In brief: Rose floater lifts Chicago past New York
NBA: Derrick Rose made a baseline floater with 5.7 seconds left to lift the Chicago Bulls to an 82-81 victory over the New York Knicks on Thursday night in his first home game since he injured his left knee 18 months ago.
Rose had 18 points on 7-of-23 shooting and committed four turnovers. But there was no doubt who was getting the ball after Tyson Chandler went 1 for 2 at the line to give New York an 81-80 lead with 10.8 seconds remaining.
The speedy point guard, who was a game-time decision for his return due to a sore neck, got the ball on the wing and drove to the baseline for the go-ahead basket, drawing a standing ovation from the delirious crowd at the United Center.
New York had one last chance, but Carmelo Anthony missed a long jumper.
• Paul, Clippers top Warriors: Chris Paul scored 42 points and had three of his 15 assists on consecutive alley-oop dunks by Blake Griffin during a 30-second span of the third quarter, leading the Los Angeles Clippers to a 126-115 victory over visiting Golden State.
The Warriors’ Stephen Curry, who set an NBA single-season record with 272 3-pointers last season, made nine 3s against the Clippers and finished with 39 points and nine assists.
• Grizzlies sign Pondexter to extension: The Memphis Grizzlies and former Washington Husky Quincy Pondexter have agreed to a contract extension. The 6-foot-6 guard-forward led the Grizzlies with a career-high 39.5 percent shooting from 3-point range in 59 games last season. Pondexter, who hit a combined 40 3-pointers in his first two seasons, hit 60 3s last season.
Djokovic, Nadal advance in Paris
Tennis: Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic overcame big servers to reach the Paris Masters quarterfinals. Nadal beat last year’s runner-up, Jerzy Janowicz, 7-5, 6-4, and Djokovic rallied from a set down to top John Isner 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2.
Roger Federer, defending champion David Ferrer, Juan Martin del Potro, Tomas Berdych, Stanislas Wawrinka and Richard Gasquet also won their third-round matches.
The tournament has turned into a rehearsal for the ATP World Tour Finals, with the eight quarterfinalists also the eight players who qualified for the London tournament next week.
• Ivanovic beats Stosur at Tournament of Champions: Ana Ivanovic beat Sam Stosur 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 for her second straight victory in the group stage at the season-ending WTA Tournament of Champions in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The two-time tournament winner played aggressively to win the opening set in just 30 minutes. Stosur then broke Ivanovic’s serve in the second set to go up 5-3. But Ivanovic got the early break at 2-0 in the third set and cruised from there. She will play Russia’s Elena Vesnina today, with both still trying to secure a spot in the semifinals.
Vesnina outlasted Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 4-6, 6-0 for her first victory at the tournament.
In the day’s final match, top-seeded Simona Halep of Romania swept past Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-1.
Iginla, Bruins top Ducks in shootout
NHL: Zdeno Chara scored the tying goal on a power play with under 3 minutes remaining in regulation and Jarome Iginla had the lone goal in a shootout to rally the Boston Bruins past the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 in Boston.
Carl Soderberg scored his first NHL goal and Tuukka Rask made 21 saves for the Bruins, who mustered only one shot on goal in the first period. They never sustained much of an offensive attack but still managed to snap a two-game skid.
• Rangers shut out Sabres: Henrik Lundqvist made 29 saves in his 47th NHL shutout, and New York won its second straight and first at home with a victory over lowly Buffalo.
Lundqvist made a late third-period save with the top of his helmet, deflecting the puck into the crowd, and then robbed Marcus Foligno with 1:20 remaining.
• Sabres’ Scott suspended 7 games: Buffalo Sabres forward John Scott was suspended for seven games without pay by the NHL for his illegal check to Boston forward Loui Eriksson’s head. Scott received a match penalty for the hit in the Sabres’ 5-2 home loss Oct. 23.
Scott skated in from Eriksson’s right and leveled him with a shoulder to the face. Ericksson sustained a concussion and is sidelined indefinitely.
• Avalanche acquire Talbot from Flyers: The Colorado Avalanche swapped veteran forwards with Philadelphia, sending Steve Downie to the Flyers in exchange for Maxime Talbot.
Talbot is expected to be in Dallas when the Avs face the Stars tonight. The move is somewhat of a surprise, with Colorado off to a 10-1 start and leading its division.
• Capitals’ Ovechkin out with upper-body injury: Alex Ovechkin will miss the Washington Capitals’ game today with an upper-body injury.
Coach Adam Oates said Ovechkin would not make the trip for the game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Ovechkin was hurt when he crashed head-first into the goalie and net early in the first period of Monday’s loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
Dynamo advance in MLS playoffs
Major League Soccer: Will Bruin scored twice and Boniek Garcia added a goal to give the Houston Dynamo a 3-0 win over the Montreal Impact in the Eastern Conference knockout round of the MLS Cup playoffs in Houston.
Fourth-seeded Houston advances to play the top-seeded New York Red Bulls. The Dynamo will host New York in the first game of the two-leg, aggregate-goals Eastern Conference semifinals on Sunday.
Varlamov jailed for domestic violence
Miscellany: Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov is accused of assaulting his girlfriend, kicking her in the chest and dragging her by the hair, and was scheduled to appear before a judge in Denver.
The 25-year-old turned himself into police Wednesday evening, after practicing with the team that day. He was arrested on suspicion of second-degree kidnapping and third-degree assault.
His arrest warrant details the alleged assault, which took place Monday. In addition to kicking the woman, police say Varlamov told her in Russian that if this were Russia, he would have beat her more.