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.
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