Sixers served by Warriors
BEN Simmons ( right) and his emerging Philadelphia 76ers have felt the might of the NBA champions Golden State Warriors.
Simmons and the 76ers held their own in the first half but the experienced Warriors, led by Kevin Durant’s 29 points, dominated the last two quarters to run away with a 135- 114 victory. Simmons came close to his eighth double- double of the season with 13 points, eight assists and five rebounds, but the 21- year- old Australian had a woeful shooting night, sinking only six of his 17 field goal attempts as the Warriors hung off him and dared him to shoot from range.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 33 points to help Milwaukee overcome Lonzo Ball’s triple- double for Los Angeles Lakers in a 98- 90 win.
Elsewhere James Harden scored 38 points to lead Houston to a 111- 96 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies. AUSTRALIA’S Domonic Bedggood won a silver medal in the men’s platform final on a w windy last day of competition at the FINA Diving Grand Prix on the Gold Coast.
Bedggood was involved in a tight tussle with Chinese world championship bronze medallist Jian Tang, but a slight miss for the Australian on his third dive proved the difference.
Gold Coast’s Bedggood showed he will be a strong chance to win a second Commonwealth Games medal next year when he finished on 448.90, behind Yang on 466.20. In the women’s synchro springboard, both Australian combinations of Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith, and Esther Qin and Georgia Sheehan, were looking in contention for the gold medal before posting no- dives late in the competition.
Keeney and Smith needed fewer than 40 points from their final dive to overhaul USA’s Krysta Palmer and Maria Coburn for gold, but a mistake left the pair with no score and relegated them to fourth.
One round earlier a mistake also left Qin and Sheehan without a score, with the pair eventually finishing fifth.
Palmer and Coburn took the gold with 261.00 points, ahead of Germany’s Tina Punzel and Lena Hentschel ( 242.70), with Japan’s Sayaka Mikami and Hazuki Miyamoto third ( 235.80).