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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Nuggets upset suddenly cold Heat

Nuggets’ Aaron Brooks shoots as Heat’s Chris Bosh defends. Denver claimed its fifth win in 18 games. (Associated Press)
From Staff And Wire Reports

NBA: Kenneth Faried scored 24 points, Darrell Arthur led a big effort from Denver’s bench with 18, and the visiting Nuggets beat the suddenly reeling Miami Heat 111-107 on Friday night, handing the NBA champions their fifth loss in six games.

Evan Fournier scored 14, Ty Lawson had 13 and JJ Hickson added 11 for the Nuggets. Denver’s reserves scored 57 points.

Ray Allen scored 22 points for Miami, which fell three games behind Indiana in the race for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

It was only the fifth win for Denver in its last 18 games.

Sixers lose 19th straight: Paul George scored 25 points and David West had 18 to help the Indiana Pacers beat Philadelphia 101-94, sending the host 76ers to their 19th straight loss.

With a loss to Memphis today, the Sixers can tie the franchise record for consecutive defeats in a single season. The Sixers lost 20 straight games from Jan. 9, 1973-Feb. 11, 1973 in a 9-73 season. The NBA record for consecutive losses in a season is 26 set by the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers.

Wings edge Oilers in shootout

NHL: Tomas Tatar scored on Detroit’s third shootout attempt and Jimmy Howard stopped all three Edmonton attempts to lift the Red Wings to a 2-1 win over the Oilers in Detroit.

Edmonton’s Ryan Smyth tied the game midway through the third period. Smyth scored on a shot from the slot that was set up by Detroit defenseman Brendan Smith’s backhanded giveaway.

Riley Sheahan put the Red Wings ahead 1-0 late in the first period. They lost the lead and failed to take advantage of power plays late in regulation and midway through overtime.

Ex-Bills QB Kelly’s cancer returns

NFL: Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly’s cancer has returned.

The Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo said in a statement that the cancer was found when the former Buffalo Bills star came in for follow-up testing after having oral surgery to remove cancerous cells last year.

The statement says the hospital’s head and neck cancer specialists are determining a course of treatment.

Djokovic advances to semifinals

Tennis: Novak Djokovic beat Julien Benneteau 6-1, 6-3 in just over an hour to reach the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.

Djokovic, a two-time champion at Indian Wells, will play 12th-seeded John Isner, the lone remaining American, in today’s semifinals. Isner fired 13 aces to beat 20th-seeded Ernests Gulbis 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3).

Four-time winner Roger Federer will meet Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine in the other semi.

Garrigus holds lead at Valspar

Golf: Robert Garrigus can’t recall a better performance going into the weekend. And his golf has been pretty good, too.

Garrigus spent most of the practice days fishing in the lakes of Innisbrook, catching nearly three dozen bass. As for his day job, he bagged 10 birdies over two days and delivered the best score of the tournament, a 5-under 66, to build a three-shot lead in the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla.

The three-shot lead is the largest through 36 holes in the 14-year history of this tournament.

Langer on top at Toshiba: Bernhard Langer birdied three of the last four holes for an 8-under 63 and a two-stroke lead in the Champions Tour’s Toshiba Classic in Newport Beach, Calif.

Langer, the 2008 winner, had eight birdies in his bogey-free round at Newport Beach Country Club.

Wust nabs title in 1,500 meters

Miscellany: Ireen Wust of the Netherlands won the World Cup 1,500-meter title in speed skating, making up in some small way for having to settle for silver in the same event at the Winter Olympics.

Wust finished in 1 minute, 53.68 seconds to beat countrywoman Lotte van Beek into second place at the Thialf oval in Heerenveen, Netherlands in the final race of the season. Yuliya Skokova of Russia was third.

Betancur wins sixth stage of Paris-Nice: Carlos Betancur outsprinted world champion Rui Costa to win the sixth stage of the Paris-Nice and take the overall lead in the weeklong race.

The Colombian rider finished in 5 hours, 12 minutes, 11 seconds on the 221.5-kilometer trek from Saint-Saturnin-les-Avignon to Fayence.

Hawayek, Baker win junior skating title: Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker won the ice dance title at the Junior World Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Anna Yanovskaya and Sergey Mozgov of Russia earned the silver medal, and Canada’s Madeline Edwards and Zhao Kai Pang took bronze.

Russia swept the women’s short program.