‘Russia ready to cooperate to fight doping’
LOS ANGELES: Russell Westbrook scored a team-high 42 points, including 11 consecutive in the final five minutes, and reserve guard Alex Abrines scored 18 points to lift the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 121-110 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday at the Smoothie King Center.
Westbrook, the NBA’s leading scorer, added 10 rebounds and seven assists and fell short of his 51 triple-double of the season. The Thunder (17-12), who had lost three of four games coming in, also got 14 points and 14 rebounds from centre Enes Kanter. The Pelicans (10-21) were led by Anthony Davis, who scored 34 points and had 15 rebounds, and by Jrue Holiday with a season-high 23 points.
Tyreke Evans cut the Oklahoma City lead to 89-87 with a 3-pointer from the right wing, but the Thunder then went on an 11-0 spurt, fuelled by reserve guard Alex Abrines’ nine points that included two 3-pointers.
Abrines added another long-range jumper and Oklahoma City led 105-89 with 8:04 left. Abrines finished 5 of 10 from long range. The Pelicans opened the third quarter with a small lineup and got three consecutive layups by Davis, Holiday and Terrence Jones to take a 6463 lead. But Westbrook scored 12 points in the quarter as Oklahoma City took an 87-84 lead into the fourth quarter.
Westbrook drew a blocking foul on Davis with 4:58 left in the quarter — Davis’ fourth foul — and that opened up the middle for the Thunder.
Westbrook finished the first half with force, scoring Oklahoma City’s final eight points in the last 1:20 of the second quarter to give the Thunder a 63-58 lead. Westbrook finished the first half with 19 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Davis kept the Pelicans in the game, scoring 17 points and grabbing six rebounds in the first half. But Davis had to sit after picking up his third foul on Westbrook’s drive to the basket with 3:11 left in the half. CAVALIERS THUMP BUCKS The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Milwaukee Bucks for the second time in as many days on Wednesday, and this time, they didn’t need overtime to do it.
Kyrie Irving scored 31 points and handed out a career-high 13 assists and LeBron James scored 29 points and pulled down nine rebounds in a 113-102 victory over the Bucks in Cleveland.
The victory came a day after the Cavaliers needed overtime to edge the Bucks 114-108 in Milwaukee. MOSCOW: Russia firmly denies the allegations on enabling the use of doping by the country’s athletes, but will cooperate with the international organisations in fighting it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
In July 2016, World Anti-Doping Agency’s (Wada) independent commission headed by Richard McLaren introduced a report based on the investigation results, in which Russia was accused of running a statewide doping programme, and urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider a blanket ban on the entire Russian team. The second part of the report was released on December 9. The report claimed that more than 1,000 Russian athletes were involved in doping manipulations or benefitted from them. The names of the athletes were not disclosed.
“We strongly reject these allegations, at the same time, the president stressed the necessity to fully cooperate with the international organisations to clarify the situation and work out a new effective (system) on prevention of the use of doping,” Peskov told reporters. TENNIS TOURNEYS ‘SKIP’
DOPING TESTS KOBE BRYANT WELCOMES THIRD DAUGHTER Former Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, shared a first picture of their third daughter, Bianka, on Twitter on Wednesday.
“@vanessabryant and I are beyond excited to welcome our newest baby girl, Bianka!!” Bryant tweeted on Wednesday, with a picture of the sleeping infant, born earlier this month, bundled in pink. “”#BabyBlessing #SweetBaby #AnotherAngel.”
Vanessa added, “Kobe and I are beyond excited to welcome our newest baby girl, Bianka!!!”
Bianka is the couple’s third daughter, joining big sisters Natalia, 13, and Gianna, 10, in the family.
Separately, some of the major tennis tournaments in 2016 were held without testing the athletes for doping, including the Shanghai Masters, media reported on Thursday, citing sources in tennis.
“An unnamed tennis player ranked inside the top 50 was tested about eight times this year, despite playing more than 20 tournaments and 65 matches, while another source close to a tennis event confirmed that in some years testers did not attend the tournaments,” Sputnik news media said citing a report in The Times newspaper.
Another high-profile player said Dallas bt Portland ............................. 96-95 Sacramento bt Utah .......................... 94-93 Houston bt Phoenix ...................... 125-111 Washington bt Chicago .................. 107-97 Oklahoma City bt New Orleans ..... 121-110 Minnesota bt Atlanta ........................ 92-84 Memphis bt Detroit .......................... 98-86 Cleveland bt Milwaukee ............... 113-102 that it is more common for him not to be tested at tournaments.
Tournaments are required to provide facilities for anti-doping officials to conduct tests. However, according to reports, these often go unused.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF), which runs the tennis antidoping programme, operates on an annual budget of about $4 million.
A number of sporting figures, including British tennis star Andy Murray, have called for increased funding.