basketball
Heat avenge loss
LOS ANGELES, April 15, (Agencies): Just one day after Kobe Bryant underwent season-ending foot surgery, the Los Angeles Lakers kept their playoff hopes alive by surprising the first place San Antonio Spurs 91-86 on Sunday.
In a game that had huge playoff ramifications, Dwight Howard had 26 points and 17 rebounds and Steve Blake finished with 23 points and four assists for the Lakers who are 11/2 games up on the Utah Jazz, who play Monday in Minnesota.
“Steve Blake was just going crazy,” said Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni. “Different guys stepped up but Dwight and Steve Blake carried the bulk of the work.”
In the heat of the NBA playoff race, Bryant tore his left Achilles tendon in Friday’s win over Golden State. The 34year-old Bryant underwent surgery Saturday and the recovery time is expected to be somewhere around six-to-nine months.
Blake said everyone had to step up with 15-time all-star Bryant out for the season.
“When everyone is really focused and concentrating on what they are supposed to do we can get a lot of stops,” Blake said.
Blake also joked that he half expected the ultra-competitive Bryant to try and call the dressing room at the half time to give his team-mates a pep talk.
“I am sure he had some input it just didn’t get to us,” Blake said after the game.
What Blake didn’t know was that Bryant called the trainer’s room during the break and asked to speak to Pau Gasol who was struggling with his shot in the first half.
“I wanted to talk to him,” said Gasol, who shot a dismal three-for-17 and finished with just seven points in the game. “He told me to ‘just stay aggressive.’”
Bryant then tweeted after the game, “Whew!! Well done my dudes. Well done. UNO MAS playoffs.”
Bryant then singled out the play of Howard who came to see him in the hospital on Saturday.
“D12 was a beast. He stopped by the hospital twice yesterday to check on big bro that’s luv countond12.”
The Lakers are battling the Jazz for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Lakers, who have won four consecutive games, have one game left while the Jazz have two contests remaining and hold the tiebreaker.
D’Antoni said replacing Bryant — who had been playing entire games before he got hurt — was no easy task but the players are willing to work together to get the results.
“One of my biggest problems earlier was everybody wanted to lead. Everybody wanted to be an Alpha dog,” D’Antoni said.
“We know the job ahead. And we are looking forward to the challenge.”
Tim Duncan finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds for San Antonio, who trail the Oklahoma City Thunder by a game for the top seed in the Western Conference. The Spurs improved to 58-22 and are in first place in the Southwest Division.
Neither team led the tightly-played contest by more than six points until the Lakers pulled away in the final quarter by going on a 15-4 run.
Jodie Meeks hit two triples, while Antawn Jamison added another during the run, which was capped by a Howard tip-in to make it 84-73.
San Antonio never cut the deficit to under four for the remainder of the fourth quarter.
Heat 101, Bulls 97 In Miami, the Miami Heat on Sunday got revenge on the Chicago Bulls, winning 105-93 on the back of a 24-point performance from superstar LeBron James at American Airlines Arena.
The Heat’s win come three weeks after they were beaten 101-97 by the Bulls — a loss that ended Miami’s near-record win streak at 27 games.
“We wanted to win this game; we always want to protect home court,” Heat centre Chris Bosh said. “We didn’t want to play any sloppy basketball and lose a bad game.”
James also had seven rebounds and six assists, while Dwyane Wade scored 22 for the Heat, who shot 51.4 percent from the field overall.
It marked the sixth straight win and a franchise-record 36th victory at home this season for Miami. The Heat went 356 on its home court during the 2004-05 campaign.
Chris Andersen had a season-high 15 points off the bench and Mario Chalmers also scored 15 points in the victory.
Chicago had a half dozen players finish in double figures, led by Luol Deng’s 19 points. The Bulls shot just 35.4 percent en route to a fourth loss in five games.
The setback dropped Chicago a full game behind Atlanta for the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference with two games to play in the regular season.
Carlos Boozer finished with 16 points and 20 rebounds while Kirk Hinrich and Nate Robinson each had 14 points for the Bulls.
“We just have to keep moving forward and concentrate on improving,” said Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau. “Hopefully we will get a couple of (injured) guys back soon.
“I don’t want us thinking about the playoffs, I want us thinking about the game tomorrow with the Orlando Magic.”
Miami extended their lead in the second half, thanks to Wade’s superb play as the all-star guard scored 12 points on four-of-five shooting in the third quarter.
The Heat led 78-68 with 5:28 left in the third and maintained a double-digit lead for much of the rest of the game.
Nuggets 118, Trail Blazers 109 In Denver, Andre Iguodala scored 28 points as Denver beat short-handed Portland to set an NBA franchise record with its 55th win.
Rookie Evan Fournier added 24 points for the Nuggets, who also extended their franchise-best winning streak at home to 22 straight to move a game ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis for the third seed in the West.
The Nuggets went 54-28 in both 198788 and 2008-09, when they reached the conference finals. They are 37-3 at home — also a team best since joining the NBA 37 years ago.
Rookie Damian Lillard led Portland with 30 points.
Knicks 90, Pacers 80 In New York, Carmelo Anthony scored 25 points and New York clinched the No. 2 seed in the East for the playoffs with a victory over Indiana — the Knicks’ 15th win in the last 16 games.
Chris Copeland added 20 points and J.R. Smith had 15 for the Knicks, who will host seventh-seeded Boston next weekend. New York is guaranteed the home-court advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs after finishing a distant second to Miami in the conference.
Lance Stephenson scored 22 points and West had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Pacers, who came into the game with a chance to catch the Knicks for second but settled for the No. 3 seed after fourth-place Brooklyn lost at Toronto. Raptors 93, Nets 87 In Toronto, DeMar DeRozan scored 36 points, Rudy Gay had 26 points and 10 rebounds and Toronto never trailed in beating Brooklyn for its third straight victory.
Amir Johnson had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Raptors, who hadn’t won three straight since a five-game winning streak from Feb 8 to 19.
DeRozan scored 14 in the fourth quarter and finished 9for-9 at the free throw line, converting a vital pair in the final 15 seconds.
Deron Williams scored 30 points, Brook Lopez had 16 and Andray Blatche 15 for the Nets, who will be the No. 4 seed in the East.
Rockets 121, Kings 100 In Houston, James Harden had 29 points and nine assists while Omer Asik had 10 points and 12 rebounds as Houston cruised to a win over Sacramento in its regular-season home finale.
Jeremy Lin added 15 points for the Rockets, who’ve won nine of their last 12 home games heading into the playoffs.
The Rockets climbed to sixth place in the Western Conference. They have the same record as Golden State (45-35) but own the tiebreaker after winning the season series with the Warriors 3-1. Houston plays Phoenix on Monday and finishes the regular season against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.
John Salmons scored 14 points and Isaiah Thomas had 10 points and 10 assists for the Kings.
Mavericks 107, Hornets 89 In New Orleans, Shawn Marion had 21 points on 10-of-16 shooting and Dirk Nowitzki scored 19 to become the 17th NBA player to surpass 25,000 career points, leading Dallas past New Orleans.
Brandan Wright and Vince Carter added 16 points for Mavericks (40-40), who reached the .500 mark for the first time since they were 11-11 in midDecember. They had lost by double digits in their three previous chances to even their record.
Ryan Anderson led the cold-shooting Hornets with 20 points, but he was only 8-of-20 from the floor. Eric Gordon added 15 points, and Robin Lopez had 10 points and 13 rebounds. New Orleans shot 39.7 percent in its final home game and trailed by as much as 27.
76ers 91, Cavaliers 77 In Philadelphia, Dorell Wright scored 15 points and Thaddeus Young had 14 points and nine rebounds to lead Philadelphia over Cleveland.
Spencer Hawes and Jrue Holiday each added 14 points for the 76ers, who raced to a 19-point lead in the first half and sent the Cavaliers to their fourth straight loss.
Tristan Thompson had 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Cavaliers. Kevin Jones had 11 points and 10 rebounds, while All-Star guard Kyrie Irving had only four points in 18 minutes.
The Sixers finished 23-18 at home and are 33-47 overall a year after winning 35 games and a round in the playoffs during the lockout-shortened season.