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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 2021)
SPORTS 6A — BAKER CITY HERALD THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 Blazers blow big lead but rebound to defeat Thunder Nadal upset in 5 sets and seven rebounds. At one point, teammate Enes Kanter OKLAHOMA CITY — Da- put his hands on his head in mian Lillard scored 12 of his amazement. 31 points in the fi nal 4:11 to “I went up to him and told help the Portland Trail Blaz- him, ‘You crazy, man!’” Kanter ers beat the Oklahoma City said. “He’s like a cheat code. Thunder 115-104 on Tuesday I’ve never seen anything like night. this before and I’ve played The Trail Blazers squan- with some great, great play- dered a 24-point lead in the ers.” second half. Lillard rescued Gary Trent Jr. scored 19 them by making all four of points and Kanter had eight his 3-point tries — all from points and 21 rebounds for at least 25 feet — during the Portland, which has won fi ve closing run while playing straight. Lillard is averaging with fi ve fouls. On one, he had 30.2 points during the streak. Thunder defensive stopper Portland has been rolling de- Lu Dort in his face and hit a spite C.J. McCollum and Jusuf step-back, 28-footer to give the Nurkic being out for the past Trail Blazers a 109-102 lead. month. McCollum has a frac- It was enough to make Port- ture in his left foot and Nurkic land coach Terry Stotts dust has a fractured right wrist. off 1970s movie references. Dort scored 23 points and “When he made those, all I Hamidou Diallo added 17 for could think of was the theme the Thunder. Oklahoma City from the movie ‘Shaft,’” Stotts guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexan- said. “That Dame is a bad der, the team’s leading scorer, — somebody say ‘Shut your missed his fourth consecutive mouth!’ Can you dig it?” game with a sprained left knee. Lillard also had 10 assists The Thunder trailed by 22 in MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Ra- fael Nadal entered his Australian Open quarterfi nal with a 223-1 record when grabbing the fi rst two sets of a Grand Slam match. Thanks to his own mistakes — and some spirited play by Stefanos Tsitsi- pas — that mark is now 223-2. A couple of uncharacteristically sloppy overheads and a framed back- hand in a third-set tiebreaker began Nadal’s undoing, and his bid here for a men’s-record 21st major championship eventually ended Wednesday with 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 7-5 loss to the younger, sharper Tsitsipas. “Was little bit of everything, no? I missed a couple of balls in the tiebreak that I shouldn’t — that I could not — miss if I want to win. And that’s it,” said Nadal, who briefl y left the Span- ish portion of his post-match news con- ference after clutching at his cramping right hamstring. At his put-the-ball-where-he-wants- it best in the early going, Nadal went ahead rather easily, winning 27 consecutive points on his serve in one stretch and running his streak of consecutive sets won at major tourna- ments to 35, one shy of Roger Federer’s By Cliff Brunt AP Sports Writer AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS the second quarter before fi n- ishing strong and cutting the defi cit to 64-50 at the break. Anfernee Simons scored all of his 15 points in the fi rst half for Portland. Oklahoma City, as has been customary this season, was hard to shake. The Thunder made a run, but Portland still took a 93-79 lead into the fourth quarter. Oklahoma City stayed hot, and Dort’s 3-pointer put the Thunder up 98-97 midway through the fourth. “I feel like it just takes will and fi ght,” Diallo said. “And I feel like with this group of guys that we have here, we’re never going to give up, no mat- ter what we’re down.” Portland scored four points in almost eight minutes to start the fi nal period before getting its offense going again. The Trail Blazers closed the game on an 18-2 run. Oklahoma City’s last fi eld goal was a layup by Di- allo with 5:09 remaining. record for the professional era. Nadal and Federer are currently tied at 20 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any other man in the his- tory of a sport that dates to the late 1800s. But Tsitsipas never wavered and that surprisingly poor tiebreaker by Nadal — thinking too far ahead, per- haps? — helped hand over the third set and begin the epic comeback. “I started very nervous, I won’t lie,” the fi fth-seeded Tsitsipas said. “But I don’t know what happened after the third set. I just fl ied like a little bird. Everything was working for me. The emotions at the very end are indescrib- able.” So now, instead of Nadal attempting to surpass Federer, it will be Tsitsi- pas — a 22-year-old from Greece with a fl ashy game — who will meet 2019 U.S. Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev in the semifi nals Friday. Neither Tsitsipas nor Medvedev has won a Grand Slam tournament. In the other men’s semifi nal, 17-time major champion and No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic will face 114th-ranked qualifi er Aslan Karatsev, who is mak- ing his Grand Slam debut. Honor NBA’s best, but don’t mandate participation in All-Star Game As the National Basketball As- sociation nears the halfway point of the season, all eyes would normally be fi xated on All-Star Weekend. During this annual break we have witnessed memorable moments such as Blake Griffi n dunking over a car, Magic Johnson announcing his retirement after testing positive for HIV, and, in 2020, the league coming together to honor Kobe Bry- ant a month after his passing. Eleven months later, in the midst of a pandemic, Lakers forward LeB- ron James has a different opinion about the All-Star Game. LeBron isn’t at all excited about the prospect. I can’t blame him. After the NBA announced the 73rd All-Star Game would take place March 7, reporters began asking players what they thought. refused to play after being selected. These times are unprecedented, COREY and with either a limited number of fans attending, or none at all, I KIRK think the NBA should make All- Star Weekend optional. The NBA should follow the lead James didn’t hold back. of other major sports in the states. “I have zero energy and zero During its shortened 60-game sea- excitement about an All-Star Game son, Major League Baseball opted this year,” James said.“I don’t even to elect all-stars, but didn’t have an understand why we’re having an all-star game as originally planned All-Star Game.” in Los Angeles. The league’s best-known player, The NFL during a normal season James’ opinion carries some seri- would host the best of the best in ous weight. Basketball fans are Hawaii for the Pro Bowl a week wondering if James’ fellow players before the Super Bowl; however, the share his disdain. One possible league canceled the game this year, compromise is to make participation although recognizing the top play- voluntary rather than mandatory, ers and producing commemorative eliminating the hefty fi nes players jerseys. would normally be assessed if they The NBA would be sacrifi cing revenue by canceling its All-Star Weekend. During last year’s events, the NBA generated around $15 million with broadcast partner TNT, which packed more than 160 advertisements during the game itself. Besides generating a profi t, the event is a chance to bring at- tention to charities, and even, this year, to raise money for COVID-19 relief. Though a lot of good comes from All-Star Weekend, NBA play- ers including Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard say health should be the highest priority. It’s money on the line; it’s an opportunity to make more money,” Leonard told reporters last week via NBC Sports. “Just putting money over health right now, pretty much.” After playing in the Florida Bubble during its abbreviated 2020 season, the NBA has had to deal with COVID-19 issues during the season that started in December. Having players test positive has been relatively common, and 30 games have been postponed. Earlier this month, Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant was taken out of a game after it was found out that he had come into contact with someone who had tested positive. Durant expressed his dismay on how the situation was handled. Given the NBA’s experience with the virus this season, it’s tough to justify a mandatory All-Star Week- end. Players should decide if they want to partake. It’s hard to blame them for wanting to be safe. Corey Kirk is sports editor for the Baker City Herald. Quality care, close to home. 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