LeBron James notched his first triple-double of the season to lead the short-handed Miami Heat to a 110-78 NBA rout of the Detroit Pistons on Friday.

James scored 17 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out 12 assists for the 37th triple-double of his career but his first of the current campaign.

Manuel Pellegrini has challenged his Manchester City stars to use the momentum from their demolition derby to pile on the misery for title rivals Arsenal on Saturday.

City's ruthless 3-0 win at struggling rivals Manchester United on Tuesday took them to within three points of Chelsea and with two games in hand, they are the bookmakers' favorites to finish the campaign on top of the pile.

Under-fire Manchester United manager David Moyes has risked fresh controversy by suggesting his celebrated predecessor Alex Ferguson would have struggled with the squad he left his fellow Scot.

Moyes was hailed as the “Chosen One” for being the hand-picked successor to Ferguson, who retired as British football's most successful manager at the end of last season.

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic reached the final of the Miami ATP Masters without lifting their racquets on Friday after their semifinal foes Tomas Berdych and Kei Nishikori withdrew.

The two semi-final walkovers were a first in ATP history, with Nishikori pulling out with a groin injury and Berdych felled by gastroenteritis.

Guus Hiddink will take over from Louis van Gaal as Netherlands coach after the World Cup finals, the Dutch Footall Federation (KNVB) announced Friday.

Hiddink, 67, will bring in former internationals Danny Blind and Ruud van Nistelrooy as his main assistants. He had already indicated this month that he would return.

New Zealand's Danny Lee, still building on a confidence-boosting runner-up finish in Puerto Rico, seized a share of the first-round lead Thursday in the fog-delayed PGA Tour Texas Open.

Lee birdied four of his last five holes en route to a four-under par 68, joining American Pat Perez atop the leaderboard.

The Philadelphia 76ers tied the National Basketball Association record of 26 consecutive losses after being hammered 120-98 by the Houston Rockets on Thursday.

Philadelphia joins the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers for the longest single-season losing streak in history with 26 straight defeats.

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal advanced to the semi-finals of the ATP Tour's Miami Masters tournament Thursday by rallying to beat Canadian 12th seed Milos Raonic 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Spain's Nadal, who has lost three times in the Miami final, clinched the victory on the first match point in the third set when Raonic failed to reach a spinning serve out wide on hardcourts at the Crandon Park Tennis Center.

European football's governing body UEFA on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution calling for "heavy sanctions" for those involved in match-fixing.

UEFA's 54 member associations, meeting in Astana adopted an 11-point resolution aiming to impose standard punishments across Europe.

Novak Djokovic eliminated defending champ Andy Murray in straight sets and while fifth seed Roger Federer was sent crashing out of the ATP Tour's Miami Masters tournament in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Federer lost 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Japanese 20th seed Kei Nishikori who booked a semi-final showdown with former world number one Djokovic who defeated Murray 7-5, 6-3 on the hardcourts at Crandon Park.