Los Angeles - Unhappy with their slow start, the Toronto Raptors fired coach Sam Mitchell on Wednesday, replacing him with assistant Jay Triano on an interim basis.

"This is a difficult but necessary step the franchise must take," Raptors President and general manager Bryan Colangelo said in a statement on the team's website. "We appreciate all that Sam has done for the organization. We applaud him for his successes and wish him nothing but the best with his future in basketball."

Mitchell's dismissal comes after the Raptors suffered an embarrassing, 132-93 road loss to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night.

SOUTH BEND, Ind., Dec. 2 - Ryan Ayers and Kyle McAlarney hit 16-of-27 three-pointers and combined for 62 points Tuesday in No. 7 Notre Dame's 102-76 win over South Dakota.

HOUSTON, Dec. 1 - The Houston Comets, who won the WNBA's first four championships (1997-2000), will close down this week.

The Comets had been owned by the WNBA since the middle of last season, but because a buyer couldn't be found the league made the decision to put the team out of business.

The Comets were originally owned by Leslie Alexander, owner of the Houston Rockets. He sold the team to a group headed by businessman Hilton Koch last year, but the league then took over the franchise.

Los Angeles  - The Houston Rockets didn't need Tracy McGrady to handle the San Antonio Spurs. They really didn't need Yao Ming, either.

With McGrady sidelined by an injury and Yao managing just 12 points, the host Rockets used a balanced attack Saturday night to defeat the Spurs, 103-84, and maintain first place in the Southwest Division.

Luther Head scored a season-high 21 points and Ron Artest added 16 for the Rockets, who had seven players in double figures and eclipsed 100 points vs. the Spurs for the first time in 29 meetings since March 2001.

BOSTON, Nov. 28 - Ray Allen scored 23 points Friday and Boston blew the game open in the second quarter en route to a 102-78 decision over Philadelphia.

The Celtics won their seventh straight and improved the best record in the Eastern Conference to 15-2.

Boston expanded a six-point lead after one period into an 18-point cushion at halftime. The Celtics held the 76ers scoreless for almost the first 4 minutes of the second quarter.

Kevin Garnett added 15 points and the Boston bench received most of the second-half playing time. Leon Powe, Tony Allen and Glen Davis all scored 10 for the Celtics.

Los Angeles  - Chris Paul started slowly but finished with a flurry.

Paul scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half, and James Posey knocked down the go-ahead three-pointer with 19.1 seconds left as the visiting New Orleans Hornets nipped the Denver Nuggets 105-101 on Thursday night for their fourth straight win.

"I'm one of those guys who try to let the game come to me," said Paul, who also dished out 10 assists.

"Right before the third quarter, coach said to me, you need to get it going a little bit, so I tried to. I just got a little more aggressive and we got out in transition.

"J. R. Smith shot the ball amazing tonight," he added. "This is a great win for our team."