Sports Briefs January 31, 2011
Jim O'Brien's future as Pacers coach was in question heading into a four-game road trip, and team president Larry Bird didn't get the answers he wanted.
Bird fired O'Brien on Sunday after the team squandered a promising start to the season by losing seven of its past eight games.
Bird had discussed the team's coaching options with owner Herb Simon, saying he wanted to see how the team performed on a Western swing against the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State, Portland and Denver.
The Pacers went 121-169 under O'Brien in a 3 1/2 seasons and are 17-27 this season. O'Brien was ejected in his final game, a 110-89 loss to Chicago on Saturday.
Celtics 109, Lakers 96: Paul Pierce scored 32 points and visiting Boston won its NBA finals rematch with Los Angeles, overcoming Kobe Bryant's 41 points.
Heat 108, Thunder 103: Dwyane Wade scored 32 points as visiting Miami beat Oklahoma City.
Knicks 124, Pistons 106: Amare Stoudemire scored 33 points despite a sprained right knee and host New York beat Detroit.
Magic 103, Cavaliers 87: Dwight Howard had 20 points and 20 rebounds in three quarters of work to help host Orlando past Cleveland.
76ers 110, Nuggets 99: Andre Iguodala scored 24 points to lead host Philadelphia over Denver.
Suns 104, Hornets 102: Backup center Marcin Gortat scored 25 points and host Phoenix survived New Orleans' late rally.
Warriors 96, Jazz 81: At Oakland, Calif., Stephen Curry had 27 points and seven assists and Golden State beat Utah.
College basketball
• Top 25 Men
St. John's 93, No. 3 Duke 78: Dwight Hardy scored 26 points and St. John's stunned Duke in New York, capping the Red Storm's run of eight straight games against ranked teams with their third win.
St. John's (12-8), which had lost three straight and five of six, took control early and had a 46-25 lead at halftime. Duke (19-2), which came into the game shooting 40 percent from 3-point range, missed its first 10 shots from behind the arc and made one of 13 in the half.
No. 25 Michigan State 84, Indiana 83, OT: At East Lansing, Mich., Kalin Lucas scored 26 points to lead the Spartans (13-8, 5-4 Big Ten) over the Hoosiers (11-11, 2-7).
• WAC
Utah State 89, Hawaii 84: Brian Green scored 22 points to lead Utah State to a double-overtime Western Athletic Conference win over Hawaii (12-9, 3-6) late Saturday night in Honolulu.
Tyler Newbold added 17 points and Brady Jardine scored 13 for the Aggies (20-2, 9-0), who won their 15th consecutive game.
Auto racing
Three-time and defending series champion Scott Pruett drove the last leg of the Rolex 24 at Daytona and held off Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon during a final restart in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Pruett's smooth restart helped him pull away from Dixon and third-place finisher Joao Barbosa after the green-white restart and clinch the Daytona Prototype class by 2.42 seconds. It was Pruett's 32nd win in the series and his fourth Rolex 24 victory (1994, 2007, 2008). It could be his most meaningful, too.
Ganassi became the only car owner to win the four biggest races in the United States during a 12-month period. His drivers won the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 last year.
Skiing
Ivica Kostelic erased a massive deficit in the slalom leg to beat Natko Zrncic-Dim for a World Cup super combined race in Chamonix, France, clinching the discipline title and extending his lead in the overall standings with his seventh victory this month.
Figure skating
A few months after plotting out his retirement, Ryan Bradley won his first title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, N.C.
A conservative performance left Bradley fourth in the free skate, but his lead from the short program was enough to claim the title.
- The Associated Press