Linn passes Knicks to 7th straight win
NBA: Jeremy Lin put aside his record-setting scoring to hand out a career-best 13 assists, and the New York Knicks got back to .500 with their seventh straight victory, 100-85 over the visiting Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.
Lin added 10 points, focusing more on his role as a distributor while others torched the Kings for 51 percent shooting. Landry Fields had 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Bill Walker and Steve Novak each chipped in 14 points.
Lin scored 136 points in his first five starts, most by any NBA player since the NBA merged with the ABA in 1976. His 3-pointer with 0.5 seconds left Tuesday allowed the Knicks to pull out a 90-87 victory in a game they trailed nearly the whole way.
• Stuckey leads Pistons: Former Eastern Washington University standout Rodney Stuckey scored 25 points and Ben Gordon hit three 3-pointers in the opening 4:09 of the fourth quarter during a game-breaking spree that carried visiting Detroit to a 98-88 win over Boston.
Greg Monroe had 22 points and nine rebounds, and Gordon finished with 22 points for the Pistons, who won for the fifth time in seven games.
Boston’s Rajon Rondo had a season-high 35 points.
• Blazers win on road: Gerald Wallace scored 24 points and Jamal Crawford hit a key 3-pointer and a pair of late free throws to lift the Portland Trail Blazers over the Golden State Warriors 93-91.
Nicolas Batum added 17 points for the Trail Blazers, who had lost 11 of their last 12 in Oakland, Calif.
• Parker has hot hand: Tony Parker had 34 points and 14 assists, and the visiting San Antonio Spurs extended their season-best winning streak to nine games with a 113-106 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
Danny Green scored 13 points and matched his career high with seven rebounds, Tiago Splitter also had 13 points and Manu Ginobili added 11 for the Spurs, who have not lost since a 101-100 overtime defeat at Dallas on Jan. 29.
• Martin leads Rockets: Kevin Martin tied a season high with 32 points, including the winning free throws with 23.6 seconds remaining, to lead the Houston Rockets to a 96-95 win over the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder.
Ducks end Penguins’ home win streak
NHL: Teemu Selanne beat goalie Marc-Andre Fleury midway through the third period, and the Anaheim Ducks snapped the Pittsburgh Penguins’ six-game, home-winning streak with a 2-1 victory.
New Mexico upsets No. 13 Aztecs
COLLEGE MEN: Kendall Williams scored 21 points and Drew Gordon had 17 points and 17 rebounds as visiting New Mexico stunned No. 13 San Diego State 77-67 to move into first place in the Mountain West Conference.
The Lobos (21-4, 7-2) won their sixth straight game and held Chase Tapley, the conference’s leading scorer, to seven points. It was just the second home conference loss in two seasons for SDSU (20-5, 6-3) and the first time the Aztecs lost consecutive games since January 2010. They had gone 79 games without consecutive losses.
• Calhoun still out with ailing back: Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun will miss at least three more games while he receives treatment for his ailing back. He has sat out the team’s last three games as a result of spinal stenosis.
TCU football players arrested in drug sting
MISCELLANY: Authorities arrested 17 students at Texas Christian University as part of a six-month drug sting, an especially embarrassing blow to the school because it included four members of the high-profile football team.
Arrest warrants painted a startling picture of the Horned Frogs, with a handful of players who allegedly arranged marijuana sales after class or around practice and who told police that most of the team had failed a surprise drug test just two weeks ago.
Three prominent defensive players on the team were arrested: linebacker Tanner Brock, the leading tackler two seasons ago, defensive tackle D.J. Yendrey and cornerback Devin Johnson. The other player is offensive lineman Ty Horn.
Horn and Johnson scoffed at the Feb. 1 team drug test ordered by TCU football coach Gary Patterson, police said. Brock allegedly told an undercover officer that he failed the surprise test “for sure,” but that it wouldn’t be a problem because there “would be about 60 people screwed.”
Horn had looked through the football roster and “said there were only 20 people that would pass the test on the team,” Brock said, according to the warrant.
• Another upset for West Virginia: Christal Caldwell scored 16 points and Asya Bussie had a double-double as host Virginia beat its second ranked basketball team this week, defeating No. 21 Rutgers 60-50 at Morgantown, W.Va.
West Virginia (19-6, 9-3 Big East Conference) beat then No. 2-ranked Notre Dame 65-63 on Sunday.