2014-07-03

LOS ANGELES -- Stephen Curry and reserve Carl Landry had 23 points apiece and the Golden State Warriors held off the pesky Los Angeles Clippers for a wire-to-wire 114-110 victory on Saturday night. Klay Thompson had 17 points and eight rebounds for Golden State, which handed the Clippers their first loss of the season. The narrow win came after the Warriors learned reserve small forward Brandon Rush, their best perimeter defender, will miss the rest of the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the first quarter of Friday nights 104-94 home loss to Memphis. Rookie Festus Ezeli started at centre for Golden State and had eight points and five rebounds in place of Andrew Bogut, who played in the first two games after returning from surgery on his left ankle. Coach Mark Jacksons plan early in the season is to rest Bogut in the second of back-to-back games while he gradually gets himself back into game shape. Chris Paul scored 27 points for Los Angeles, going 19 for 20 at the free-throw line. Reserve Jamal Crawford also had 27 points, and Blake Griffin finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds. The Clippers, coming off victories against Memphis and the Lakers, were trying to go 3-0 for only the fifth time in the franchises 43-year history and first since 2007. Los Angeles missed its first five shots and quickly fell behind by nine points. The Warriors extended their lead to as many as 14 with about 4 1/2 minutes left in the first quarter, and the Clippers cut the deficit to 57-53 by halftime. But they never got the lead despite three 3-pointers in a 1:33 span of the third quarter by Caron Butler that kept them within striking distance. The third one came with 2:27 left in the third, narrowing the gap to 79-77. But the Warriors responded with six straight points, then began the fourth quarter with a 12-4 run to open a 97-83 lead with 7:46 remaining. The Clippers fought back with a 16-4 run, capped by a three-point play by Crawford and a pair of free throws by Paul that sliced Golden States lead to 101-99 with 3:55 left. The Clippers tied it two more times before the Warriors went back in front on a jumper by Curry with 1:25 to go. Griffin missed a layup in heavy traffic at the other end, but the Clippers got the ball back on a shot-clock violation. Paul had made 19 consecutive free throws from the start of the game before missing his next one, keeping the Clippers behind 109-108 with 42.9 seconds left. Jarrett Jack made two from the line for the Warriors and Paul made it a one-point game again on a layup. Curry made one of two for a 112-110 Warriors lead, and the Clippers took a timeout with 21.4 seconds on the clock. But a driving layup by Paul was negated by his offensive foul against Curry, whose two free throws sealed the verdict with 6.9 seconds left. NOTES: Griffin, who came in with a free-throw percentage of 59.3 in 150 NBA games, was 11 for 16 from the line -- the 10th time he has made 10 or more. ... The Clippers are the only franchise the Warriors have a winning road record against (50-45). ... Crawford was the first Clipper to score 20 or more points off the bench since Mo Williams did it last January. coach outlet .S., according to the president of the Canadian Soccer Association. The games are the first for Canada since it crashed out of World Cup qualifying in an 8-1 defeat in Honduras in October. coach factory outlet . Money well spent. Holiday had a career-high 33 points and 13 assists, leading the Philadelphia 76ers over the Phoenix Suns 104-101 on Sunday. The 22-year-old made several big plays down the stretch, one night after scoring just six points in a rare off game in an overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. http://www.coachfactory-outletstores.com/ . With the tie, FC Dallas (3-9-5) extended its winless streak to 11 games to set a new club record. cheap coach handbags . -- The Florida Panthers have acquired centre Casey Wellman from the New York Rangers in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2014 draft. coach outlet online . But if "Bones" Jones had the chance to make his decision again, he would still tell UFC President Dana White that he wouldnt accept a replacement light heavyweight title defence on eight days notice.Wimbledon, England (Sports Network) - In one of the biggest upsets in Grand Slam tennis history, little-known Czech Lukas Rosol toppled the great Rafael Nadal in a second-round match Thursday at Wimbledon. The 100th-ranked Rosol stunned the second-seeded former world No. 1 in five sets, 6-7 (9-11), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, on the famed Centre Court. The 26-year-old two-time Wimbledon champion Nadal had reached the final in his last five trips to the All England Lawn Tennis Club, including titles in 2008 and 2010. After Nadal won the fourth set easily against Rosol, officials controversially decided to close the roof on Centre Court because of impending nightfall. Following a 30-minute roof-closure delay, Rosol stunned Nadal by breaking the Spaniard to open the fifth set. The unheralded Czech would then hold his powerful serve the rest of the way to pull off the shocker. Rosol served for the match at 5-4 in the fifth and blew Nadal away with a love game, including a resounding match-ending ace for his 20th winner of the set on his first match point of the night. The upstart Czech, playing in the Wimbledon main draw for the first time, out- served and simply overpowered Nadal in the final stanza. "Im not just surprised, its like a miracle for me," Rosol said. "I never expected something like this." Rosol, behind the powerful serve and fearless returns, posted the monumental upset in 3 hours, 18 minutes with the help of 22 aces. He broke Nadal four times, while the super Spaniard, who fired 19 aces himself, settled for three breaks in a losing effort. The 26-year-old Rosol had only ever won three ATP-level grass-court matches prior to Thursday. "I think I was better today a little bit," Rosol said. In the third set, a frustrated Nadal complained to the chair umpire about Rosols antics before his serve. The 6-foot-5 Czech was dancing around on the baseline and making heavy breathing noises while Nadal prepared to serve. After Nadals complaints went ignored, he sulked around the court and then appeared to deliberately brush into Rosol during a changeover. "I was concentrating on myself," Rosol said. "I dont know what he was complaining about." This marks Nadals earliest loss at a major event since Gilles Muller topped him in the second round at Wimbledon back in 2005. And Rosol is the lowest- ranked player to beat him at a Slam. Nadal is an 11-time major champion who was fresh off his seventh French Open title in Paris a few weeks ago. He had appeared in the last five Grand Slam finals, winning two French Opens and losing to Novak Djokovic here at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year and the Australian Open this year. The lefthanded Nadal defeated Djokovic in the French Open final just 17 days ago. Meanwhile, three-time semifinalist Andy Murray and three-time runner-up Andy Roddick were a pair of second-round victors at The Championships. The fourth-seeded Murray snuck past massive-serving 6-foot-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) in just over three hours on Centre Court, while the 30th-seeded Roddick struck 13 aces and was broken only once in getting past speedy German Bjorn Phau 6-3, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 in just over two hours on Court 2. Murray broke Karlovic, who smacked 17 aces, four times while being broken only once on a hot and sunny Day 4. Afterwards, Karlovic accused the line judges of favoring Murray after they called a number of foot faults against him. Karlovic said some of the calls were "outrageous." He added that "it was allways when it was 30-all or in a tiebreak.dddddddddddd I mean, what is this? Is it Davis Cup or is it Wimbledon?" Murray, who reached the semis here the previous three years, is trying to give Britain its first male Wimbledon champion since Fred Perry way back in 1936. Up next for the Scot will be quality Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. The former world No. 1 and former U.S. Open champion Roddick, who lost to the great Roger Federer in a trio of finals at the venerable All England Club, will meet seventh-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer on Saturday. Roddick was a grass-court titlist in Eastbourne last week. "The good patches and the bad patches are all between the ears," Roddick said. "Im still enjoying myself on the tennis courts, so its not for anybody else to say whether I can or cant play." Ferrer, fresh off his grass-court title in the Netherlands last week, handled Frances Kenny de Schepper 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday. In other action featuring top-10 seeds, No. 5 Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcame Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-1, 6-3, No. 9 Argentine Juan Martin del Potro topped Japans Go Soeda 6-2, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, and No. 10 American Mardy Fish outdistanced Brit James Ward 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3. The former Aussie Open runner-up Tsonga was a Wimbledon semifinalist a year ago, while del Potro is a former U.S. Open champion who has never fared very well at the AELTC. Fish, playing his first tennis since March this week, needed 4 hours, 13 minutes to stave off the game Ward on Court 1. The American swatted 26 aces en route to the unexpectedly-tough victory. The 30-year-old Fish will face rising Belgian David Goffin in the round of 32. Meanwhile, Belgian Xavier Malisse doused 13th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) and 16th-seeded Croat Marin Cilic dismissed Polands Lukasz Kubot 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-1. Simon, a member of the ATP Player Council, drew some attention here on Wednesday when he said women should not earn the same prize money as the men at Grand Slam events. In other action involving seeds, No. 17 Spaniard Fernando Verdasco held off Slovenian Grega Zemlja 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-3; No. 19 Japanese Kei Nishikori beat Frenchman Florent Serra 6-3, 7-5, 6-2; Frances Benoit Paire upset No. 22 Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-4; No. 27 German Philipp Kohlschreiber straight-setted Tunisian Malek Jaziri 6-1, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1; and No. 28 Czech Radek Stepanek erased German Benjamin Becker 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. Stepanek is rewarded with a third-round match against the reigning world No. 1 and reigning Wimbledon champ Djokovic on Friday. Additionally, Goffin overcame American Jesse Levine 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3; American comeback kid Brian Baker whipped Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen 6-0, 6-2, 6-4; Colombian Alejandro Falla outlasted Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 7-5; Slovak Lukas Lacko edged out Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; and the former Wimbledon semifinalist Baghdatis got past Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 4-1 when the injured Bulgarian retired in the second set. Canadian slugger Milos Raonic, seeded 21st here, was tied with American Sam Querrey 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (7-9), 3-3 when their bout was suspended because of insufficient light. In addition to Djokovic, a third-seeded Federer will also see third-round action on Friday as the Swiss great will face 29th-seeded Frenchman Julien Benneteau. The former No. 1 Federer owns a mens-record 16 major titles, including six Wimbledon championships. ' ' '

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