Lebron shines in Lakers’ rout of Dame-less Blazers Labuschagne and Smith hit double tons as Oz dominate West Indies Kenya vows crackdown on doping after avoiding ban
LOS ANGELES: Lebron James had 31 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, Austin Reaves added a season-high 22 points and the Los Angeles Lakers rebounded from a heartbreaking loss with a 128-109 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
Anthony Davis had 27 points and 12 rebounds in the Lakers’ sixth victory in eight games. Los Angeles shook off a gut-wrenching loss to Indiana in which it blew a late 17-point lead by taking an 18-point lead early in the fourth against Portland and holding on comfortably to beat a team with a winning record for the first time since Nov. 2.
James hit six 3-pointers while going 12 for 18 from the field in an outstanding performance by the second-leading scorer in NBA history, while Russell Westbrook hit buzzer-beating 3-pointers to end the second and third quarters on the way to 10 points.
Damian Lillard missed his sixth straight game with a strained calf muscle for the Blazers, who have lost seven of eight overall. Jerami Grant scored 27 points, Anfernee Simons had 22 and Justise Winslow added a season-high 21.
The Lakers played without starters Lonnie Walker and Troy Brown Jr., who were both ruled out shortly before game time with sore let feet.
Grant followed up his 32-point performance in Portland against the Clippers one night earlier with a 17-point first half against the Lakers, but James hit his first seven shots and Westbrook hit a 3-pointer at the haltime buzzer to put Los Angeles up 66-62.
Westbrook hit another buzzer-beating 3-pointer from near the half-court line to end the third quarter, giving Los Angeles a 97-82 lead. Ater blowing a big lead Monday, Davis and James never allowed this margin to dip into single digits against Portland.
F Josh Hart and F Nassir Litle both missed their first games of the season. Hart, who began his career with the Lakers, has a sprained let ankle, with coach Chauncey Billups saying Hart “got it prety good. He’s such a warrior, but I knew this morning (that he wouldn’t play)” . ... Litle has a right hip strain. He will have further imaging done Thursday . ... Trendon Waford had 10 points and 10 rebounds in his first start of the season.
LAKERS: Patrick Beverley scored five points in 22 minutes in his return to the starting lineup ater serving a three-game suspension for hiting Phoenix’s Deandre Ayton from behind.
PERTH: Double centuries by Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith allowed Australia to declare at 598-4 against the West Indies on the second day Thursday of the first test.
West Indies was 74 without loss at stumps in fading light at Perth Stadium.
Labuschagne scored 204, his second double century, and was out to the last ball before lunch.
Smith reached 200 not out and Australia declared when Travis Head was out on 99 ater playing on part-time offspinner Kraigg Brathwaite, the tourist’s most successful bowler with 2-65.
West Indies openers Brathwaite, 18 not out, and Tagenarine Chanderpaul, 47 not out, successfully negotiated 25 overs.
The debutant Chanderpaul, the son of bating great Shivnarine, faced some testing moments at the crease, and took a painful blow on the groin from fast bowler Josh Hazlewood.
Chanderpaul hit a boundary off his first ball in test cricket and hooked skipper Pat Cummins for a towering six over long leg as he dominated the stand under floodlight.
Australia started the day on 293-2 with Labuschagne on 154 and Smith on 59, and the West Indies desperate for a breakthrough in cloudy conditions conducive for swing bowling.
Instead, Labuschagne and Smith continued from where they let off overnight and stubbornly piled more misery on the tourists.
“Just another day in the office for those two. Their hunger is second to one,” teammate Hazlewood said.
Labuschagne smashed fast bowler Jayden
Seales through the covers for his 20th boundary to bring up his double century. Then he fell when he edged Brathwaite as wicketkeeper Joshua da Silva finally held onto a catch ater dropping Labuschagne on 132 and 194.
Labuschagne’s previous double century was 215 in 2020 against New Zealand in Sydney. This time, he bated for 483 minutes and hit a six and 20 fours off 350 balls.
His dismissal ended the 251-run stand for the third wicket, the sixth highest for Australia in test history.
Australia went to lunch on 402-3 and middle session belonged to Smith. He equalled Don Bradman’s 29 test centuries in his 88th test.
Smith pushed a single to reach his hundred before lunch. Only Ricky Ponting (41), Steve Waugh (32) and Mathew Hayden (30) have scored more hundreds for Australia.
NAIROBI: Kenya vowed Thursday to clean up its act ater escaping a ban by World Athletics for doping that threatened to make the east African track and field powerhouse a sporting pariah.
World Athletics decided against a ban at its council meeting in Rome on Wednesday but said Kenya had a “long journey” to rebuild trust ater a string of high-profile doping scandals.
Kenya’s Sports Minister Ababu Namwamba thanked World Athletics for giving the country a second chance and said the government was ready to fight a “war” on doping.
“We will not allow a few greedy criminal elements to destroy this hard-earned heritage of a nation that prides itself on competing and winning clean,” he told reporters.
“We will make doping the most expensive affair you can engage in as athlete. We want to make the handling of doping substances as criminal as handling hard narcotics.” Kenya’s doping problem is not new. The athletics giant has been in the top category on the World-anti Doping Agency watch list since February 2016, alongside only Bahrain, Belarus, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria and Ukraine.
There are currently 55 Kenyan athletes listed on the Athletics Integrity Unit’s global list of ineligible persons, last updated on November 21.
A further eight are listed as being provisionally suspended.
Kenya created its own anti-doping agency in 2016 and introduced criminal penalties including jail time for those caught up in cheating.
But nobody has been prosecuted to date, and the number of Kenyan athletes found guilty of doping has only climbed.
Namwamba conceded that an “incredibly high level” of doping incidents had taken place and Kenya had no excuse going forward.
“If we repeat this misconduct, Kenya will have no excuse should stern action be taken against this country in future,” he said.
“Our commitment is that the fight against doping is now a number-one priority for us. Our new mantra as a government and Athletics Kenya is absolute zero tolerance to doping.”
The government has commited $25 million over five years to help pay for more anti-doping personnel, increase testing and investigation, bolster education programmes and also probe athlete entourages.