King James dazzles as Cavs even series
Kuwait SC win VIVA Premier League Jazz tame Thunder in Game 2
The Kuwait SC won the Kuwait Premier League 2017-2018, which is also known as the VIVA Premier League by sharing the spoils with the Kazma Sports Club 2-2 on their home ground.
With this result the Kuwait SC raised their tally points to 49. This is Kuwait’s 14 title of the competition since its inception in 1961. The Al-Qadsiya Sports Club holds the record with 17 titles.
Yaaqoub Al-Tarawneh and Abdullah Al-Breiki scored for Kuwait SC while Vanderlei and Abdullah Al-Thafiri scored for the Kazma SC. The latter stands fourth on the table of standings.
In another game, played at the Ali Sabah Al-Salem Stadium the AlJahra SC defeated Al-Salmiya SC 3-1. However, the defeat could not dethrone Al-Salmiya, which have 34 points to their name, from their second position in the competition.
Al-Qadsiya secured the third position with 33 points after hammering Al-Tadhamon 4-0 and Al-Nasr defeating Al-Arabi 3-1.
Kuwait SC secured the title of Kuwait Premier League, also known as VIVA Premier League 2017-2018, after equalizing in their home match against Kazma 2-2 on Wednesday.
The result of the game, part of the final 21st stage of the competition, took to 49 points the tally of Kuwait SC who have secured today’s win
The VIVA premier League Champions Kuwait SC celebrate on the podium since the 17th stage.
This is Kuwait SC’s 14th title of the competition.
Yaaqoub Al-Tarawneh and Abdullah Al-Breiki scored for Kuwait SC while Vanderlei and Abdullah Al-Thafiri scored for Kazma SC whose came fourth in the competition with 29 points.
In another game, held at Ali Sabah Al-Salem Stadium today, AlJahra SC defeated Al-Salmiya SC 3-1 but Al-Salmiya retained its second position in the competition with 34 points.
Al-Qadsia secured the third position with 33 points after squashing Al-Tadhamon 40-0 today while AlNasr defeated Al-Arabi 3-1. (KUNA) CLEVELAND, April 19, (AP): The situation was dire, requiring dominance. LeBron James delivered.
No surprise there. Taking matters into his own hands, James scored 46 points and added 12 rebounds as the Cleveland Cavaliers bounced back from a poor performance in the series opener by holding off the Indiana Pacers 100-97 on Wednesday night to even their Eastern Conference playoff matchup at one game apiece.
Dazzling from the start, James scored the game’s first 16 points and had 29 at halftime, ruling the floor as he has done in so many previous postseasons.
But in a season in which nothing has been easy for the Cavs, Cleveland was lucky that Indiana’s Victor Oladipo missed a wide-open 3-pointer that would have tied it with 27 seconds left.
Kevin Love scored 15, but Cleveland’s All-Star center jammed his left thumb — the same hand he broke earlier this season— while deflecting a pass and sat out the final 3:43 left with the Cavs clinging to a slim lead. Lue said Love could have returned and “he’s fine” for Game 3 on Friday.
As long as James is OK, the Cavs will always have a chance.
Lue shook up his starting lineup for Game 2 and Kyle Korver contributed 12 points, all on 3s, made several hustling plays and took two charges.
Oladipo scored 22 — he was in early foul trouble — and Myles Turner 18 for the Pacers, who shocked the Cavs with an overpowering win in Game 1 and head home full of confidence.
Indiana clawed back from an 18-point deficit and was within 9592 when Oladipo, who scored 32 in the opener, somehow came free off a screen but missed maybe his easiest shot in two games.
James grabbed the rebound and made three free throws over the final 22 seconds as the Cavs avoided falling behind 2-0 on the series.
The 33-year-old James was expected to be more aggressive than in Game 1, when he was unusually passive, deferred to teammates and suffered the first playoff-opening loss of his career.
James was his unstoppable self again, and there wasn’t a whole lot the Pacers could do about him in the first half.
Lue had been contemplating changes to his starting lineup and he made two moves, going with Korver and J.R. Smith over Jeff Green and Rodney Hood. Green didn’t score in the opener and Hood only started because Korver was dealing with a sore right foot.
While the changes weren’t that surprising, Oladipo leaving after 62 seconds was stunning.
Indiana’s lightning-quick guard picked up an offensive foul and then got his second when he knocked over James, who was setting a screen. With Oladipo off the floor, the Pacers didn’t have an offensive answer to James. Nobody does. James made his first five attempts and scored Cleveland’s first 16 points, making a pair of 3-pointers and then picking up assists on 3s by Love and Korver. James outscored the Pacers 20-18 in the first 12 minutes.
Korver was limited to just four minutes in the opener because he was sick and had lingering soreness in his foot.
But he came through in Game 2, playing 31 minutes and coming up big at both ends.
Despite the loss, Indiana’s locker
Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron (right), drives against Indiana Pacers’ Thaddeus Young during the first half of Game 2 of an NBA basketball first-round
playoff series on April 18, in Cleveland. (AP)
room was filled with confidence. The Pacers took a big shot from James, but didn’t buckle.
“Take nothing away from what he’s done, but he had 46 points and we lost by three,” Thaddeus Young said. “He made tough shots. We feel very comfortable going back home 1-1 because everybody thought we were going to be swept. We punched them, they punched us. Jazz 102, Thunder 95 In Oklahoma City, rookie Donovan Mitchell scored 13 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter to help the Utah Jazz defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder and tie their Western Conference playoff series at one win game apiece.
Derrick Favors had career playoff bests of 20 points and 16 rebounds for the Jazz, and Ricky Rubio had 22 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in the first playoff win of his seven-year career.
Russell Westbrook had 19 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds for the Thunder. Paul George, who scored 36 points in Game 1, finished with 18 on 6-for-21 shooting. Carmelo Anthony scored 17 points, but made just six of 18 shots.
Utah outrebounded Oklahoma City 56-46 to take home-court advantage from the Thunder. Oklahoma City had two chances in the final minute to trim Utah’s lead with the Jazz leading 9995, but Anthony missed 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions. Game 3 will be Saturday in Utah. Rockets 102, Timberwolves 82 In Houston, Chris Paul had 27 points and Gerald Green came off the bench to score 21 as the Houston Rockets used a huge second quarter to cruise past the Minnesota Timberwolves and take a 2-0 lead in the firstround playoff series.
Houston fell behind early, but went on top for good with a 37-point second quarter, powered by four 3-pointers from Green, and the Wolves didn’t threaten again. The top-seeded Rockets won the opener by three behind a 44-point performance from James Harden on a night when most of the team struggled offensively. Things were much different on Wednesday when Harden had just 12 points as one of four Rockets who finished in double figures.
Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns had another disappointing game, scoring all of his five points in the first quarter, after being criticized for finishing with eight in the series opener. The All-Star big man went to the bench with about seven minutes left in the third quarter and didn’t return. Jamal Crawford scored 16 points for the eighth-seeded Timberwolves, who are in the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
The series moves to Minnesota for Game 3 on Saturday.