Taipei - Two NBA teams will visit Taiwan and China in October to play warm-up games before the start of the NBA season, a newspaper said Thursday.

The Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers will play a preseason game on October 8 at the Taipei Arena. Taiwan's basketball association next month will announce details of the game, the Apple Daily quoted an unnamed sports official as saying.

The two teams will send a total of 30 players, including Denver forward Carmelo Anthony, Indiana forward Danny Granger and NBA legend Larry Bird, now the Pacers' president of basketball operations.

Los Angeles - The Houston Rockets turned a big loss into a huge win.

Ron Artest scored all 18 of his points in the second half, and the Rockets overcame the absence of flu-ridden Yao Ming to beat the New Orleans Hornets 95-84 on Monday night.

"I can't say enough about the win, we got a lot of contributions from a lot of different people," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "It's a big road win against a team that's right next to us in the standings."

Los Angeles  - Mark Cuban may legally own the Dallas Mavericks, but the Lakers own them in Los Angeles.

Kobe Bryant tossed in 28 points, Trevor Ariza had a career-high 26, and the Lakers regrouped after blowing a big lead to continue their home court mastery over the Mavericks with a 107-100 victory on Sunday.

"We match up well with them," said Bryant after the Lakers closed on an 18-5 run and improved to an astonishing 33-3 home mark over the Mavericks since 1991.

If the play-offs began today, the top-seeded Lakers and eighth- seeded Mavericks (40-27) would meet in the first round.

Los Angeles  - In the end, Ron Artest made the big plays at both ends, to rescue the Houston Rockets.

Artest hit the go-ahead jumper in the closing seconds, and then blocked Vladimir Radmanovic's potential game-tying three-pointer with 4.9 ticks left, helping the visiting Rockets escape the Charlotte Bobcats, 91-86 on Friday night.

"We're very fortunate to get that win," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "We had it in control and we made three straight mistakes. They had a chance to win it."

Los Angeles  - One night after carrying the Los Angeles Lakers to the finish line, Kobe Bryant saved them from a late collapse.

The reigning NBA Most Valuable Player scored 23 points, including the game-sealing three-pointer with 1:46 left, as the Lakers held off the San Antonio Spurs 102-95 on Thursday night in a showdown between Western Conference leaders.

With the victory, the league-best Lakers (52-13) won the Pacific Division title for the 20th time in franchise history, and became the first team in the Western Conference to clinch a playoff spot.

Los Angeles  - The Atlanta Hawks - the NBA's latest streak busters - struck again.

Joe Johnson scored 31 points with nine assists, Josh Smith had 22 points with 12 rebounds and the Hawks snapped the season-high 12-game winning streak of the Utah Jazz Wednesday night with a 100-93 home-court victory.

"This shows everybody in the world the Hawks are for real," Smith said. "They have to take the Hawks seriously. Utah is an outstanding team, and we were able to beat them."

Atlanta ended Cleveland's 11-game run on December 13, stopped Detroit's modest four-game string Saturday and severed New Orleans' seven-game success two days ago before halting Utah's fourth-longest streak in franchise history.