ON THIS DATE
1965 — The Boston Celtics had five players score 20 or more points in a 129-123 victory over Los Angeles in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. It was the first time in Finals history that one team had five 20-point scorers. John Havlicek led Boston with 24 points, Tom Sanders and Bill Russell each scored 23, Tommy Heinsohn added 22, and Sam Jones finished with 20. Jerry West led the Lakers with 45.
1991 — Evander Holyfield retained the heavyweight title with a unanimous 12-round decision over 42-year-old challenger George Foreman in Atlantic City.
1992 — Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls won his sixth straight NBA scoring title with a 30.1 average.
1998 — San Antonio beat Denver 96-82 to set an NBA record for the largest single-season turnaround. The Spurs improved by 36 games from 20 wins in 1996-97.
1998 — Chicago guard Michael Jordan scored 44 points to lead the Bulls over the New York Knicks 111-109 in the final game of the regular season, securing his record 10th NBA scoring title with a 28.7-point average.
2009 — Rafael Nadal became the first tennis player to win five straight Monte Carlo Masters titles by beating Novak Djokovic 6-3, 2-6, 6-1. The top-ranked Spaniard, however, lost a set at the clay court tournament for the first time since the 2006 final against Roger Federer.
2010 — Kenya’s Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot won the Boston Marathon, breaking the course record in 2:05:52. Ethiopia’s Teyba Erkesso won the women’s race in 2:26:11, outsprinting Russia’s Tatyana Pushkareva to win by three seconds.
2017 — Houston guard James Harden scored 35 points as the Rockets overcame 51 points from Oklahoma guard Russell Westbrook in the highestscoring triple-double in playoff history. The Rockets won 115-111 to take a
2-0 lead in the first-round Western Conference playoff series. Westbrook set a franchise playoff scoring record and added 13 assists and 10 rebounds. It was the sixth playoff triple-double for Westbrook, who had an Nba-record 42 in the regular season. But he shot just 4-for-18 in the fourth quarter as the Rockets clawed back from a doubledigit deficit to surge ahead before holding on.