Sunday April 07, 2019
PAGE 69
Kaieteur News
NBA roundup: Lamb stuns Raptors again to keep Hornets alive Jeremy Lamb was the star again, and the Charlotte Hornets remained alive in the playoff race with a thrilling 113-111 win over the visiting Toronto Raptors on Friday night. Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds remaining to give the Hornets the lead, and then Charlotte held on when Kawhi Leonard’s 3-point attempt wedged between the rim and the backboard with one second remaining. This was the first meeting of the teams since the Hornets stunned the Raptors 115-114 in Toronto on March 24, on Lamb’s miracle bank shot from behind the half-court line at the final buzzer. The Hornets had lost three of their previous four and were in a total “must-win” mode Friday night. They still sit two games back of Detroit and Brooklyn, who are tied for the seventh spot in the East, and one game back of ninthplace Miami in the Eastern Conference. Thunder 123, Pistons 110 Paul George scored 30 points, and Russell Westbrook sealed his third consecutive season averaging a triple-double as Oklahoma City beat visiting Detroit.
Charlotte Hornets guard forward Jeremy Lamb (3) passes the ball as he is defended by Toronto Raptors center Marc Gasol (33) and guard forward Danny Green (14) during the second half at the Spectrum Center. (Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports) The game was critical to both teams’ playoff positioning, and it was the Thunder who came out ahead, winning for the second consecutive game and the fourth time in seven games. The Thunder remain in seventh place in the Western Conference, a halfgame ahead of the San Antonio Spurs with a game at hand. The Pistons lost for the third consecutive game and for the sixth time in their past eight to fall into a tie with
idle Brooklyn just above the East playoff cutline. Celtics 117, Pacers 97 Jayson Tatum scored 22 points, and Gordon Hayward added 21 as Boston took over sole possession of fourth place in the East with a victory over Indiana in Indianapolis. The result puts the Celtics on track for home-court advantage in the upcoming NBA playoffs. A first-round postseason series between the Celtics and Pacers is likely, though Boston moved
Richard Pybus likely to be removed as West Indies coach ESPNcricinfo - Richard Pybus is likely to be removed as head coach of West Indies, ESPNcricinfo understands, just three months after overseeing the Test series victory against England. His contract was meant to run until after India’s visit to the Caribbean in July following the World Cup, but the new Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Ricky Skerritt will host a board meeting next week as part of a review of the coaching structure. “A cricket review process is underway,” Skerritt told E S P N c r i c i n f o . “Announcements will be made following our board meeting on Tuesday.” Pybus’ shift to the head coach position in January, filling the vacancy left by Stuart Law moving to coach Middlesex, created significant divisions in the Caribbean, but the team had shown plenty of promise against England by winning the Test series 2-1 and sharing the ODIs 2-2 to lift confidence ahead of the World Cup. Pybus originally took over as high performance director in February 2018
Richard Pybus takes charge of West Indies training. (Getty Images) having previously served as West Indies’ director of cricket from 2013 to the end of 2016, when he chose not to renew his contract. The stint as director of cricket was controversial. He was responsible for the policy that made participation in West Indies’ domestic competitions mandatory for international selection across formats. This was in part responsible for a number of
senior players choosing to focus solely on playing T20 leagues around the world. The position of Mushtaq Ahmed, an assistant coach since October 2018, might also be under threat, but there has been no clarity on that front yet. West Indies cricket could be about see a significant overhaul following the end (Continued on page 65)
within 1 1/2 games of Philadelphia for the No. 3 seed. Kyrie Irving scored 17 points for the Celtics while Hayward was 9 of 9 from the field and 3 of 3 from the freethrow line. The Pacers have lost eight of their last 11 games despite entering play Friday on a two-game win streak. Magic 149, Hawks 113 Orlando set an offensive season high in a rout of Atlanta in its final home game of the regular season, getting a key victory for playoff positioning. It was the third-highest point total in Orlando’s history. The Magic’s scoring record is 155, set back in 1990. The Magic set a franchise record for points scored in a first half with 81 and led by as much as 38 in the opening half. The record-setting performance couldn’t have come at a better time. Orlando moved up to sixth in the East with its victory, a half-game ahead of Brooklyn and
Detroit, though the Magic have one fewer game remaining than both. Timberwolves 111, Heat 109 Dario Saric and Gorgui Dieng scored 19 points each to lead host Minnesota over Miami. The loss was the third in a row for the Heat, who must make up a one-game deficit in the playoff race with three games remaining. Dwyane Wade led Miami with 24 points, including a steal at midcourt and a layup with 10 seconds left that cut the Heat’s deficit to 110-109. Minnesota is out of playoff contention but played spoiler. Karl-Anthony Towns struggled with 11 turnovers, including four offensive fouls. He had an odd tripledouble along with his 13 points and 12 rebounds. Warriors 120, Cavaliers 114 Stephen Curry rebounded from his lowest-scoring game of the season with one of his best, bombing in a game-high
40 points as Golden State outlasted Cleveland at Oakland, Calif., in a rematch of the past four NBA Finals. The victory allowed the Warriors to move within one win of clinching the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs, which start next weekend. The Warriors swept the Cavaliers, then led by LeBron James, in last season’s Finals. In sweeping the season series from the Cavaliers for the second consecutive season, the Warriors led wireto-wire but saw a 21-point lead shrink to 115-112 with 2:52 to play. In other results: Nuggets 119, Trail Blazers 110 Rockets 120, Knicks 96 Jazz 119, Kings 98 Lakers 122, Clippers 117 Spurs 129, Wizards 112 Suns 133, Pelicans 126 (OT) Grizzlies 122, Mavericks 112 (Field Level Media)
Revamped selection policy to see best players chosen for World Cup BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Cricket West Indies is set to revamp its selection policy in an effort to rid the process of “politics or petty emotional situations”, in a move geared towards having the best squad selected for the upcoming ICC World Cup. New president Ricky Skerritt said selection policy had come under heavy scrutiny ever since he and vice-president Dr Kishore Shallow assumed the reins of the regional governing body two weeks ago, and it was now hoped that the changes would result in a broadening of the selection pool. “In the last two weeks, one of the most critical points that have been embedded as a selection policy is that if a player can still get selected for the team, they must be considered,” Skerritt told cricket website, Cricbuzz. “There must be no reason for non-consideration other than cricket or medical or physical health. No administrative issues, politics or petty emotional situations must prohibit or prevent players from being considered for selection.” He continued: “The last 10, 11 days since the election, we’ve been bringing in changes in terms of personnel and policies to make sure that we can reach out to everybody who wants to play for West Indies. “The people responsible
for selecting, managing and leading the squad to the World Cup have been reaching out to players who may be interested, to let them know that the policy has changed and to be clear whether they are available or not, so that when the group gets together next week to make their final decision on the squad, they have as wide a slate to choose from as possible.” Selection politics has remained a perennial issue in West Indies cricket but became a major talking point in recent years as the relationship between senior players and the Dave Cameron-led CWI administration frayed. Darren Sammy was inexplicably axed as captain and dropped from the squad five months after guiding West Indies to the capture of the Twenty20 World Cup in India three years ago, with many believing the move was as a result of his controversial public criticism of Cameron and CWI’s handling of player issues in the lead-up to the tournament. Similarly, recently-retired all-rounder Dwayne Bravo was never picked again in a one-day squad after playing a key role in the contentious abandoned tour of India in 2014. He was also sacked from the T20 squad in 2016 following the disastrous tour against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates which followed
the firing of head coach Phil Simmons – a development subsequently criticised by Bravo. Back in 2015, Simmons had famously criticised the selection process as suffering from “too much interference from outside”. With the World Cup set to bowl off May 30, Skerritt said it was important to have proper selection policy in place so that the Windies squad would be an ideal mix of youth and experience. “… that’s a policy decision which was made even before we got into office but it became effective immediately on us getting into office as we wanted it to be cemented before the World Cup,” he pointed out. “The problem in the recent past we discovered was that it was more an informal policy that hovered over the selectors’ heads. And I suspect they erred on the side of political caution and at times made decisions that hurt the team from being strengthened. “That led to the policy makers pointing fingers at the selectors for only picking young people but we know a successful cricket team needs a mix of seniority and young players.” Only recently in the oneday series against England, veteran 39-year-old opener Chris Gayle returned to the side to plunder 424 runs at an average of 106, to be voted Player-of-the-Series.