P17 2 Layout 1

SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016 SPORTS Lakers put faith in Walton to lead return to glory LOS ANGELES: Luke Walton, the new Walton, 36, the son of former NBA Most dispatched the Houston Rockets in five of being a head coach and the chance to most successful, dazzling fans with a fast- head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, will Valuable Player Bill Walton, will be the games to start the post-season. do that for an organisation like the Lakers paced run-and-gun style that became leave the league’s hottest team to take 26th head coach in Lakers history, and the Walton was in charge of the team for doesn’t come around very often.” known as “Showtime”. Their precipitous charge of an acclaimed NBA franchise that 22nd since the franchise moved to Los the first 43 games this season while head Kerr expressed support for Walton’s slide coincided with the decline of leg- has fallen on hard times and currently Angeles in 1960. He played 564 regular coach Steve Kerr recovered from back sur- decision. “I’m incredibly happy for Luke,” endary guard Bryant, who retired on April occupies the other end of the spectrum. season games during a decade-long gery, helping them make an NBA record Kerr said. “As we witnessed earlier this 14 at the age of 37. Despite being tasked with an unenviable career that included eight seasons and 24-0 start to the campaign. Once Kerr season, he has all of the intangibles neces- After going 45-37 in 2012-13, the rebuilding job, it is an opportunity he felt two championships with the Lakers. recovered, he led the team to the league’s sary to be an outstanding head coach in Lakers won only 27 games the following he could hardly turn down. Currently in “We’re excited to bring Luke back to best ever overall season record of 73-9. this league, including a terrific under- season, which prompted the firing of his second season as assistant coach at Los Angeles, where we feel he’s going to standing of the game.” Walton will take then-coach Mike D’Antoni. the reigning NBA champion Golden State start an outstanding coaching career,” FOREVER GRATEFUL over a proud franchise that has plummet- Scott took over in July 2014 but last- Warriors, Walton was confirmed as Byron Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak “I loved everything about my time at ed down the standings over the past ed just two years as the team continued Scott’s replacement on Friday. Scott was said in a statement. Walton will remain Golden State and learning from Steve three seasons. The Lakers, whose 16 NBA to regress, going 21-61 in his first cam- ditched after the Lakers went 17-65 in the with Golden State for the remainder of (Kerr),” Walton said in a statement. “I’ll for- titles is second only to the Boston Celtics paign before breaking that franchise recently-completed season, otherwise the playoffs with a Western Conference ever be grateful to him, the organisation (17), for many years were the league’s record for futility in the recently com- known as the Kobe Bryant farewell tour. second round series looming after they and the team. But I have always dreamed most glamorous team, as well as one of its pleted season. —Reuters Rio Olympics fall short in test events RIO DE JANEIRO: Power cuts, faulty spot- ator so far to reduce costs. lights, overheated swimming pools and With Brazil in the grips of a deep eco- insufficient air conditioning were among nomic recession, about 20 percent of Rio the problems plaguing key test runs at the 2016’s operational budget was cut. Rio Olympics facilities, highlighting persist- It was also very hot on the lower levels ent challenges three months before open- of the aquatics stadium, which became a ing day. But the international gymnastics, sauna of sorts. “Temperatures during the swimming and shooting sports federations, Games will be completely different, since it along with the Rio 2016 organizing com- will be (the Southern Hemisphere’s) winter.” mittee, insist that the test events “went well Temperatures average 25 degrees overall,” and that everything will be ready Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) in August in Rio, for the Games. down from 30 in this unusually warm month of April. “The stadium is completely GYMNASTICS covered, and it’s important to have artificial Andre Gueisbuhler, who heads the ventilation on the lower levels,” FINA swim- International Federation of Gymnastics ming federation executive Cornel (FIG), said five power outages lasting 15-90 Marculescu told AFP. minutes caused delays in both training and “We spoke with Rio’s Mayor Eduardo competition. Paes, who told us he would work on it. One of the outages that took place dur- We will keep a look, come here, stay in ing training “endangered the safety of ath- touch with organizers.” In fact, negotiations letes,” he added, without providing further are underway, with the mayor’s office details. Another took place just before the intent on controlling its budget and refus- French and Belgian women’s artistic gym- ing to finance additional equipment. nastics rotated. “I never saw a delay like that in the European or world champi- SHOOTING SPORTS onships,” said a member of the French dele- “I chose to arrive early enough to train gation. “In the end, the girls made it out properly, but I was disappointed because okay, but it’s really a pain when the training the shooting range is not completed and is timed and you’ve set an entry at a specif- installations are not totally ready either,” ic time in your mind and body.” said a disappointed Delphine Reau, a dou- The outage was due to a cable that ble-medalist for France. The ISSF federa- broke due to construction around the site, tion for shootings sports listed problems Rio 2016 sports director Rodrigo Garcia with organizers, pointing to “incomplete explained. constructions, lacking air conditioning and lighting problems,” its secretary general PORTLAND: Los Angeles Clippers guard Jamal Crawford, right, shoots over Portland Trail Blazers center Mason Plumlee, second from left, dur- SWIMMING Franz Schreiber told AFP. Nonetheless, a ing the second half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Friday, April 29, 2016, in Portland, Ore. The Trail Blazers won 106- The day of the 50-meter freestyle swim- new world record was set in 3x40 men’s 103. — AP ming competition final, which saw Brazilian rifle shooting. “There was no air condition- star Cesar Cielo eliminated, an outage with ing, and we all suffered in the heat of projectors triggered a nearly hourlong Deodoro” Olympic Park,” Brazilian shooter delay. Similar electricity problems had Felipe Wu told the Globoesporte sports Blazers advance 4-2 with already taken place during diving competi- website. “A Chinese Olympic champion (Du tions in February. Li) wasn’t able to finish the competition. An overheated generator was blamed. She got sick and dizzy, and they had to “The risk of this happening again during take her away in an ambulance,” Wu victory over the Clippers the Games is zero, because we will have a said.”But such things happen. For a test dual power feed system, Garcia said, event, it’s better to get it wrong now so PORTLAND: Even as they huddled after the vic- hurt. He had surgery the next day and the the bench. “This team had more heart than any adding that there has only been one gener- that everything can go well later.” —AFP tory that sent them through to the next round, Clippers declared him out indefinitely. other team I’ve coached,” the elder Rivers said. the Portland Trail Blazers were drawing inspira- In the same game, Griffin aggravated the left The Clippers got another scare midway through tion from the doubters. quad injury that sidelined him for 41 games this the first quarter when Austin Rivers sustained a The confetti fell on them from the ceiling and season. After dropping the first two on the road cut above his left eye in a collision with Damian Lillard told his gathered teammates he and evening it with home wins, the Blazers took Portland’s Al-Farouq Aminu midway through the was proud of them for shutting out the “outside a 3-2 lead with a 108-98 victory at the Staples first quarter. noise,” like those who never thought the Blazers Center on Wednesday night. Clippers coach Doc Rivers returned before the end of the half would make it to the playoffs - let alone the sec- Rivers tinkered with his starting lineup in the after getting 11 stitches. Crawford picked up the ond round. absence of Paul and Griffin, inserting Crawford, slack in his absence and had 22 points in the Now they’ll have to shut out those who think Rivers and Paul Pierce. half. But Lillard and McCollum countered with a they have no chance against the defending NBA On Friday, he started Luc Mbah a Moute and combined 25 and the Blazers led 50-48 at the champion Golden State Warriors. “We’re just Jeff Green, while Crawford and Pierce went to break. — AP going to go out there and we’re going to com- pete and we’re going to put our best foot for- ward,” Lillard said. Lillard scored 28 points and the Blazers El Sherbini becomes youngest advanced to the Western Conference semifinals by beating the resilient Los Angeles Clippers woman to win squash worlds 106-103 on Friday night to claim the first-round KUALA LUMPUR: Nour El Sherbini became 19 of 20 matches this year, and was the first playoff series 4-2.

Load more