Watson bags Vermaelen Masters title expects Arsenal to show true grit, revive bid

TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2014 17 18

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INDIANAPOLIS: Oklahoma City Thunder forward Serge Ibaka (right) fouls guard CJ Watson as he grabs a in the second half of an NBA game. — AP Pacers cruise past Thunder

INDIANAPOLIS: David West scored 21 to Phoenix for a showdown with the Wesley Matthews grabbed the rebound good. Cousins, who had his eighth points and Lance Stephenson had his Suns on Monday night. Gasol hugged for the Blazers. straight double-double, started the league-best fifth triple-double of the his brother Pau after the game; Pau has Matthews added 24 points for surge with a thunderous dunk and Back to the track season, leading Indiana past Oklahoma been out for the Lakers with vertigo. Portland, which has won four straight McCallum followed with his 3s, one from City 102-97 Sunday - putting the Pacers Jodie Meeks led the Lakers with 20 and eight of its past nine games. Both the left corner and the other from the for Mo Farah? one win away from clinching the Eastern points in their last home game of a mis- teams are jockeying for final position in right. Cousins was hit with a technical LONDON: Ahead of Mo Farah’s much-hyped marathon debut Conference’s top seed. erable season that has included a fran- the Western Conference. Portland is in foul with less than 2 minutes remaining, in London on Sunday, few expert observers believed he stood The Pacers (55-26) lead two-time chise-worst 55 losses with two games fifth place behind Houston and Golden his 16th of the season. By NBA rules, he any chance of winning. But his lacklustre eighth place finish defending champion Miami by a half remaining. State sits behind the Blazers in sixth. must sit out Sacramento’s final regular and modest time of 2hr 8min 21sec, which only puts him in game with one to play and hold the They lost their seventh in a row over- With the victory, Portland (53-28) was season game. the second-tier elite category and failed to even threaten a tiebreaker based on conference record. all and fifth straight at Staples Center. assured of at least the fifth seed in the Kevin Love had 43 points and 11 nearly 30-year-old British record, will be leaving the track star Kevin Durant finished with 38 points Wesley Johnson added 15 points and 15 playoffs. The Blazers close out the sea- rebounds for Minnesota after sitting out questioning if he has a future on the roads. for Oklahoma City (58-22) on a day it rebounds, and Jordan Hill added a dou- son tomorrow against the Clippers. Friday’s 112-110 win over Houston The lessons from his debut appear to be two-fold: firstly, could have locked up the second seed in ble-double of 10 points and 10 The Warriors (49-31) missed out on because of a hyperextended right elbow. the double Olympic and Worlds champion over 5,000 and the West. rebounds. reaching 50 wins for the first time since 10,000m seems to be better built for speed, illustrated last Oklahoma City rallied from a 10-point 1993-94, but they have two games to go NETS 97, MAGIC 88 year when he clocked the sixth fastest 1500m of all time. fourth-quarter deficit, tying the score at TRAIL BLAZERS 119, WARRIORS 117 in the regular season. Mirza Teletovic scored a team-high Even his 5,000 and 10,000m golds have been more down 89 with 2:46 to go. But hit a LaMarcus Aldridge scored 26 points, 20 points and Joe Johnson and Mason to his wily racing tactics closed off with a staggering finishing kick, something that counts for little over 26.2 miles (42.2 kilo- 3 and Stephenson made one with 34.2 including the go-ahead jumper in over- KINGS 106, TIMBERWOLVES 103 Plumlee each added 17 and metres). Secondly, east African distance powerhouses Kenya seconds to go to make it 97-91. time, and Portland defeated the Warriors Ray McCallum hit back-to-back 3- beat Orlando. and Ethiopia have raised the bar so high over the distance- despite a season-high 47 points from pointers in a pivotal stretch midway Deron Williams had 16 points, five their top runners regularly clocking times below 2:05 — that RAPTORS 116, PISTONS 107 Golden State’s Stephen Curry. through the fourth quarter, DeMarcus assists and four steals for the Nets, who what was a good time a decade ago will now only leave you DeMar DeRozan scored 14 of his 30 Aldridge’s jumper with 39.9 seconds Cousins had 35 points and 15 rebounds, have a two-game lead for the fifth spot in the also-ran category. points in the fourth quarter, and Toronto to go gave the Blazers a 118-117 lead. and Sacramento beat Minnesota. in the Eastern Conference playoff race On any given day, for every eight elite Kenyans and tied a franchise record for victories with Damian Lillard added a for The Kings trailed by 11 in the third over the idle Washington Wizards. Tobias Ethiopians, one or two of them stand a chance of being in a win over Detroit. Portland before Andre Iguodala missed a quarter and were down 82-81 before Harris scored 18 points for the Magic, aggressive, record-breaking form-as was the case in London The Raptors (47-33) had already 3-pointer with 2.9 seconds left and going on an 11-2 run to go in front for who have lost their past two games. on Sunday for Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang. “I will be back,” Farah clinched the Atlantic Division, and the Trailing 59-55 with 6:59 remaining in the told the BBC after the race. “I’m not going to finish it like this. I victory over Detroit was their 10th in 14 third quarter, Brooklyn went on a 15-0 gave it my all but I’m disappointed I didn’t go out there and games. Toronto has reached the 47-win NBA results/standings run, highlighted by five points from give what the crowd deserve.” However, the 31-year-old Farah-who trained with the mark for the third time. The Raptors Indiana 102, Oklahoma City 97; Toronto 116, Detroit 107; Brooklyn 97, Orlando 88; NY Knicks 100, Chicago Teletovic, to take a 70-59 lead with 3:23 Kenyans at altitude for two months to prepare for London- went 47-35 in 2001 and 2007. Kyle Lowry 89; Portland 119, Golden State 117 (OT); Sacramento 106, Minnesota 103; Memphis 102, LA Lakers 90. left in the quarter before Ronnie Price scored 28 points for Toronto before foul- then hit a 3-pointer to end the run. refused to be rushed into a decision on his future, saying: “I’m ing out with 5:51 remaining. Eastern Conference Western Conference disappointed but you try things and sometimes it doesn’t Atlantic Division Northwest Division work, but you have to give it a go.” Andre Drummond had 14 points and W L PCT GB Oklahoma City 58 22 .725 - KNICKS 100, BULLS 89 17 rebounds for the Pistons in the final Toronto 47 33 .588 - Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 20 points Analysts, however, see Farah temporarily ditching his Portland 53 28 .654 5.5 marathon ambitions and returning to the track for the time home game of their dismal season. Brooklyn 44 36 .550 3 Minnesota 40 40 .500 18 and New York, a night after being elimi- being, perhaps seeking to defend his track titles in Rio in Detroit’s Josh Smith missed a fourth NY Knicks 35 45 .438 12 Denver 36 44 .450 22 nated from playoff contention, beat 2016. “It is a disappointing debut,” wrote Ross Tucker, a lead- straight game with tendinitis in his left Boston 25 55 .313 22 Utah 24 56 .300 34 Chicago. Philadelphia 17 63 .213 30 ing South African sports scientist who runs the influential knee. Pacific Division No longer with any hopes of their Central Division LA Clippers 56 24 .700 - sportsscientists.com website. Indiana 55 26 .679 - own, the Knicks snapped the Bulls’ sev- Golden State 49 31 .613 7 “What would be most concerning to Farah is that he ran GRIZZLIES 102, LAKERS 90 Chicago 47 33 .588 7.5 en-game winning streak and dropped Phoenix 47 33 .588 9 pretty conservatively, and was on 2:06 pace for most of the Mike Conley scored 24 points and Cleveland 32 49 .395 23 them back into a tie with Toronto for the race, and he still dropped substantially off that.” Detroit 29 52 .358 26 Sacramento 28 53 .346 28.5 Memphis pulled away in the third quar- LA Lakers 25 55 .313 31 No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference He said the result “probably signals a delay in Farah’s ter to beat Los Angeles, moving the Milwaukee 15 65 .188 39.5 with two to play. Carmelo Anthony and Southeast Division Southwest Division marathon aspirations for a while. Back to the track for now, I Grizzlies a game ahead of idle Phoenix in Miami 54 26 .675 - San Antonio 62 18 .775 - J.R. Smith each had 17 points for the would assume.” Distance running site LetsRun.com said the race for the final Western Conference Washington 42 38 .525 12 Houston 53 27 .663 9 Knicks, who were eliminated Saturday Farah’s performance “wasn’t awful” and gave him credit for playoff berth. Marc Gasol added 18 Charlotte 41 39 .513 13 Dallas 49 32 .605 13.5 when Atlanta beat Miami, ending New making his marathon debut in London, which had which points and 15 rebounds and Mike Miller Atlanta 37 43 .463 17 Memphis 48 32 .600 14 York’s run of three straight postseason arguably assembled the greatest field in men’s marathon his- had 13 points for the Grizzlies, who head Orlando 23 57 .288 31 New Orleans 32 48 .400 30 berths. — AP tory. — AFP