Golden State and Curry back on track
NBA: Steve Kerr challenged his Golden State Warriors to ratchet up the intensity to playoff level. With MVP Stephen Curry leading the way, they responded and looked like the team that cruised through the regular season.
Curry scored 21 of his 33 points by halftime, and the visiting Warriors snapped their two-game skid Monday night by routing Memphis 101-84 to tie the Western Conference semifinals at two games apiece.
“Tonight we took a step towards understanding that sense of urgency and kind of competitiveness and physicality to the game,” Kerr said. “It was probably our most competitive effort, definitely of the series, but probably of the playoffs just in terms of understanding you got to play every second.”
The Warriors hadn’t lost three straight games all season, and they never came close as they took back home-court advantage. Curry hadn’t scored more than 23 points in a game in this series, and he nearly had that by halftime.
Draymond Green had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Warriors while Klay Thompson had 15 points, Harrison Barnes 12 and Andre Iguodala 11.
“We set the tone the first quarter and kept the foot on the gas pedal the whole way, and that’s how we play,” Curry said.
Marc Gasol had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Memphis while Zach Randolph had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“We lost our composure early in the first half, especially in the first quarter,” Memphis coach Dave Joerger said. “We needed to keep that closer in the first quarter.”
• Hawks also rebound: Suddenly, the Atlanta Hawks went from so-so in the playoffs to looking a bit more like a No. 1 seed.
“That’s how we play. That’s how we’ve been playing all year,” forward Paul Millsap said. “Things we didn’t do, pretty much all series, we did tonight.”
Jeff Teague scored 26 points, Millsap added 19 points, six assists and five rebounds, and Al Horford had 18 points and 10 rebounds as the visiting Hawks beat Washington 106-101 and evened the second-round series at two games apiece.
Washington’s lone All-Star, point guard John Wall, missed a third consecutive game with a broken left hand.
“To me, personally, I think this is the best we’ve played all series,” said Millsap, who had eight points in Game 3, when he was dropped from the starting lineup because of flu-like symptoms. “Thirty assists, the way we played defense, the way we stepped up, the way we helped each other, the way we moved the basketball, the way we set screens.”
Cavendish wins again in Tour of California
CYCLING: Britain’s Mark Cavendish earned his second straight win over Peter Sagan of Slovakia and extended his race lead in the second stage of the Tour of California.
Cavendish, who rides for the Etixx-Quick Step team, earned his 11th win of the season with a late surge in the 120.4-mile road stage from Nevada City to Lodi in 4 hours, 47 minutes and 2 seconds.
Sagan again bolted to the front of the mass sprint, but he was passed by Cavendish by a quarter-wheel. Wouter Wippert of the Netherlands finished third in the stage.
• Matthews wins, leads Giro: Michael Matthews sprinted to victory in the third stage of the Giro d’Italia to remain in the overall lead, and then dedicated his win to injured Domenico Pozzovivo.
Pozzovivo crashed on a descent within 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the finish. The Italian fell hard and stayed on the ground for several minutes. He received medical attention and was moving and breathing unaided as he was taken to the hospital by an ambulance.
“Domenico suffers from a cranial-facial trauma but the scanner reveals no intra-cranial lesion,” AG2R team physician Eric Bouvat said. “He has deep wounds above his right eye and received stitches. He is conscious and lucid but has no memory of the crash.”
Matthews crossed the line half a length ahead of Fabio Felline and Philippe Gilbert on the short but hilly 136-kilometer (84.5-mile) route from Rapallo to Sestri Levante.
Appendix sidelines Lightning’s Callahan
MISCELLANY: Tampa Bay right wing Ryan Callahan will miss tonight’s Game 6 of the team’s NHL playoff series against Montreal after undergoing an emergency appendectomy. The Lightning lead the series 3-2.
• Rockets up 3-0: Rourke Chartier scored twice as Kelowna downed visiting Brandon 5-3 for a 3-0 lead in Western Hockey League finals.
Leon Draisaitl, Gage Quinney and Dillon Dube also scored for the Rockets, who were 0 for 5 on the power play, while Jackson Whistle made 26 saves for the win.
• Austria, Finland win by shootout: Konstantin Komarek scored the winning penalty shot to give Austria a 3-2 win over Germany after a shootout at the hockey world championships in Prague, a result that sent Switzerland into the quarterfinals.
Finland also beat Belarus 3-2 after a penalty shootout, having already secured a spot in the knockout stage.
• Nadal out of top 5: Rafael Nadal dropped out of the top five in the ATP rankings for the first time in 10 years after failing to defend his title at the Madrid Masters.
Nadal, a two-time defending champion in the Spanish capital, lost to Andy Murray, only two weeks before starting his quest for a 10th French Open title.
The 28-year-old Nadal dropped to seventh in the rankings, meaning he could face higher-ranked opponents as early as the quarterfinals at Roland Garros. Novak Djokovic is still the top-ranked player, followed by Roger Federer and Murray.