan finished with 30 points and Parker added 26 points and 12 rebounds, but the remainder of the team had just 37 points.
Dallas backed up Nowitzki with five other players in double figures as the Mavs advanced to the second round for the first time in three years. They will play the winner of the Denver-New Orleans series in the conference semi-finals.
“We’re not finished yet,” Dallas’s Jason Terry told reporters after completing a 19-point effort.
Birthday boy Josh Howard added 17 and center Erick Dampier contributed 11 points and 12 rebounds.
“This is our best basketball of the year,” Dampier said. “That’s a big key for us, to be playing well at the right time.”
San Antonio, who were without Manu Ginobili, failed to make it past the first round for the first time since 2000.
“They’re a better team than we are right now,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We made runs, but every time we got back into the game, they made more big shots. That’s why they won the series.”
In Boston, Paul Pierce’s jumper with 3.4 seconds to play in overtime earned a narrow victory for the Celtics.
Pierce, who had 26 points, made three successive jumpers in the final 77 seconds. He had earlier sent the game into overtime with another jump shot with 10.5 seconds to play in regulation.
Rajon Rondo paced Boston with 28 points and 11 assists. Glen Davis added 21 points and Kendrick Perkins provided 19 rebounds and 16 points.
Ben Gordon had 26 points for Chicago, who host Game Six today.
In Orlando, Dwight Howard delivered 24 points and a career-playoff best 24 rebounds to help the third-seeded Magic dominate the Sixers.
Rashard Lewis also had 24 points for Orlando, while Andre Iguodala paced Philadelphia with 26.
Game Six is scheduled for Philadelphia today.
In Portland, the Trail Blazers went on a 15-0 fourth-quarter run to stop the Rockets.
Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge both scored 25 points for Portland.
Luis Scola led the Rockets with 21 points, while Yao Ming added 15 points and 12 rebounds.
The series moves back to Houston for Game Six today.
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out