Digest: Blazers advance 4-2 with 106-103 victory over the Clippers
NBA: Damian Lillard scored 28 points and the Portland Trail Blazers advanced to the Western Conference semifinals by holding off the resilient Los Angeles Clippers 106-103 on Friday night in Portland, Oregon, to claim the first-round playoff series 4-2.
Portland will open the series against the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors on Sunday.
CJ McCollum added 20 points for the Blazers, who became the first team to overcome a 2-0 deficit since Memphis came back against the Clippers in the first round in 2013.
Jamal Crawford had 32 points and Austin Rivers added 21 points and eight assists despite having 11 stitches above his left eye from a collision in the first quarter. But the Clippers could not recover from injuries to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin in Game 4 of the series.
Heat forces Game 7 against Hornets: Dwyane Wade scored 10 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, and the Miami Heat forced their first-round series to a seventh game with a 97-90 victory over the Charlotte Hornets in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Luol Deng was 9 of 14 from the field and finished with 21 points, while Goran Dragic added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Heat, who will host Game 7 on Sunday. The Heat overcame a playoff career-high 37 points from Kemba Walker to hand the Hornets only their 11th loss of the season at home. Al Jefferson had 18 points and nine rebounds, and Cody Zeller had 12 points off the bench for Charlotte.
With Miami leading by two, Wade hit his first 3-pointer of 2016 with 46 seconds left and added an 18-foot turnaround jump shot over Courtney Lee to help seal the win.
Pacers tie series 3-3: Paul George scored 21 points, Myles Turner added 15 and the Indiana Pacers beat the Toronto Raptors 101-83 in Indianapolis to force a Game 7 of their series.
That will be played Sunday in Toronto, and the winner will advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph each had 15 points for the Raptors, who haven’t won a postseason series since the first round in 2001.
Indiana trailed by as much as 12 early, never led until early in the third quarter and had to fend off a late third-quarter charge from the Raptors before blowing it open in the fourth.
Sharks rally past
Preds in series opener
NHL: Joel Ward scored the tiebreaking goal against his former team with 8:11 remaining in regulation to help the San Jose Sharks rally past the Nashville Predators 5-2 at San Jose, California, in Game 1 of their second-round series.
Ward also set up Tomas Hertl’s power-play goal that tied the game earlier in the period before scoring one of his own to help San Jose win its first playoff game when trailing after two periods since 2011.
Logan Couture added a power-play goal and an empty-netter, before Tommy Wingels sealed it with another empty-net goal as the Sharks showed some rust after having six days off since beating Los Angeles in five games in the first round. Martin Jones made 29 saves
Mike Fisher and Ryan Johansen scored for the Predators, who had only one day off after beating Anaheim in Game 7 of the first round. Pekka Rinne made 33 saves.
Faksa lifts Stars: Radek Faksa scored the tiebreaking goal on a rebound with 4:44 to play and had an assist on the other Dallas goal to help the Stars open the second round of the Western Conference playoffs with a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues.
Like Antoine Roussel did on his second-period goal on which Faksa had an assist, Faksa started the rush that led to his winner.
Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk tied it at 1 with 8:28 left in the third period with a shot from the top of the left circle after Dallas failed to clear the puck out of the zone.
Game 2 is Sunday in the best-of-seven series matching the Western Conference’s top two teams from the regular season.
Caps’ Wilson fined for knee hit: The NHL fined Capitals forward Tom Wilson $2,404 for his knee-on-knee hit on Pittsburgh’s Conor Sheary, sparing him a suspension that could have altered the second-round playoff series against the Penguins.
Wilson sent Sheary to the ice with his left knee 4 minutes into the third period of the Capitals’ 4-3 overtime victory in Game 1 on Thursday night. Sheary hobbled to the nearby bench in pain and missed a few shifts, and Wilson was not penalized.
Capitals coach Barry Trotz watched the replay Friday and said Sheary did a “shimmy,” describing the collision as “shin-on-shin.”
Ray Lewis’s son faces sexual assault charge
Miscellany: Ray Anthony Lewis III, a Coastal Carolina defensive back and son of former Baltimore Ravens star Ray Lewis, is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
An arrest warrant said the charge stems from a Jan. 23 incident at a Conway apartment and alleges 20-year-old Lewis engaged in sex with an 18-year-old woman incapacitated from using drugs or alcohol.
Conway Police Lt. Selena Small said after an investigation, the case was presented to the local prosecutor and a warrant served Friday. An incident report said a complaint by a second victim is still being investigated.
Lewis, of Apopka, Florida, turned himself in Friday and was released on $10,000 bond.
University spokeswoman Martha Hunn said Lewis was suspended from the team upon his arrest. It was not known if he had an attorney and Hunn said the university could not release student contact information.
Kidder leads Penn State: Brannon Kidder led Penn State to the distance medley relay championship at the Penn Relays, breaking away from the pack with a blistering anchor leg. Kidder ran the closing 1,600-meter leg in 4 minutes, 0.77 seconds as the Nittany Lions finished in 9:35.51.
Robby Creese opened with a 2:57.03 in the 1,200, Alex Shisler ran the 400 in 47.77 and Isaiah Harris clocked in at 1:49.96 in the 800 for Penn State, which captured its sixth overall distance medley relay for the Nittany Lions at Franklin Field. Kidder and Creese were both part of the Nittany Lions’ DMR-winning team in 2013.
Georgetown came in second at 9:36.32 and host Penn finished third in 9:37.25. Oregon, the 2014 and 2015 winner in the event, didn’t bring its men’s team to Penn Relays this year.
In the other long-distance race on Day 2 of the three-day meet, the country’s oldest and largest, Villanova used a big kick from Siofra Cleirigh Buttner to win the women’s 6,000-meter relay in 17:44.29.
Buttner, the only sophomore on a relay team consisting of freshmen Bella Burda, Sammy Bockoven and Nicole Hutchinson, ran her anchor leg in 4:21.7 to edge Oregon, Georgetown and Indiana in a dramatic four-team race.
The win was Villanova’s sixth Penn Relays championship in the last three years. With it, the Wildcats bounced back from a third-place finish in the woman’s distance medley relay Thursday.
Red Bulls beat MLS-leading FC Dallas
Soccer: Lloyd Sam scored on a set play in the 37th minute and the New York Red Bulls added three goals in the second half to beat MLS-leading FC Dallas 4-0 in Harrison, New Jersey.
The Red Bulls (3-6-0) scored on a coordinated play off Sacha Kljestan’s free kick. Kljestan floated it over the defense, where Sal Zizzo was wide open to head it back across the 6-yard box for Sam’s close-range finish.
Sam’s long-distance chip shot in the 52nd minute crashed high off the crossbar and caught goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez out of position as Kljestan raced in to head home the rebound.
Mike Grella made it 3-0 with a header in the 71st minute, and Felipe’s strike from the top of the penalty arc capped the scoring in the 83rd.
FC Dallas (5-3-2) is winless in four visits to Red Bull Arena.
Boca Juniors hooligans detained in Paraguay: More than 200 hooligans following Argentine club Boca Juniors were detained in Paraguay for acts of vandalism at a Copa Libertadores round-of-16 match against local club Cerro Porteno. Local police said the hooligan groups were being held in a stadium on the outskirts of the capital Asuncion with plans to transfer them to another stadium in the city.
The hooligans, known in Spanish as barrasbravas, got off buses and attacked bystanders and smashed automobile windshields. They were also found to be in possession of marijuana and cocaine and large amounts of alcohol.
Boca won the match 2-1 with the second match in the two-game series set for next week in Buenos Aires.
Violence among fans is endemic in much of Latin American soccer, particularly in matches involving Argentine clubs.
Lovemark, Vegas share lead at Zurich
Golf: Jamie Lovemark and Jhonattan Vegas shared the Zurich Classic lead at 11 under when second-round play in Avondale, Louisiana, was suspended because of darkness.
Lovemark had a 27-hole day at hot and humid TPC Louisiana, completing a 5-under 67 in the first round and adding a 66 in the second in the event that fell behind schedule Thursday with a long rain delay.
Vegas, from Venezuela, shot 64-69.
“Long day,” Vegas said. “I played 30 1/2 holes today. I knew it was going to be an extremely long day, None of the players in the afternoon wave finished the round, with top-ranked Jason Day at 5 under and facing a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-5 11th when play resumes. The Australian is the first No. 1 player to play in the event since David Duval in 1999.
Brian Stuard, the overnight leader after a 64 on Thursday, was a stroke behind the leaders at 10 under with six holes left.
Harold Varner III was 8 under after a 67. He and Tiger Woods are the only players of black heritage with PGA Tour status this season.
Piller leads: Gerina Piller made herself right at home in the LPGA Tour’s Volunteers of America Texas Shootout in Irving, Texas, shooting a 6-under 65 to take the lead in the suspended second round. Piller birdied three of the final five holes in her bogey-free round to reach 10-under 132.
Play was suspended because of rain just after 4 p.m. and called for the day because of lighting a little after 6 p.m. None of the afternoon starters were unable to finish. The field will be cut to the low 70 and ties after the completion of the round Saturday morning, then trimmed again to the low 50 and ties after the third round.
South Korea’s Eun-Hee Ji was a stroke back at 9 under after a 66.
First-round leader Mi Jung Hur was 8 under with six holes left. The South Korean player lives in the area in McKinney.