The Cleveland Cavaliers gave San Antonio another tense test at home before the Spurs rose up on defense for what they deemed their biggest win of the season.

Tony Parker had 24 points and San Antonio used a furious start to the fourth quarter to beat Cleveland 99-95 on Thursday night, remaining undefeated at home and avenging their previous loss in their own arena.

Novak Djokovic is in the kind of form that has rivals no less than Rafael Nadal describing it as being close to perfection. Serena Williams has been injured, has hardly played since the U.S. Open and had to withdraw from her only tune-up event ahead of the Australian Open.

The preparations of the reigning champions couldn't be more contrasting in the week leading up to the first Grand Slam tournament of the year.

Olympic bronze medalist Carolina Kostner made a return to competitive skating on Friday, finishing second in an invitational event in Japan.

Kostner had 59.69 points in the women's singles program to finish 12 points behind Joannie Rochette of Canada.

Arsenal conceded a 90th-minute equalizer at Liverpool to lose its outright lead in the Premier League on Wednesday, as Leicester kept up its surprising title challenge with a 1-0 win at Tottenham.

Only a superior goal difference is keeping Arsenal above Leicester after the 3-3 draw at Anfield. Manchester City was held to a 0-0 draw at home at Everton and is three points off the lead in third place.

Defending champions and No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams top the Australian Open seedings lists, which follow rankings ahead of the first Grand Slam tournament of 2016.

Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka moved back into the top 16 with her victory at the Brisbane International last week, her first title since 2013. She finished last season at No. 22 but moved up the rankings with her title run in the Australian Open warmup tournament and was seeded No. 14 at Melbourne Park, meaning she avoids early-round encounters with the top-ranked players.

Stephen Curry was just about unstoppable in the fourth quarter, except near the very end.

Curry scored 20 of his 38 points in the final period but lost the ball under defensive pressure from Danilo Gallinari in the last moments, allowing the Denver Nuggets to hang on to hand the Golden State Warriors their third loss of the season, 112-110 on Wednesday night.

British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid says the Japan Sport Council is withholding money owed for work on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic stadium design while demanding her company give up claims to copyrights.

The Japan Sport Council said in a statement read over the phone on Thursday that it was seeking to resolve the issue but would not comment on specifics of the contract with London-based Zaha Hadid Architects, or ZHA.

More than 30 years after 241 Marines died in a terrorist attack in Beirut, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday weighed putting up a new roadblock for the victims' families who are trying to obtain nearly $2 billion in judgments against Iran.

Bank Markazi, Iran's central bank, is trying to stave off court orders that would allow families of victims of several attacks that courts have linked to Iran to be paid for their losses.

Nearly 200 Cuban migrants traveled by air and across land through Central America and into southern Mexico on Wednesday, resuming their long-delayed journey toward the United States after several months stranded in Costa Rica amid a diplomatic tiff with Nicaragua.

One by one the 180 Cubans descended from chartered buses and were processed by Mexican authorities, who issued transit visas granting them 20 days to leave the country.

After taking in more than a million Syrian refugees, Lebanon has quietly changed course in recent months, forcing refugees to return to Syria — where they are at risk of persecution or death — or stay illegally, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, human rights groups say.

The situation is drawing attention at a time when Turkey and Jordan have also tightened their admission policies. A Human Rights Watch report published Tuesday warned that Lebanon's new regulations have "set the stage for a potentially explosive situation."