Nets get 30 from Lopez in win over Orlando
Erick Torres scored three straight goals to break a 1-1 tie and lead Houston to a 4-1 win over the visiting Red Bulls.
Bradley Wright-Phillips scored first for New York (2-2-1) to give the Red Bulls a brief 1-0 lead in the 13th minute. Dylan Remick answered with a header set up via an assist across the box from Alex one minute later.
—AP
The Brooklyn Nets dominated inside the paint and off the bench to beat the Orlando Magic.
Brook Lopez scored 30 points and Trevor Booker had a season-high 23 in a reserve role to lead the Nets to a 121-111 victory on Saturday at Barclays Center.
“That must have been Booker’s best game of the year, probably,” Jeremy Lin said. “He was incredible with the energy.”
Sean Kilpatrick added 15 points for the Nets, who snapped a two-game losing streak. Booker and Kilpatrick helped Brooklyn’s bench outscore Orlando’s 72-16. Brooklyn also had a season-high 72 points in the paint.
“Brook is really hard to guard down there,” Lin said. “We keep trying to find ways to exploit the defense with his size and his touch. I think he’s finding a great balance inside and outside. I felt like he really made his presence known tonight.”
Elfrid Payton had 20 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds for his fifth triple-double of the season for Orlando, which has lost four straight games. Nikola Vucevic had 27 points and 11 rebounds, while Aaron Gordon finished with 22 points and 15 boards.
KONTA WINS MIAMI
Johanna Konta lofted a lob off the baseline for a winner on championship point, waited for instant replay to confirm the call and even then hesitated to celebrate the biggest title of her 11-year career.
“To be honest, I actually couldn’t kind of believe it was over,” she said with a grin.
Seeded 10th, Konta was an unlikely champion, but the Australian-born Briton beat Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3 in Saturday’s final at the Miami Open.
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer renew their rivalry where it began in the men’s final Sunday.
Konta, a late bloomer at 25, improved to 19-3 this year and will climb to a career-high No. 7 next week. She was the first British woman to reach a Key Biscayne final, a tournament she was unable to qualify for just two years ago.
Konta was the more aggressive player in the final and finished with 33 winners, compared with eight for the 12th-seeded Wozniacki.
Konta received $1.18 million. Her other titles came at Sydney this year and Stanford in 2016.
Both finalists benefited from the absence of eight-time champion Serena Williams, who missed the tournament with a knee injury.
KANG SETS MARK
Sung Kang shot a 9-under 63 to take a six-shot lead in a record-breaking second round at the Houston Open on Friday.
After shooting a 65 on Thursday, Kang was at 16-under 128 through two rounds, setting the 36-hole tournament record of 129 by a stroke, set previously by Blaine McCallister in 1993 and Curtis Strange in 1980.
The 29-year-old South Korean, who entered the week ranked No. 202 in the world, bested the tournament course record at the Golf Club of Houston by three strokes, topping Johnson Wagner’s 132 in 2008. Strange and Wagner went on to win those respective tournaments, while McCallister settled for a third-place finish.
Kang’s 9-under on Friday matched the 18-hole tournament course record and helped him take the largest 36-hole lead in tournament history, topping the previous record by two strokes.
Hudson Swafford and Russell Henley were at 10-under after both shooting 5-under 67.
Rickie Fowler, the leader after one round, slipped to fourth at 9-under after he followed Thursday’s 8-under 64 with a 71.