Sunday, February 25, 2018
Curry scores 44, Warriors hold off late rally by Clippers
Curry scores 44, Warriors hold off late rally by Clippers
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) Draymond Green wants the Golden State Warriors to be rolling into the playoffs again this spring.
Steve Kerr is looking for ways to spark the defending NBA champions to make sure that happens, to bring the high-flying Warriors back to playing superb basketball on both ends.
He returned from a Hawaiian family getaway over the All-Star break and changed starting centers. It worked well enough for him to stick with JaVale McGee over Zaza Pachulia for another night.
Stephen Curry swished a beautiful buzzer-beater from way back early and hit another timely 3-pointer late on the way to scoring 44 points, and the Warriors held off the Los Angeles Clippers 134-127 on Thursday night.
”We’re a championship team. We’re not about to sit here and act like we’re this battered team that had a horrible season and we’re looking for any glimmer of hope,” Green said. ”I understand we haven’t been as great as most people expect. We’re still a damn good basketball team so we don’t need no `but it’s a step in the right direction.’ You may get that out of someone but I don’t really roll like that.”
Kevin Durant had 21 points and eight assists, Klay Thompson added 19 points, and Green contributed 13 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals.
”It takes a full effort. It’s not easy to win an NBA game, it’s really not,” Kerr said. ”It takes the full 48. We’re not there yet.”
Curry shot 14 for 19, including 8 of 11 from deep, and made all eight of his free throws in his third 40-point game of the season. Curry also had 10 assists, six rebounds and two steals.
The buzzer-beater was sweet, giving Golden State ”a good vibe.”
”Obviously I feel every one I take has a chance to go in,” he said. ”Not really worrying about shooting percentages, just chuck it and see what happens.”
Kerr challenged his superstar roster to begin games better on the defensive end, which the Warriors did. Then the Clippers nearly came back with a surge down the stretch in what became an entertaining back-and-forth in the closing minutes.
Golden State led 104-93 on David West’s two free throws with 11:31 to play before a 9-0 Clippers run cut it to two.
Curry let it fly from nearly halfcourt to end the first quarter, both his furthest 3 of the season and first as time expired. Those have been his signature shots in recent seasons, so the sellout crowd went crazy.
The two-time NBA MVP made another 3 just before halftime, then Los Angeles’ Danilo Gallinari drained a 47-footer at the buzzer to get the Clippers within 70-58 at the break.
”Steph was incredible as he always is,” Clippers guard Austin Rivers said.
Tobias Harris scored 22 points, Gallinari wound up with 15 and DeAndre Jordan had 14 points and 14 rebounds for Los Angeles, which had won five of six.
McGee earned his fifth start of the season and had six points and four rebounds in nearly 14 minutes.
The Warriors are now 7-1 this season in the next game against an opponent after losing the first meeting. The Clippers beat Golden State 126-106 on Jan. 10 at Oracle Arena.
Thompson made two quick 3s to become the 10th Warriors player to reach 10,000 career points in the regular season, and his first 3 moved him past Joe Barry Carroll (9,996 points) for 10th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.
Golden State lost at Portland before the break but improved to 13-1 following a loss this season.
TIP-INS
Clippers: Gallinari had an X-ray on his R hand and it was negative. … Williams had a season-high 11 assists. … Los Angeles shot just 11 for 31 from 3-point range. … The Clippers lost for only the sixth time in their last 19 games.
Warriors: West added 10 points. … Patrick McCaw missed his second straight game with a sprained left thumb, while Jordan Bell sat out a 13th in a row with inflammation in his left ankle.
ANALYTICS ASSIST
Kerr used the resources of analytics guru Sammy Gelfand throughout the break to determine the Warriors aren’t defending nearly as well in the first five minutes of games than a year ago.
”Sammy Gelfand did not get an All-Star break,” Kerr said, explaining the biggest issue as, ”We’re just not trying hard enough.”
SHOOTAROUND NO-SHOW
Clippers guard Tyrone Wallace, on a two-way contract, had to fly into the Bay Area on game day. And the driver brought him straight to Oracle Arena, but the Los Angeles shootaround was not there.
”I told him to just go lay on the couch in my office back there,” coach Doc Rivers said. ”The car took him to the hotel and he got there after shootaround.”
UP NEXT
Clippers: Visit Phoenix on Friday.
Warriors: Host Oklahoma City on Saturday after the Thunder won at Golden State 125-105 on Feb. 6.
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More AP NBA: apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball
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Spring Game #2: Another A’s win, but another injury too
Spring Game #2:
Another A’s win, but another injury too
Renato Nunez arrived at spring training with something to prove and a roster spot to earn, and through the first two games of the Cactus League he was off to a great start. Unfortunately, he strained a hamstring during Saturday’s tilt and “could be out awhile,” reports Susan Slusser of the S.F. Chronicle. On the bright side and for what it’s worth, the A’s won the game 8-3 over the Padres.
San Diego jumped out to an early lead against A’s starter Andrew Triggs, with a two-run homer by Franchy Cordero in the 1st inning. Triggs was able to record two outs in the 2nd before hitting his limit for the day, but minor league teammate Ben Bracewell allowed one inherited runner to score before escaping the frame. All told, three runs were charged to Triggs, but they were the only ones allowed by Oakland all day.
Meanwhile, the A’s got some early offense as well. Whereas the Padres’ third batter of the game had homered, it only took Oakland until their second batter of the day to get a dinger from Franklin Barreto. Then in the 2nd, the usually sluggish, free-swinging Nunez put together an eye-opening sequence when he walked, stole second, and scored on a hit by fellow prospect Sheldon Neuse. Later, in the 4th, Nunez once again walked and stole second, though this time he was stranded.
Oakland put together its next rally in the 5th inning, thanks to poor Padres defense. An error sent Boog Powell all the way to third, and Barreto knocked him in with a sac fly. A pair of singles and another San Diego error plated another run to give the A’s a 4-3 lead. Yet another botched grounder in the 6th helped Oakland score three more on just a pair of singles, a HBP, and a Slade Heathcott sac fly, and in the 7th they added one final tally with a double by catching prospect Beau Taylor and a single by outfield prospect Ramon Laureano.
On the pitching side, the A’s staff went the final seven innings without allowing a run. Jharel Cotton led the charge with two quick frames, striking out five of the seven batters he faced. Chris Hatcher, Blake Treinen, Danny Coulombe, Chris Bassitt, and Simon Castro each chipped in an inning as well, totaling seven Ks, three walks, and one hit between them.
Nunez injury
The pulled hammy is a tough blow for Renato Nunez, a prospect who was starting strong in a make-or-break spring with the team. We’ll know more about the severity in the next couple days, but such injuries often take at least a couple weeks to fully recover from.
Nunez is out of minor league options and doesn’t have an obvious fit on the roster, but he came to camp in noticeably better shape and had reached base in all four plate appearances so far (2-for-2 in Friday’s opener). Missing multiple weeks would cost him a lot of valuable audition time, though Melissa Lockard has an optimistic take to offer.
If Renato Nunez’s hamstrung strain keeps him out for much of the spring, the A’s could DL him to start the year and that would give him at least a month of rehab games in Triple-A before they’d have to 25-man roster him.
— Melissa Lockard (@melissalockard) February 25, 2018
After seeing catcher Bruce Maxwell exit Friday’s game due to a knock on the noggin, the A’s have now suffered an injury in both spring games so far. Maxwell turned out to be fine, but let’s hope the streak doesn’t continue tomorrow with any more health problems arising. (Well, it already kind of did, as pitcher Daniel Gossett has been scratched from Sunday with back tightness.)
Key lines
A few notable performances in the box score:
- Triggs: 1⅔ ip, 3 runs, 2 Ks, 1 BB, 1 HR, 3 hits
- Cotton: 2 ip, 0 runs, 5 Ks, 1 BB, 0 hits
Cotton utilized his changeup effectively today and says, “I felt like last year the confidence wasn’t there throwing the pitch and this year I told myself, good or bad, I’m throwing that pitch, and it’s going to be good no matter what.”
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) February 25, 2018
- Bassitt: 1 ip, 0 runs, 1 K, 0 BB, 0 hits
- Barreto: 1-for-2, HR, sac fly, 2 RBI
- Nunez: 2 BB, 2 SB, run
- Laureano: 1-for-1, HBP, RBI, run
- Nick Martini: 1-for-1, BB, run
The A’s play again on Sunday, against the Royals at noon. Oakland will start A.J. Puk on the mound, and Dustin Fowler in CF. Full lineup here.
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Frances Tiafoe reaches first ATP final at Delray Beach
Frances Tiafoe reaches first ATP final at Delray Beach
American Frances Tiafoe will face Peter Gojowczyk of Germany in the final. (AP)
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Peter Gojowczyk of Germany has beaten the last eight American opponents he’s faced in ATP tour-level matches and will have a chance to defeat another Sunday when he faces Frances Tiafoe in the Delray Beach Open final.
The 91st-ranked Tiafoe, a wild-card recipient this week, journeyed to his first career ATP final by ousting Denis Shapovalov of Canada 7-5, 6-4 in his first career ATP semifinal Saturday night.
Earlier, the 64th-ranked Gojowczyk beat American Steve Johnson 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Gojowczyk has beaten three Americans already this week: sixth-seeded John Isner in the second round, Reilly Opelka in the quarterfinals and Johnson.
“No, I don’t have something about Americans, I like you,” said Gojowczyk, laughing. “I don’t have a preference, but maybe one more American guy.”
If counting tour and non-tour level matches, Gojowczyk has beaten the last 14 Americans he’s played since he lost the 2016 Winnetka, Illinois Challenger semifinal to none other than Tiafoe.
In the 20-year-old Tiafoe’s mind, Gojowczyk’s run against Americans needs to draw to a conclusion.
“He’s been taking out all the Americans, but I’m not going to let him take me out, though,” said a hopeful Tiafoe. “It’s a joke. It’s got to stop. I’m going to try to shut that down.”
Tiafoe raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set before Shapovalov steadied, but the Canadian was only able to recoup one of the two service breaks he suffered.
The semifinal was Tiafoe’s second time on court on Saturday.
In the afternoon, Tiafoe finished off eighth-seeded Hyeon Chung of South Korea 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 on an eighth match point in a rain-delayed quarterfinal. Tiafoe failed to take advantage of three match points Friday night before the match was stopped.
Gojowczyk said he saw a number of the student survivors from last week’s mass shooting at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the crowd during his match.
The tournament invited any student from the school to attend the tennis on Saturday.
Gojowczyk won his first career title as a qualifier at the Metz, France, tournament last year.
Gojowczyk served up an ace on his first set point at 6-3 in the first set tiebreaker.
Gojowczyk double-faulted to go down 30-40 in the fifth game of the second set, but saved that one break point he faced in the match.
He broke Johnson’s serve on a second break point in the eighth game of the second set when the American sailed a forehand long.
“It was a great match from myself,” Gojowczyk said. “It’s just a great week for me here.”
This Week on Tennis Channel Plus
ATP Acapulco (Feb. 26-28)
– Watch all the action from the Mexican Open on the Tennis Channel App starting February 26 at 5:00 p.m. ET, including extended coverage of three outer courts only available on Tennis Channel Plus.
ATP Dubai (Feb. 26-28)
-Don’t miss outer court coverage of The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship live on Tennis Channel Plus beginning February 26 at 5 a.m. ET
ATP Sao Paolo (Feb 26-Mar. 4)
-Live Brazil Open coverage begins February 26 at 10:30 a.m. ET on Tennis Channel Plus, featuring Gael Monfils, Pablo Cuevas and Fabio Fognini
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Saturday, February 24, 2018
How USA Men’s Curling Went From a ‘Team of Rejects’ to Olympic Gold
How USA Men’s Curling Went From a ‘Team of Rejects’ to Olympic Gold
About a week ago, John Shuster’s United States men’s curling team was struggling to a 2-4 start in the Olympic tournament. America stood on the verge of a third straight Olympic disaster with Shuster as skip (team captain). Shuster’s wife, Sara, tried to give him a pep talk. “I let my wife say everything she could possibly say to me to try to talk me off the ledge,” says Shuster. “I didn’t respond much to her however.”
Shuster then walked, alone, to a grassy knoll near the curling venue in Gangneung, South Korea. He sat down, stared at the venue, then decided he was sick of feeling pain at the Olympics. “I’m getting my heart broken by this sport,” Shuster said to himself. “And this is silly.”
After that quiet moment in the grass in South Korea, Shuster wrote one of the great turnaround stories in U.S. Olympic history. The men’s curling team won its last five games, capping off their improbable run with a 10-7 upset victory over Sweden at the Gangneung Curling Centre on Saturday.
John Shuster of the United States lines up a shot against Sweden during the Curling Men’s Gold Medal game on day fifteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Curling Centre on February 24, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea
Dean Mouhtaropoulos – Getty Images
With the score tied at 5-5 in the eighth end — Olympic curling games consist of 10 ends, which are kind of like innings — Shuster knocked two Swedish stones out of the scoring area on the last shot of the end, leaving a remarkable five U.S. stones in the dartboard-looking house. The clutch throw gave the U.S. five points and an insurmountable 10-5 lead.
Swedish skip Niklas Edin had thrown a poor shot to set Shuster up for the gold-clinching takeout. Even before Shuster threw, Edin knew the game was gone. Still, Shuster had missed easy attempts in the Olympics before. Couldn’t he choke again?
No chance. “I can’t tell you how unnervous I was,” says Shuster. The American fans erupted when he grabbed the five points. Watching back in the U.S., America’s foremost Twitterin’ curling fan, Mr. T, jumped off his couch. “And I don’t like to get off my couch,” Mr. T tells TIME in a 2:30 a.m. telephone interview after the game.”It’s real comfortable.”
Edin, the Swedish skip, would have conceded the match right there, but his team played out the last two ends in order to calm down a little. Otherwise, Edin says, he would have thrown the silver medal “in the sea.”
Team USA may have fallen short of its medals target at the PyeongChang Games, but thanks to Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall taking American’s first-ever cross-country skiing gold on Wednesday, the women’s hockey shootout win over Canada on Thursday, and especially the underdog curlers — the U.S. had never reached an Olympic curling final — America’s Olympics couldn’t have possibly ended on a more surprising, delightful note.
Team United States reacts after defeating Sweden 10-7 to win the Curling Men’s Gold Medal game on day fifteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Curling Centre on February 24, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea
Richard Heathcote – Getty Images
Team USA played loose in Thursday’s semifinal against Canada and played the same away against Sweden. Their opponents took notice. “They had nothing to lose,” says Edin. “And we had everything to lose.”
Mr. T called in for a pre-game speech. “I love what you’re doing,” he said over the phone. “I understand the athletic ability that it takes.” The players laughed when their cheering section shouted “Box of beers! Box of beers!” whenever someone brought a round back from the concession stand. Shuster’s son Luke, 4, led “USA!” chants.
“I love your mustache!” a fan yelled to American curler Matt Hamilton, who thanks to his red hat, stocky build and trimmed upper lip, could pass for a 1980s backup catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. Hamilton glanced up to the crowd and tussled his stache. “Believe it or not,” says Hamilton. “I don’t hate attention.”
While Hamilton and teammates Tyler George, who manages a liquor store, and John Landsteiner, a corrosion engineer, all came up big in the gold medal game, the win really belongs to Shuster, a four-time Olympian who’s seen his fair share of derision. After leading the Olympic team to a last place finish in Vancouver, and a second to last effort in Sochi, fans knocked Shuster, a former bartender who now works part-time at Dick’s Sporting Goods, online. His physique — or lack of it — made him an easy target. USA Curling started a high-performance program after Sochi to improve America’s fortunes on the curling sheet.
Initially, Shuster didn’t make the cut. So he recruited Hamilton and George and Landsteiner, a member of the 2014 team in Sochi, to try to play their way into USA Curling’s good graces. “I don’t think ‘team of rejects’ is the right term,” says Shuster, 35. “I think it was just Team Reject.”
“Somebody put a bee under his bonnet,” says Shuster’s father, Tom. “He knew it was possible.”
Shuster bought into the high-performance ethos. He met with sports psychologists. When officials asked him to lose 30 pounds, he did. “I’d lie if I didn’t say I wanted it badly for him,” says George. “I couldn’t be happier for John that he never has to make another shot the rest of his life to love the game.”
Shuster’s mom, Jackie says “this is our miracle on ice.”
Let’s just leave it to America’s curling conscience, Mr. T, to put it all in perspective. He compared the U.S. team to Rocky, who pounded his own character, Clubber Lang, in Rocky III. “Aw man, what a show, what a show,” says Mr. T. “John Shuster, he’s the greatest, man. The pressure was on, it didn’t phase him. No one thought they could do it. They’re what we really need right now during tough times. They can bring us all together, put a smile on our faces. They’re like a good medicine.”
Mr. T’s right. For Team USA, the curlers have already cured the Olympic blues.
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Thursday, February 22, 2018
John Shuster to skip the US men’s curling team at the Olympics again
John Shuster to skip the US men’s curling
team at the Olympics again
John Shuster led his rink to victory at the U.S. Olympic Curling Trials and punched his ticket to a fourth Olympics
John Shuster will skip the U.S. Olympic men’s curling team for a third straight Olympics after leading his team to a second straight playoff victory at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for curling.
Despite his long and decorated resume–Olympic bronze medal from the 2006 Torino Winter Games, where he played lead, plus experience skipping his current team into the top five at the last three world championships and winning bronze in 2016–the Olympic berth didn’t come easy for 35-year-old Shuster.
Curler John Shuster on his hidden talent, personal motto and how being a parent made him a better athlete
His team lost the first game of the best-of-three playoff series to Heath McCormick’s rink, then won the second game with help from a piece of errant ice that threw McCormick’s final stone of the ninth end off course. Shuster was able to capitalize on the other team’s bad luck by claiming four points and ending the game 9-4.
In tonight’s third and final game, Team Shuster grabbed a big lead by scoring three points in the first end. They held on to the lead throughout but McCormick and his teammates were never too far behind.
Team Shuster had a one-point lead and the hammer, the term for the advantage that comes from throwing the last stone of each end, going into the tenth end. But that invaluable hammer came within a few inches of rolling too far away from the button, which would have tied the score and forced the game to an extra end. Luckily for Team Shuster, the stone stopped rolling just in time and they won the game 7-5.
Two of Shuster’s teammates are already Olympians: John Landsteiner played with Shuster at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and alternate Joe Polo earned a bronze alongside Shuster in Torino.
The other two teammates, Tyler George and Matt Hamilton, will be first-time Olympians in PyeongChang.
After the match, Shuster told Trenni Kusnierek of NBC Sports that he wasn’t focusing on himself during the Trials competition.
“What this is about and what I’m about is about getting my teammates there,” he said. “I have two new Olympians on my team and I know how special that is, and now they know how special that is.”
Hamilton added, “[Shuster] just believes in us and just reminds us all the time there’s a reason he plays with us.”
Shuster will be looking to erase some bad memories when he returns to the Winter Games; his rink finished last in Vancouver and next-to-last in Sochi. After the 2014 Olympics, Shuster got cut from the national team because he performed poorly at the first combine held by USA Curling’s High Performance Program.
At the Team USA Winterfest event in early November, Shuster said that he took that moment as a wake-up call.
“I was like ok, if these people are going to be putting the work in and making changes then that’s something I need to do,” he said, “because this is something I still want to be part of.”
He started working out and successfully lost 30 pounds. Another big change came when he became a father for the second time; he said it made him more fearless on the ice.
“Making or missing a shot in the grand scheme of my life is now a lot less life or death,” Shuster said, “because I know that my life or death, the most important part to me, is being a dad and a husband. My kids make it a lot easier to step into the hack and throw an important shot.”
Appropriately, his two sons were the first people out on the ice to hug him after he made that oh-so-important shot that earned him and his teammates a ticket to PyeongChang.
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CHANGZHOU, China (AP) Andrey Sidorov scored in the last minute of extra time as Uzbekistan beat Vietnam 2-1 to win the final of the AFC U2...
