Johnson's 41 points lift NBA Hawks over Bulls

Joe Johnson scored a season-high 41 points to lift the high flying Atlanta Hawks to a 129-117 National Basketball Association victory over the Chicago Bulls.

ATLANTA, Georgia (AFP) -

Joe Johnson scored a season-high 41 points to lift the high flying Atlanta Hawks to a 129-117 National Basketball Association victory over the Chicago Bulls.

Josh Smith posted a season-best 24 points, while Mike Bibby scored 17 points and Marvin Williams chipped in 16 and eight rebounds for the Hawks, who continued to show their dominance on their home floor.

The Hawks have won six of seven on their current eight-game homestand to improve to 13-2 in Atlanta this season.

"Any game that you can play that is high scoring is fun," Johnson said. "But you always want to be on the winning side."

Ben Gordon scored 33 points and rookie Derrick Rose added 27 for the Bulls, who have lost four of their last five games.

Gordon also surpassed Scottie Pippen as Chicago's all-time leader in 3-pointers.

He was 6-of-8 from 3-point range to take his total to 669, passing Pippen's mark of 664.

"It's a nice accomplishment," Gordon said. "But when you lose, it doesn't really mean anything."

Chicago's Andres Nocioni drained a 3-pointer with 7:15 to play to cut the gap to 107-105.

But the Hawks put the game away with a 16-7 scoring run.

"Our offense was solid tonight," Atlanta coach Mike Woodson said. "It was probably the best it has been all season. Everybody was clicking on all cylinders. It was an offensive performance tonight on both sides of the ball."

The win was the seventh in eight games for the Hawks, who have been lifted by their All-Star Johnson.

Four nights after recording his second career triple-double in Atlanta's 99-88 win over the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder, Johnson was two points shy of his career best.

"Everybody was making a big deal of (my career-high numbers)," Johnson said. "They were telling me to get back on the end of the floor and shoot free throws. The main thing was that we were going to get the win, and that was it."

Tribute for Laver's 40th Grand Slam anniversary at Open

Next month's Australian Open will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Rod Laver's Grand Slam achievement when the Australian tennis great will be reunited with the four players he beat in the Grand Slam finals of 1969, organisers said Thursday.

Laver's achievement of twice winning the Grand Slam of the French, Wimbledon, US and Australian crowns in one calendar year in 1962 and 1969 remains unmatched in men's tennis.

The "Rockhampton Rocket" will be reunited with the four players he beat in the four Slam finals -- Andreas Gimeno (Australian Open), Ken Rosewall (French Open), John Newcombe (Wimbledon) and Tony Roche (US Open).

All five tennis greats will get together for a special panel chat about their roles in tennis history at a luncheon on January 31 during the 2009 Australian Open, organisers said.

Gimeno, whose French Open triumph in 1972 at the age of 35 makes him the oldest player to win a Grand Slam final, is coming from Barcelona for the event.

Rosewall, Roche and Newcombe are all legends of Australian tennis with 60 Grand Slam titles between them, 16 of them in singles.

The Australian Open, which takes place in Melbourne from January 19 to February 1, has named its main show court the Rod Laver Arena.

Lakers-Celtics, Highest Since Four Years

New York - Competition between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics fight off the regular viewers of the most crowded in the four years forth.



The fight is called a "replay the final NBA season and the dikabarkan successfully meraup rating of 5.3 on the ABC stations. That is clearly higher around 51 percent if compared with the big fight in the match between the Lakers and Christmas with the Pheonix Suns steal rating of only 3.5.

One day before the Lakers-Celtics fight, the match between the San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns successful steal 3.2 rating. It is also still higher than if the fight last year in the same day that the Miami and Cleveland met.

These statistics obtained, the results of the percentages of the number of TV viewers at home. This so as AP, Saturday (27/12/2008)

NBA Friday Aftermath

Stephen Jackson scored 15 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter to help the Golden State Warriors overcome the Boston Celtics 99-89.

Paul Pierce scored 21 points for the Celtics, who now have lost two games in a row for the first time this season. They had a franchise-record 19-game winning streak ended on Thursday at the Los Angeles Lakers.

Chris Paul produced another excellent performance with 26 points and 10 assists as the New Orleans Hornets edged the Houston Rockets 88-79 in a crucial Southwest Division clash.

David West finished with 23 points for the Hornets, while Tyson Chandler added 14 and 12 boards. Yao Ming led Houston with 19 points and 12 boards, while Tracy McGrady was held to 11 on 2-of-11 shooting.

The injury-ravaged Utah Jazz outlasted the Dallas Mavericks 97-88 in a physical contest between the two Western Conference foes.

Utah were without injured forward Carlos Boozer (knee), centre Mehmet Okur (back) and forward Paul Millsap (knee) but Ronnie Brewer picked up the slack with 21 points and rookie centre Kosta Koufos added 18 and eight boards.

Deron Williams also added 17 points and 13 assists despite a poor shooting night. Jason Terry led Dallas with 26 points off the bench while Dirk Nowitzki, who was ejected early in the fourth quarter, had 17 and eight rebounds.

Kenyon Martin drove the lane and jammed home a hoop with nine seconds left to give the Denver Nuggets a 105-101 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.

Philadelphia had a chance to win the game but Andre Iguodala travelled with 3.8 seconds left as the 76ers blew a 17-point lead.

JR Smith scored 27 points, including seven of Denver's 15 3-pointers. Chauncey Billups added 26 for the Nuggets, who were without Carmelo Anthony (elbow).

The Miami Heat dominated the final period as they recorded their fourth victory in a row with a 90-77 triumph over the Chicago Bulls.

Dwyane Wade, the league's leading scorer, carried the load once again with 28 points. Second-year guard Daequan Cook buried three 3-pointers in a three-minute span in the fourth, helping turn a 64-64 tie into a 15-point advantage

Allen Iverson hit a fall-away jumper in the lane with less than one second remaining to lift the Detroit Pistons to a 90-88 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Iverson scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half. Tayshaun Prince added 16 points and 11 rebounds and Rodney Stuckey and Rasheed Wallace chipped in 12 points apiece for Detroit. Kevin Durant scored 26 points for the Thunder.The New Jersey Nets suffered a 95-87 loss at home to the Charlotte Bobcats. Emeka Okafor led the way with 21 points and nine rebounds as Charlotte grabbed an early lead which they never relinquished.

Al Jefferson collected 21 points and 15 rebounds as the Minnesota Timberwolves ended their 13-game barren streak with a 120-107 victory over the out-of-form New York Knicks. Rashad McCants added 23 points off the bench for the Timberwolves,

Hakim Warrick scored 21 points off the bench as the Memphis Grizzlies ended a four-game losing run with a 108-105 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

Jermaine O'Neal dominated inside and delivered a season-best 36 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Toronto Raptors topped the Sacramento Kings 107-101. John Salmons and Brad Miller led the Kings with 20 points each.