Red-hot Spurs take 1-0 lead over Thunder
NBA: Manu Ginobili scored 26 points and the San Antonio Spurs won their 19th in a row to tie the NBA record for longest winning streak kept alive in the playoffs, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-98 to open the Western Conference finals on Sunday night.
Obeying orders snarled by coach Gregg Popovich in a fourth-quarter timeout to play “nasty,” the Spurs erased a nine-point deficit that stunned the Thunder, who had looked on their way to finally kicking the perception that they’re the underdogs.
Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 27 points. Russell Westbrook had 17.
The 2001 Lakers are the only other team to carry a winning streak this long in the playoffs – and they did so on their way to a championship. Game 2 is Tuesday night in San Antonio.
Sporting Kansas City ends four-game skid
Soccer: Kei Kamara scored his team-leading fifth goal and assisted on C.J. Sapong’s goal to help Sporting Kansas City beat the San Jose Earthquakes 2-1 in Kansas City, Mo.
Sporting (8-3-1) broke a four-match winless streak.
Simon Dawkins scored in the 72nd minute for San Jose (8-3-3), cutting it to 2-1.
• Women’s Olympic team selected: Abby Wambach will return to the U.S. Olympic team and Pia Sundhage picked six newcomers for the 18-woman squad that will try and defend its gold medal at this summer’s London Games.
Wambach missed the Beijing Olympics after breaking her leg. She played in the 2004 Games, scoring the winning goal in the gold-medal game against Brazil.
Sydney Leroux will make her Olympic debut along with Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Kelley O’Hara, Amy LePeilbet and Becky Sauerbrunn.
Captain Christie Rampone became the first player to make four Olympic teams.
Catchings leads Fever over Dream
WNBA: Tamika Catchings had 25 points and 12 rebounds, Katie Douglas added 16 points and the Indiana Fever beat the Atlanta Dream 78-62 in Atlanta.
Catchings’ double-double was her 73rd, fifth-most on the WNBA’s career list, and helped Indiana (3-0) win its second straight over the Dream after losing the Eastern Conference finals to Atlanta last year.
Angel McCoughtry finished with 21 points and Lindsey Harding added 13 for Atlanta, which had a six-game home winning streak over the Fever snapped.
Canada’s Hesjedal wins Giro d’Italia
Cycling: Ryder Hesjedal became the first Canadian to win one of cycling’s three major tour races, capturing the Giro d’Italia by overtaking Spain’s Joaquin Rodriguez in the final stage.
Hesjedal started the 21st stage 31 seconds behind the leader, but finished 16 seconds ahead of Rodriguez in the overall standings. He completed the 17.5-mile individual time trial in 34 minutes, 15 seconds. That was good for sixth place – 20 spots ahead of Rodriguez in the 95th edition of the race.
The 32-year-old rider is only the third non-Italian to win the Giro in the past 15 years.
Marco Pinotti of Italy won the final stage in 33:06, 39 seconds ahead of Geraint Thomas of Britain.
Detroit Lions’ Fairley charged with DUI
NFL: Detroit Lions defensive tackle Nick Fairley has been arrested in Tillman’s Corner, Alabama, on charges of driving under the influence and attempting to elude police, his second arrest in his home state in two months.
Alabama state troopers say the 24-year-old passed a state trooper early Sunday morning at 100 mph in his Cadillac Escalade in unincorporated Mobile County. After initially refusing to stop for the trooper’s emergency lights and siren, Fairley pulled over and seemed impaired. He was arrested without incident.
Fairly was also cited for reckless driving, no proof of insurance and open container.
Northwestern wins lady’s lacrosse title
Miscellany: Taylor Thornton scored the winning goal with 9:55 left and Northwestern won its seventh NCAA women’s lacrosse championship in eight years, beating Syracuse (19-4) 8-6 in Stony Brook, N.Y.
Shannon Smith scored twice and had two assists for Northwestern (21-2).
• Gebrselassie fails to qualify for 10,000: Haile Gebrselassie failed to qualify for the 10,000 meters at the London Games, finishing out of the top two for Ethiopian qualifiers at the FBK Games in Hengelo, Netherlands.
Gebrselassie failed to make it among the marathon qualifiers but had a fleeting hope he could go through in the 10,000, where he won gold in 1996 and 2000.
Tariku Bekele won the qualifying race, while brother Kenenisa Bekele, the 2004 and ’08 Olympic champion, will likely get the Ethiopian wild card for London.
• U.S. women blow past China: Alex Morgan scored twice and the U.S. women’s soccer team beat China 4-1 at Chester, Pa., in its second-to-last home exhibition game before leaving for the London Olympics.
Abby Wambach added a goal, and the United States also scored on an own-goal in front of a capacity crowd of 18,573 fans at PPL Park. Zhang Rui scored for China.
After China took the lead in the 22nd minute, Morgan tied it in the 34th and the U.S. pulled ahead on the own-goal in the 36th. Morgan stuck again in the 50th, and Wambach capped the scoring in the 83rd.