(Continued from page 22)

• LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Poker devotees will soon be able to skip the smoky casino and legally gamble their dollars away on the couch -- at least in the state of Nevada.
• A Las Vegas-based social gambling company is expected to launch the first legal, real-money poker website in the United States on Tuesday morning.
• The site, run by Ultimate Gaming, will accept wagers only from players in Nevada for now, but likely represents the shape of things to come for gamblers across the country.
• Internet poker, never fully legal, has been strictly outlawed since 2011, when the Department of Justice seized the domain names of the largest offshore sites catering to U.S. customers and blacked them out.
• This crackdown, dubbed "black Friday," left poker fanatics with two options: They could either get dressed and visit a visit a card room, or break the law and log into an offshore site.
• ___

• HOUSTON (AP) -- Kevin Durant consoled Serge Ibaka after he missed a layup at the buzzer that would have sent Monday night's game against the Houston Rockets into overtime.
• Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder lost their first game of the best-of-seven series against the Rockets 105-103. But Durant was quick to remind Ibaka and his teammates not to fret, because they're heading back home still in control of the series.
• "We'll be all right," he said. "We're up 3-1 with a good opportunity to close it out at home. We couldn't ask for a better situation, so hopefully we'll get the job done."
• Chandler Parsons scored 27 points and Patrick Beverley added 16 points with point guard Jeremy Lin out with a bruised chest muscle. Houston avoided a four-game sweep in the best-of-seven series.
• The Rockets led in the fourth quarter of each of the last two games only to end up losing. And it almost happened again Monday.

(Continued on page 24)