Trail Blazers break San Antonio jinx behind Roy
Brandon Roy scored 26 points and the Portland Trail Blazers took a big stride in the race for home-court advantage with a 95-83 NBA victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night at San Antonio.
Clawing back from an early 19-point deficit, Portland won in San Antonio for the first time since 2002 – and the timing was perfect.
Portland moved into a three-way tie with the Spurs and Houston for the third-best record (50-28) in the West with four games left. The Trail Blazers also took the season series 3-1, which could pay dividends if the seedings come down to tiebreakers.
Roger Mason scored 18 points for the Spurs.
•Nuggets add to streak: Carmelo Anthony scored 31 points, helping the host Denver Nuggets stave off the Oklahoma City Thunder 122-112 for their eighth straight win.
Linas Kleiza scored 12 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter for the Nuggets, who inched closer to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs with their ninth straight win at the Pepsi Center.
•Hawks move closer: The Atlanta Hawks took another step toward earning home-court advantage for the first round of the playoffs, fending off a late rally by the Milwaukee Bucks for a 113-105 victory at Milwaukee.
Joe Johnson scored 30 points and made a pair of big shots down the stretch for the Hawks, who came into the game in control of the No. 4 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.
•Mavs clinch spot: The Dallas Mavericks clinched the final playoff spot in the Western Conference and taken a huge step to possibly avoiding the No. 8 seed – and a first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 31 points, with a dozen in a row in one stretch, and the Mavericks beat Utah 130-101 to match the Jazz for seventh place with four games left. The season series is even.
Dallas and Utah are both 47-31 and within a game of sixth-place New Orleans.
•Arizona loses Hill: Arizona forward Jordan Hill will forgo his senior year and make himself eligible for the NBA draft.
Hill averaged 18.1 points and 11 rebounds this season for the Wildcats.
In three seasons at Arizona, Hill averaged 12.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots.
•Wake’s Teague declares: Wake Forest guard Jeff Teague declared for the NBA draft but did not hire an agent, leaving his coach confident he’ll return to school for his junior season.
The 6-foot-2 Teague averaged a team-best 18.8 points and dished out 110 assists.
•Bobcats guard steps aside: Montana State guard James Hennessy has decided to forgo his senior year of eligibility with the Bobcats of the Big Sky Conference because of a knee injury.
Hockey
Joseph ties Worsley for dubious mark
Ryan Miller made 32 saves to help Buffalo keep its slim playoff hopes alive, and Toronto’s Curtis Joseph tied the NHL record for losses in Buffalo’s 3-1 victory over the Maple Leafs at Toronto.
Joseph was tagged with the 452nd loss of his career, tying him with the late Gump Worsley for most in NHL history.
•Columbus earns first berth: Defenseman Fedor Tyutin scored the lone goal in the shootout and the Columbus Blue Jackets earned their first playoff berth in franchise history, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 at Chicago.
Columbus, which entered the NHL in 2000-01, was the only active team that had not qualified for the postseason.
Motorsports
Sponsor comes through for Allmendinger
AJ Allmendinger picked up a sponsor that will keep his Richard Petty Motorsports entry running at least until September.
Hunt Brothers Pizza will sponsor six races and the All-Star event, ensuring the No. 44 will stay on the track at least through the Sept. 12 race in Richmond, Va.
Allmendinger started the season with just enough sponsorship to take him through the first quarter of the Sprint Cup schedule.
•Almirola loses ride: Aric Almirola became NASCAR’s latest casualty of the economic crisis when Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing was forced to park the No. 8 car because of a lack of sponsorship.
Yates Racing closed its No. 28 team last month when it couldn’t find sponsorship for Travis Kvapil.
Tennis
Serena Williams loses match, No. 1 ranking
Top-ranked Serena Williams was upset by 95th-ranked Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round of the Andalucia Tennis Experience at Marbella, Spain.
Meanwhile, Dinara Safina will overtake Williams for the No. 1 ranking in tennis later this month.
The WTA Tour said that Safina will rise to No. 1 for the first time in her career in the April 20 rankings.
Miscellany
Maryland makes move to keep Preakness
Gov. Martin O’Malley introduced legislation aimed at strengthening the state’s hand in keeping the Preakness Stakes horse race in Maryland, fearing loss of the Triple Crown event would badly damage Maryland’s struggling equine industry.
The future location of the Preakness has been thrown into question because of federal bankruptcy filings by the race’s current owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., of Canada.
O’Malley and other state officials pointed to the bitter memory of losing the Baltimore Colts football team 25 years ago as an example of why the state must do all it can to protect the storied horse race, which is a big-time annual revenue raiser. More than 112,000 people attended the Preakness last year
The legislation would increase the state’s authority to either buy or exercise eminent domain over Pimlico Race Course, Laurel Park and the Bowie Race Course Training Center in Maryland.
•NCAA combines USC inquiries: NCAA investigations into former USC stars in football and basketball have been combined into one probe of the Trojans’ athletic program, sources said.
Investigators have been examining allegations involving Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush and NBA lottery pick O.J. Mayo.
•Bengals cornerback arrested: Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Leon Hall was arrested in southwest Ohio and charged with drunken driving, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
A police report says a state trooper stopped Hall’s 2007 Mercedes just after 3 a.m. Sunday in Clermont County.
•Khan takes stab at Kotelnik: Amir Khan (20-1) will make his first world title challenge when he moves up to light-welterweight to challenge WBA champion Andreas Kotelnik (31-2-1) on June 27.
The big-punching 22-year-old British lightweight, who beat three-time world champion Marco Antonio Barrera in his last fight March 14, will face the 31-year-old German-based Ukrainian, although promoter Frank Warren said the venue is still to be decided.
•Soccer body agrees with WADA: FIFA reached an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency in a dispute over rules for drug testing elite soccer players.
The governing body of world soccer said from Zurich that WADA has accepted a plan to limit the number of players who will be required to detail their whereabouts each day during the offseason.