SPORTS DIGEST
BASKETBALL
Oklahoma City Thunder’s winning streak continued with a 122-112 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. The win – the Thunder’s eighth in a row – was helped by Russell Westbrook, who scored 37 points with 12 assists and nine rebounds. It was not an easy victory for the Thunder, however, as Ben Simmons added 22 points for the 76ers through a series of impressive dunks. But a late surge from Oklahoma put Philadelphia on the back foot and a further 31 points from Paul George sealed the win. The Detroit Pistons saw their tally of losses reach eight in a row after defeat by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Lebron James scored 25 points and Kevin Love added 20 in the 121-104 victory, to give Cleveland back-to-back wins at the Quicken Loans Arena. Meanwhile, a three-pointer from Blake Griffin in the dying seconds against New Orleans helped put the Los Angeles Clippers past the Pelicans 112-103. Griffin reached a total of 27 points across the night, aided by Lou Williams who added 22. The Pelicans appeared to be feeling the loss of injury-hit Demarcus Cousins, who is out for the rest of the season after tearing his Achilles tendon on Friday. Elsewhere, Toronto’s Fred Vanvleet scored a career-best 25 points to put an end to the Los Angeles Lakers’ four-game winning streak, with the Raptors triumphing 123-111, while San Antonio’s Bryn Forbes recorded a season-best with 23 points in the Spurs’ 113-98 victory against the Sacramento Kings. James Harden scored 27 points as the Houston Rockets beat the Phoenix Suns 113-102 and Giannis Antetokounmpo scored the same number as the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Chicago Bulls 110-96. NBA: Chicago Bulls 96 Milwaukee Bucks 110, Cleveland Cavaliers 121 Detroit Pistons 104, Houston Rockets 113 Phoenix Suns 102, New Orleans Pelicans 103 LA Clippers 112, Oklahoma City Thunder 122 Philadelphia 76ers 112, San Antonio Spurs 113 Sacramento Kings 98, Toronto Raptors 123 LA Lakers 111.
GOLF
EUROPEAN TOUR RACE TO DUBAI (After the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. Prize money in Euros (Gbr & Irl unless stated): 1 Tommy Fleetwood 628,754, 2 Haotong Li (Chn) 523,650, 3 Rory Mcilroy 502,230, 4 Chris Paisley 430,825, 5 Wade Ormsby (Aus) 357,710, 6 Ross Fisher 348,330, 7 Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 325,600, 8 Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 248,074, 9 Alexander Levy (Fra) 240,000, 10 Tyrrell Hatton 229,200, 11 Rafael Cabrerabello (Spa) 209,209, 12 Matthew Fitzpatrick 192,550, 13 Alexander Bjork (Swe) 191,809, 14 Cameron Smith (Aus) 191,660, 15 Branden Grace (Rsa) 176,100, 16 Paul Peterson (USA) 168,439, 17 Thomas Pieters (Bel) 139,380, 18 Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 137,554, 19 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 133,754, 20 Julian Suri (USA) 133,055.
TENNIS
ATP CHAMPIONS RANKINGS 2018: 1 Rafael Nadal (Spa) 760pts, 2 Roger Federer (Swi) 9605, 3 Marin Cilic (Cro) 4960, 4 Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) 4630, 5 Alexander Zverev (Ger) 6410, 6 Dominic Thiem (Aut) 4060, 7 David Goffin (Bel) 3460, 8 Jack Sock (USA) 2880, 9 Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) 2815, 10 Pablo Carreno-busta (Spa) 2705, 11 Kevin Anderson (Rsa) 2620, 12 Sam Querrey (USA) 2490, 13 Novak Djokovic (Ser) 2470, 14 Nick Kyrgios (Aus) 2395, 15 Stan Wawrinka (Swi) 2385, 16 Tomas Berdych (Cze) 2320, 17 Lucas Pouille (Fra) 2235, 18 John Isner (USA) 2230, 19 Jowilfried Tsonga (Fra) 2050, 20 Andy Murray (Gbr) 1960, 21 Albert Ramos-vinolas (Spa) 1925, 22 Fabio Fognini (Ita) 1850, 23 Roberto Bautista Agut (Spa) 1845, 24 Diego Sebastian Schwartzman (Arg) 1810, 25 Adrian Mannarino (Fra) 1705, 26 Kyle Edmund (Gbr) 1667, 27 Kei Nishikori (Jpn) 1555, 28 Gilles Muller (Lux) 1535, 29 Hyeon Chung (Kor) 1472, 30 Damir Dzumhur (Bih) 1471, 31 Milos Raonic (Can) 1400, 32 Pablo Cuevas (Uru) 1380, 33 Richard Gasquet (Fra) 1375, 34 Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukr) 1341, 35 Andrey Rublev (Rus) 1339, 36 Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) 1335, 37 Feliciano Lopez (Spa) 1295, 38 Filip Krajinovic (Ser) 1283, 39 David Ferrer (Spa) 1280, 40 Fernando Verdasco (Spa) 1260, 41 Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) 1235, 42 Robin Haase (Ned) 1175, 43 Ryan Harrison (USA) 1160, 44 Gael Monfils (Fra) 1130, 45 Benoit Paire (Fra) 1110, 46 Paolo Lorenzi (Ita) 1085, 47 Borna Coric (Cro) 1036, 48 Denis Shapovalov (Can) 1031, 49 Karen Khachanov (Rus) 1030, 50 Steve Johnson (USA) 975. WTA RANKINGS: 1 Caroline Wozniacki (Den) 7965pts, 2 Simona Halep (Rom) 7715, 3 Elina Svitolina (Ukr) 6085, 4 Garbine Muguruza (Spa) 5690, 5 Karolina Pliskova (Cze) 5445, 6 Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) 4901, 7 Caroline Garcia (Fra) 4495, 8 Venus Williams (USA) 4278, 9 Angelique Kerber (Ger) 3031, 10 Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) 2935, 11 Johanna Konta (Gbr) 2825, 12 Julia Goerges (Ger) 2825, 13 Sloane Stephens (USA) 2813, 14 Madison Keys (USA) 2644, 15 Anastasija Sevastova (Lat) 2540, 16 Ashleigh Barty (Aus) 2486, 17 Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) 2462, 18 Coco Vandeweghe (USA) 2434, 19 Magdalena Rybarikova (Svk) 2363, 20 Elise Mertens (Bel) 2215, 21 Elena Vesnina (Rus) 2160, 22 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) 2125, 23 Daria Kasatkina (Rus) 1965, 24 Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Cze) 1940, 25 Daria Gavrilova (Aus) 1820, 26 Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) 1740, 27 Anett Kontaveit (Est) 1740, 28 Kiki Bertens (Ned) 1725, 29 Petra Kvitova (Cze) 1718, 30 Lucie Safarova (Cze) 1710, 31 Shuai Peng (Chn) 1705, 32 Carla Suarez Navarro (Spa) 1701, 33 Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) 1570, 34 Shuai Zhang (Chn) 1535, 35 Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) 1375, 36 Sorana Cirstea (Rom) 1310, 37 Irina-camelia Begu (Rom) 1303, 38 Alize Cornet (Fra) 1275, 39 Samantha Stosur (Aus) 1265, 40 Lesia Tsurenko (Ukr) 1260, 41 Maria Sharapova (Rus) 1246, 42 Timea Bacsinszky (Swi) 1232, 43 Mihaela Buzarnescu (Rom) 1184, 44 Qiang Wang (Chn) 1160, 45 Timea Babos (Hun) 1151, 46 Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Blr) 1142, 47 Aleksandra Krunic (Ser) 1116, 48 Catherine Cartan Bellis (USA) 1110, 49 Tatjana Maria (Ger) 1110, 50 Donna Vekic (Cro) 1075. Selected other: 75 Heather Watson (Gbr) 866. WTA TAIWAN OPEN (Taipei City) 1st rd: (5) Yulia Putintseva (Kaz) bt Junri Namigata (Jpn) 6-2 6-4, Ying-ying Duan (Chn) bt Miyu Kato (Jpn) 6-2 4-6 7-5. Kateryna Kozlova (Ukr) bt (2) Shuai Zhang (Chn) 6-2 6-4, (6) Zarina Diyas (Kaz) bt Anna Blinkova (Rus) 6-2 7-5, Kai-chen Chang (Tpe) bt Ya-hsuan Lee (Tpe) 7-5 6-2, Monica Niculescu (Rom) bt Ons Jabeur (Tun) 6-1 4-0 ret.