ORLANDO, Florida: Nikola Jokic had 20 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and three blocks without playing the fourth quarter and the Denver Nuggets rolled to a 113-100 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday night.
Christian Braun added 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Nuggets, who won their six straight road game. Jamal Murray scored 19 points and Michael Porter Jr. had 15 points and six rebounds.
Wendell Carter Jr. led Orlando with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Anthony Black came off the bench with 14 points and five assists.
HEAT 128, SPURS 107
MIAMI: Rookie Kel’el Ware scored 25 points to match his season high, Duncan Robinson added 21 on 5-of-7 3-shooting and Miami beat San Antonio.
Jimmy Butler had eight points and seven assists in his second game since returning from a seven-game suspension for “conduct detrimental to the team.”
Terry Rozier had 20 points, Tyler Herro scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half and Nikol Jovic added 14 to help the Heat snap a three-game losing streak.
Miami closed the first half with an 11-0 run to take a five-point lead at 46-41, then opened the second with a 25-8 run. Jovic’s 3-pointer with 5:45 remaining in the third period ended the spurt and put the Heat ahead 71-52.
Devin Vassell scored 23 points and Victor Wembanyama added 21 for the Spurs. They have lost three straight.
THUNDER 127, NETS 101
OKLAHOMA CITY: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 27 points and 10 assists in three quarters, and Oklahoma City beat Brooklyn.
Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s leading scorer, sat out Friday’s loss at Dallas with a sprained right wrist. He looked fine against the Nets — he made 8 of 14 field goals and all 10 of his free throw attempts. He also had four steals.
Isaiah Joe scored 24 points and made eight 3-pointers for the Thunder.
The Thunder have the best record in the Western Conference, and the victory clinched Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault’s spot as an All-Star head coach. He will coach one of the four All-Star teams and an assistant coach from his staff will be the head coach for another team.
Cam Johnson and Tyrese Johnson each scored 15 points for the Nets, who have lost eight of nine.
BUCKS 123, 76ERS 109
MILWAUKEE: Giannis Antetokounmpo had 34 points and 15 rebounds to help Milwaukee beat short-handed Philadelphia.
Damian Lillard added 25 points for Milwaukee, which completed a 4-0 homestand. Khris Middleton had 13 points and eight assists in 25 minutes off the bench. Brook Lopez added 12 points, and Taurean Prince had 11.
Tyrese Maxey led the 76ers with with 37 points and seven assists. Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 19 points, Ricky Council IV had 13 and Eric Gordon 10. Playing for the second consecutive night, Philadelphia has lost six straightand nine of 11.
The 76ers (15-26) were once again missing several key players — Joel Embiid, Paul George, Kyle Lowry and Guerschon Yabusele among them — due to injuries, but hung with the Bucks until fading late. Milwaukee moved to a season-high seven games above .500 at 24-17.
CLIPPERS 116, LAKERS 102
INGLEWOOD, California: Norman Powell scored 22 points, James Harden added 21 points and 12 assists and the Los Angeles Clippers defeated LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Lakers’ first visit to the new Intuit Dome.
Kawhi Leonard had 19 points and Ivica Zubac had 21 points and 19 rebounds for the Clippers in the first meeting of the season between the former hallway rivals at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles.
James had 25 points and 11 assists and Rui Hachimura added 19 points. Anthony Davis had 16 points and 10 rebounds in his return after missing a game with plantar fasciitis. The Lakers two-game winning streak ended.
Leonard tied his season high playing 24 minutes but none in the fourth as he continued under a minutes restriction in his fifth game of the season. He scored eight in a row to surpass 14,000 career points in the third, when the Clippers built their biggest lead of 26 points.
TRAIL BLAZERS 113, BULLS 102
PORTLAND, Oregon: Scoot Henderson had 25 points and Portland snapped five-game losing streak with a victory over Chicago.
Zach LaVine had 27 points for the Bulls. They have lost five straight.
Portland stretched its lead to 97-82 on Shaedon Sharpe’s 3-pointer with 7:36 left. Patrick Williams’ dunk got the Bulls within single digits at 110-102 with 1:26 left. Deni Avdija answered with a layup for Portland to end the threat.
Sharpe came off the bench for the Blazers after coach Chauncey Billups told him his defense needed to improve to return to a starting role. Sharpe finished with 23 points.
The Bulls led by as 15 points in the first half. Henderson made back-to-back 3-pointers that got the Blazers to 43-42.
Portland tied it at 45 on Jerami Grant’s 3 and it was even at 53 going into the break.
KINGS 123, WIZARDS 100
SACRAMENTO, California: Domantas Sabonis had 29 points and 18 rebounds, and Sacramento beat Washington.
DeMar DeRozan added 24 points, Malik Monk had 23 and Keon Ellis scored 18 on 6-for-8 shooting on 3-pointers. De’Aaron Fox had 12 points and a season-high 13 assists to help Sacramento win for the ninth time in 10 games.
Jonas Valanciunas had 23 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Wizards, who have lost 10 straight.
After allowing Washington to score the first six points, Sacramento never trailed again and built a double-digit lead in the second quarter. The Kings were up by 24 points in the second half.
Sacramento went up by 14 at halftime. Sabonis had 18 points and 11 rebounds at the break, including a stretch of eight straight points on back-to-back 3s and a steal that led to a dunk, helping the Kings take a lead after the game was tied 15-15 in the first quarter.
Nuggets beat Magic 113-100 as Jokic records triple-double
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Nuggets beat Magic 113-100 as Jokic records triple-double
- The Denver Nuggets rolled to a 113-100 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday night
Djokovic reaches Australian Open semis as Musetti retires
- Serb continues his quest for a record-extending 11th Australian Open title and standalone 25th Grand Slam crown
- Task gets tougher for Djokovic with a clash against either defending champion Jannik Sinner or Ben Shelton
MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic continued his quest for a record-extending 11th Australian Open title and standalone 25th Grand Slam crown, but only after a cruel twist of fate for Lorenzo Musetti, who quit their quarter-final with an injury on Wednesday while leading.
While the stars seemed to align for the 38-year-old Serb in his hunt for more glory at the majors, Iga Swiatek’s bid to seal a career Grand Slam — capturing all four of the sport’s biggest titles — went up in smoke following a defeat by Elena Rybakina.
There were several swings in momentum for Jessica Pegula, who deservedly reached the Melbourne Park semifinals for the first time after dashing fellow American Amanda Anisimova’s hopes of reaching three straight major finals.
The drama in the day session was reserved for the afternoon match where Djokovic arrived fresh for battle with Musetti after getting a walkover on Sunday from Czech youngster Jakub Mensik, which scuttled their fourth-round meeting.
The Serb made a fast start but it was all one-way traffic as the artistic Musetti showed his full range of strokes and bagged the opening two sets, before the Italian pulled up holding the upper part of his right leg at the start of the third.
Musetti looked to soldier on after receiving treatment, but lasted only one more game and he threw in the towel leading 6-4 6-3 1-3 as stunned fans at the Rod Laver Arena let out a gasp and Djokovic quietly heaved a sigh of relief.
“I don’t know what to say, except that I feel really sorry for him and he was a far better player,” Djokovic said.
“I was on my way home. These things happen in sport and it’s happened to me a few times, but being in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, two sets to love up and being in full control, I mean it’s so unfortunate.”
Musetti said he was pained by having to retire after taking a big lead against the experienced Djokovic, adding the trouble in his leg first began in the second set.
“I felt there was something strange,” he added.
“I continued to play, because I was playing really well, but I was feeling that the pain was increasing, and the problem was not going away.
“In the end, when I took the medical timeout ... and started to play again, I felt it even more and it was getting higher and higher, the level of the pain.”
Tough test
Though he eclipsed Roger Federer with his 103rd match win at Melbourne Park, the task will only get tougher for Djokovic with a clash against either defending champion Jannik Sinner or young American Ben Shelton in the last-four.
As one fifth seed crashed, another gained flight as Elena Rybakina booked her place in the semifinals with a dominant 7-5 6-1 win over six-times Grand Slam champion Swiatek.
Swiatek was left to rue the defeat and the lack of privacy in difficult moments off the court where players cannot escape cameras, a day after Coco Gauff’s racket-smashing meltdown in response to her crushing defeat by Elina Svitolina.
“The question is, are we tennis players or are we animals in the zoo, where they are observed even when they poop?” she said.
“That was exaggerating obviously, but it would be nice to have privacy. It would be nice also to have your own process and not always be observed.”
All eyes were on sixth seed Pegula later as she stayed on course for her maiden Grand Slam trophy by going past Anisimova 6-2 7-6(1), sparkling despite some testing moments toward the end of the clash.
“I’m really happy with my performance,” Pegula said.
“From start to finish there was a lot of momentum swings, but I thought I came out playing really well, came out serving really well, and was able to just hold on there in the second and get that break back and take it in two.
“I showed good mental resilience there at the end not to get frustrated.”
