Lakers beat Suns to keep hopes alive of avoiding play-in

LOSANGELES(AP)—

Darvin Ham gets briefed every morning on where his team could end up in the Western Conference playoff race While the various scenariosareenoughtowarp the mind of any fan, the Los Angeles Lakers’ coach knows the only thing he can do is make sure his team keepsonwinning.

The Lakers kept their hopes alive of avoiding a spot in the play-in tournament with a 121107 victory over the resting Phoenix Suns on Fridaynight

“However it falls, we need to take care of what we need to do,” Ham said after the Lakers improved to 42-39 with their eighth win in the last nine games

Even with the win,

Lakers remained the seventh seed and in a play-in spot in the

Western Conference after Golden State’s victory overSacramento

On a night when

LeBron James and

Anthony Davis were held to a combined 30 points, it was two players acquired at the trade deadline that helped propel the Lakers

DeAngeloRussellledLos Angeles with 24 points andMalikBeasleyhad21.

Austin Reaves, who has emerged as Los Angeles’ most improved player this season, scored 22 “Nobody can key in on just AD and me When

The Golden Child!

Raekwon Noel bags five gold medals in Curaçao

you have Beasley shooting the way he was, Russell shooting at a high rate and Reaves playing exceptional it keeps the defense always out there,” said James, who had 16 points on 6-for-19 shooting.

RussellandBeasleyalso combined to make 10 of the Lakers’183-pointersasthey pulled away in the fourth quarter

“We’re not going to alwaysshoottheballtonight.

LeBron and I struggled tonight but we have a completeteam.Thedepthon our team is strong to where we had a very convincing win,” said Davis, who finished with 14 points and 21rebounds.

The Suns, who are lockedintothefourthspotin the West, rested starters Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton. It was the second game of a back-toback set after Phoenix beat DenveronThursday

TorreyCraigledPhoenix with18points,JockLandale had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Josh Okogie scored16points.

Suns coach Monty Williams did not say if he would sit his core four starters again in Sunday’s regular-seasonfinaleagainst theLAClippers.

“We’ll evaluate tomorrowanddowhat’sbest forourguys.

Thankfully, we’re in a position where we’ll have time to play next week and get the conditioning level where it needs to be,” he said.

It was tied at 96 early in the fourth quarter before the Lakers scored 11 straight points as part of a 13-2 run. James had seven points during the spurt and Rui Hachimuraaddedfour

R a e k w o n N o e l performance at this year’s AquaticsChampionshipwill go down in the annals of Guyana’sswimminghistory and that of the event which startedin1985.

Afterwinningthe1500m Freestyle, 400m Individual Medley, 800 Freestyle, and 200m Butterfly in the 15-17 age group, Noel returned to win the 400m freestyle to takehistallytofivemedals–all gold! Noel won all the medalsforGuyanathisyear since the other swimmers, though making it to several finals, fell short of the podium.

Apartfrombreakingfour ofhisNationalrecords,Noel now holds the CARIFTA 800 freestyle record and missed breaking the 200 butterfly by less than one hundredthofasecond.

Aleka Persaud made the finals of the 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle. Vladimir Woodroofe made the final of the 200 backstroke.

Persaud, Ariel Rodrigues, Zara Crane and MaiyaIfillmadethefinalof thegirls15-17relay

ByRawleToney

GoldforAnishaGibbons intheWomen’sU20Javelin andsilverforAttoyaHarvey intheWomen’s3000m.That was the story of Guyana’s seconddayattheCARIFTA GamesinNassau,Bahamas.

Itwasathirdgoldmedal in consecutive CARIFTA GamesforGibbons,whohas continued her reign as “Queen of Javelin” at the C a r i b b e a n ’s m o s t prestigious youth and junior t r a c k a n d f i e l d championship.

Gibbons won the U17 category in 2019, followed by the U20 event in 2022, andthistimearoundtheNew Mexico Junior College student-athlete launched her Javelin for a distance of 47.96metres,easilywinning theevent.

It was Gibbons’ first throw of the competition, and it was good enough and better than French Guiana’s Korann Colet (45.32m) and VanessaSawyer(43.37m)of theBahamas.

The19-year-oldGibbons holds Guyana’s National Record in the Javelin, along with the National Junior CollegeAthleticAssociation (NJCAA) record after throwingawinningdistance of 51.27m in March, which isalsoherPersonalBest.

It was the brightest moment for Guyana on Day

Two of the CARIFTA Games at the Thomas Robinson Stadium in The Bahamas as the country endedtheseconddaywitha top-of-the-podium finish and a silver, pushing its overalltallytofivemedals–two gold (Gibbons and Tianna Springer), two silver (Harvey and Javon Roberts) and one bronze (Seon Booker).

Harveyranaclinicalrace andwashopingtobetterher performancelastyear,where shehadalsofinishedsecond.

However, Jamaica’s Kaydeen Johnson had other plans and pulled away from Harvey with about 100 metrestothefinish,crossing thelineintenminutes41.11s (10:41 11), while the Guyanese settled for second place with 10:45.74. Third place went to Akaya LightbourneoftheBahamas (10:51.79).

Meanwhile, Tianna Springer,whowouldforever be remembered for her magicalperformancetoearn heragoldmedalintheGirl’s U17 400m on opening day, advanced to the finals of today’sgirls’U17200m.

Springer sprinted to a time of 24.27s in her Heat and returned in the semifinals to clock 24 37s, putting her in a position to contestforasprintdouble.

Ezekiel Newton, who suffered a false start in the semi-finals of the U20 100m, returned yesterday to finish second in his 200m semi-finals after running 21.52s.

EzekielNewtonwill competeintheU20 200mfinalsatthe CARIFTAGames.

He will compete in today’s U20 Men’s 200m finals.

At the 2022 games in

Jamaica,Guyanaendedtheir participation with seven medals– two gold, three silver, and two bronze –while finishing fifth in the medal standings behind Trinidad and Tobago (23), British Virgin Islands (7), The Bahamas (17) and Jamaica(92).