In brief: Spurs end long road trip with loss to Suns
NBA: Ish Smith scored a career-high 15 points, matched his career best of seven rebounds and triggered a 17-point second-quarter run that propelled the Phoenix Suns past the road-weary San Antonio Spurs 106-85 on Friday night.
Markieff Morris scored 21 points and Channing Frye 17 for Phoenix. Gerald Green and Marcus Morris added 13 apiece.
Danny Green scored 15 and Tim Duncan 13 for the Spurs, who finished a nine-game road trip, the team’s annual sojourn while a rodeo is held back home. The Spurs went 7-2 on the swing.
The Suns, 3-0 since the All-Star break, snapped San Antonio’s four-game winning streak and climbed to a season-high 12 games above .500.
• Magic pull off tricks for double-OT win: Arron Afflalo had 32 points, rookie Victor Oladipo added 30 points and a career-high 14 assists, and the Orlando Magic rallied to beat the New York Knicks 129-121 in double overtime in Orlando, Fla.
The Magic trailed by as many as 14 points, but got 25 points and 10 assists from Oladipo after halftime to stave off the Knicks.
Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 44 points, but only 14 came after the third quarter.
The Knicks’ loss ended their eight-game game win streak over the Magic. New York has last four of its last five.
• James uncertain for Sunday’s game: LeBron James has a broken nose, and his availability for the Miami Heat on Sunday against Chicago will be a game-time decision.
The Heat announced the diagnosis after James’ injury was evaluated Friday. He missed the final 5:50 of Thursday’s game at Oklahoma City when he was struck inadvertently by defender Serge Ibaka on a drive to the basket.
• Harden scheduled for evaluation: Houston Rockets guard James Harden has a hyperextended right elbow and is scheduled to have an MRI exam Sunday.
Harden injured his elbow in a collision with David Lee in the closing minutes of Houston’s 102-99 overtime loss to the Golden State Warriors late Thursday night.
• Magic set to buy out Davis’ contract: The Magic are parting ways with forward Glen Davis. General manager Rob Hennigan announced that the team had agreed on a buyout for the remainder of Davis’ contract.
Davis has started 43 of the 45 games he’s appeared in this season. Terms of the buyout weren’t revealed.
40-hour tie game finally ends
Men’s basketball: A Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association game was suspended Wednesday night in Charlotte, N.C., when a full-court heave from Johnson C. Smith’s Joshua Linson shattered two lights suspended from the ceiling, leaving one dangling precariously from a wire with 0.3 seconds remaining in the game.
The game, tied at 76, was suspended until Friday because of safety concerns.
Then Linson finished what he started, breaking a 40-hour tie by hitting a go-ahead 3-pointer with 24 seconds left to lead the Johnson C. Smith Golden Bulls (15-10, 4-5 Southern Division) to an 89-86 overtime win against the Winston-Salem State Rams (15-10, 6-3) in a bizarre game that took three days to complete.
Winston-Salem State had the option to decide the outcome by a coin flip, but instead elected to travel 90 minutes back to Charlotte, N.C., to play a five-minute overtime period.
• Makeup date decided for Iowa and Indiana: No. 15 Iowa (19-6, 8-4 Big Ten) and Indiana (14-11, 4-8) have settled on a makeup date for their game that was postponed this week after an 8-foot piece of metal fell from the ceiling at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind.
The teams will play Thursday at Indiana in a game that will air on ESPN at 6 p.m. PST. The March 1 Purdue at Iowa game will now be played on March 2 at 11 a.m. PT.
Red Wings’ Zetterberg has back surgery
Miscellany: Detroit Red Wings 33-year-old captain Henrik Zetterberg underwent back surgery, and the team expects him to be evaluated again in about eight weeks.
Zetterberg played through pain and scored a goal in Sweden’s opening victory over the Czech Republic last week at the Sochi Olympics, but that was his only appearance before he left because of a herniated disk.
• Cornet upsets Williams in semifinals: Alize Cornet scored her first career victory over a No. 1 player when she upset Serena Williams 6-4, 6-4 in Dubai Championships semifinals in the United Arab Emirates.
Venus Williams defeated eighth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-2 earlier.
• Busch takes first truck win at Daytona: Kyle Busch used a perfectly timed pass to edge Timothy Peters in the final few feet to win the NASCAR Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. It was Busch’s 36th Truck Series victory and first at Daytona.
• Kwasniewski leads TSM sweep: Dylan Kwasniewski led a Turner Scott Motorsports sweep of the top three spots in qualifying for the Nationwide Series opener at Daytona International Speedway.
The 18-year-old rookie will make his series debut today starting from the pole. Kyle Larson starts second and Danica Patrick third.
• McDowell does it again for third time: For the third straight round, Graeme McDowell pulled off another improbable escape to advance to the Match Play Championship quarterfinals at Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz.
This time, all he had to do was win the last two holes against Hunter Mahan to force overtime and make a 20-foot par putt to stay in the match on the 20th hole. He won with a birdie on the 21st hole.
In three matches, McDowell has played 58 holes and has never had the lead until he won.