Gut-behrami wins event, eyes season title
Swiss skier, compatriot Suter chasing Italian points leader Goggia
Lara Gut-behrami let out a brief scream of joy and held up her right arm after crossing the finish, then nodded her head moments later.
The Swiss skier won her second World Cup downhill in two days at Val di Fassa on Saturday to maintain her chance of winning the discipline title this season.
Gut-behrami led Corinne Suter, the downhill world champion, by 0.32 seconds for a Swiss 1-2 finish.
Kira Weidle of Germany finished
0.68 behind in third, as the podium included the same three skiers who won the medals at the world championships downhill in another Italian resort, Cortina d’ampezzo, two weeks ago.
“It’s nice I can improve from one day to another,” said Gutbehrami, adding that her run was better that Friday’s.
“I am happy that I could do better what I didn’t do well yesterday,” she said.
Gut-behrami won gold in super- G and giant slalom as well as bronze in downhill at the worlds, and she drew praise from Suter for her recent successes.
“Lara can just do what she wants, everything works out super for her,” Suter said.
Gut-behrami and Suter are the only racers left who can overtake discipline leader Sofia Goggia in the season-ending downhill at next month’s World Cup Finals in Swiss resort Lenzerheide. Goggia is out with a knee injury but the Italian still tops the standings, having won four straight races in December and January. Suter is 70 points behind and Gut-behrami trails by 97, with a race win worth 100 points.
Men’s giant slalom: Filip Zubcic won the first men’s World Cup race after the skiing world championships to give new impetus to the battle for the seasonlong giant slalom title. The Croatian skier overtook first-run leader Mathieu Faivre, who won the world title last week, to win by 0.40 seconds. Unheralded Stefan Brennsteiner was 0.93 behind in third for the Austrian’s first career podium. Zubcic closed the gap on discipline leader Alexis Pinturault to just 22 points with three giant slaloms remaining. The next race is Sunday. “It was an incredible race, incredible skiing. I am so happy and so proud of myself, of my team,” Zubcic said after his second win of the season and third overall. Zubcic has finished on the podium eight times in the past 11 giant slaloms dating to last season.
Skiing: Two skiers navigated a thin layer of snow with no margin for error down the precipitous shoulder of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park and alternately skied and rappelled back to the valley floor in an unusually daring feat. Jason Torlano, 45, and Zach Milligan, 40, completed the descent in five hours last Sunday by carefully carving their way in crusty snow and using ropes to rappel several sections of bare rock known as the “death slabs“beneath the iconic face of Half Dome, the Fresno Bee reported Thursday. “If you fall to your left or right, you’re definitely dead,” said JT Holmes, a professional free skier who is a friend of Torlano’s. “If you fall down the middle, you have a small chance of not falling to your death — but it’s a maybe.” Snowboarder Jim Zellers is believed to be the first to descend the 800-foot (243meter) upper section on the shoulder of the dome in 2000. But no one is known to have attempted the entire 4,800-foot (1,463-meter) descent from peak to valley.
Julius Randle scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lift the New York Knicks back to .500 with a 110-107 win over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night.
RJ Barrett added 24 for New York, which improved to 17-17 with its sixth win in its past 10 games. Derrick Rose had 17 points and Immanuel Quickley 10 as the Knicks reached the .500 mark for the first time since they were 8-8 on Jan. 21.
Doug Mcdermott had 20 points for Indiana, which fell to 15-17 with its third straight loss. T.J. Mcconnell finished with 17, Domantas Sabonis had 15 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists, Justin Holiday had 13 points and Myles Turner 11.
Mavericks 115, Nets 98: Luka Doncic scored 27 points, Kristaps Porzingis added 18 in his return from injury and Dallas snapped Brooklyn’s eight-game winning streak. James
Harden had 29 points for the Nets, but only four after halftime while playing as Brooklyn’s solo superstar. Kevin Durant missed his seventh straight game with a left hamstring strain and Kyrie Irving rested his surgically repaired right shoulder.
Cavaliers 112, 76ers 109 (OT): Collin Sexton scored 28 points, Darius Garland had 25 and Cleveland beat the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia in overtime. The Cavaliers beat a Sixers team that built the best record in the Eastern Conference (22-12) on the strength of a 14-2 mark at home.
Wizards 128, Timberwolves 112:
Bradley Beal scored 34 points and Russell Westbrook added 19 as part of his Nba-leading 10th triple-double. Westbrook added 14 rebounds and 12 assists for the Wizards, who have won seven of eight to move back into playoff contention following a 6-17 start.
Jazz 124, Magic 109: Donovan Mitchell scored 31 points and Joe Ingles filled in well again at point guard in place of Mike Conley to help firstplace Utah beat Orlando.
Spurs 117, Pelicans 114: Demar Derozan had 32 points and 11 assists and short-handed San Antonio held on to beat New Orleans. Brandon Ingram had 29 points and Zion Williamson added 23 points and 14 rebounds for New Orleans.
Nuggets 126, Thunder 96: Jamal Murray continued his hot scoring with 26 points and Nikola Jokic had his eighth triple-double of the season to help Denver rout Oklahoma City. Jokic had 19 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists.
Note: Lebron James responded to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s criticism of his political activism with a promise that he will never just shut up and dribble. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar also pointed out that Ibrahimovic clearly didn’t feel the same way about spotlighting social injustices when the soccer great called out racism in his native Sweden just three years ago. The AC Milan striker and former LA Galaxy star criticized James and other socially conscious athletes Thursday in an interview with Discovery Plus. Ibrahimovic called it “a mistake” for James and other athletes to get involved in political causes, saying they should “just do what you do best, because it doesn’t look good.” James responded forcefully: “I would never shut up about things that are wrong,” said James.