Defending champion Boston and Kobe Bryant’s runner-up Los Angeles Lakers, once again the teams to beat in the National Basketball Association, open the league’s 63rd season with home games today.
Powered by Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce plus guard Ray Allen, the Celtics won their first title since 1986 last June and accept their championship rings when NBA scoring champion LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers visit.
“We’re not going to dwell on what happened last year,” Garnett said. “This is a new year. We have a new goal. We’re going to talk about going forward. The three of us are very competitive. We’re still hungry.”
PHOTO: AFP
The Celtics won their 17th NBA crown just one season after winning only 24 games, bringing in Garnett and Allen and winning 42 more games, the best one-season reversal of fortune in NBA history. But can they repeat that?
“That’s something we’ll see,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “I can only tell you what I’ve seen is they are hungry. They have a great sense of urgency in practices. We want to do it again. It’s pressure but it’s good pressure, the kind of pressure you want.”
The Lakers, sparked by Bryant and Spanish center Pau Gasol, open the season against Portland in the NBA debut of center Greg Oden, the heralded rookie big man who missed last season with a right knee injury.
It also marks the first official game when Bryant, Gasol and 20-year-old big man Andrew Bynum, injured during most of the Lakers’ run to the finals, will play together as Los Angeles looks to live up to great expectations.
Bryant, who helped the US team win Olympic gold by beating Gasol’s Spaniards in the Beijing final, has not been nagged by a pinky injury from last year, when he scored 28.3 points and played in every game for the Lakers.
Bryant pondered leaving the Lakers before they moved last year but Gasol’s arrival eased his worries and raised his hopes of bringing the Lakers’ their first title since the departure of star center Shaquille O’Neal.
Familiar rivals will try to topple the Celtics in the East, including the Cavaliers, powered by James and his 30 points a game with Mo Williams added to provide backcourt scoring punch, and a veteran Detroit Pistons squad.
In the West, the Lakers will face a host of contenders, including a veteran San Antonio lineup, Yao Ming’s (姚明) Houston, playmaker Chris Paul and a quick New Orleans squad and perennial threats Dallas, Phoenix, Denver and Utah.
Houston added controversial forward Ron Artest, who had troubled stays in Sacramento and Indiana, to China’s Yao, who had 22 points and 10.8 rebounds in a season cut short by injury, and McGrady, who had 21.6 points a game.
Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson make Denver a threat, while Utah offers a balanced team lineup and the savvy of coach Jerry Sloan, in his 20th season with the Jazz, to rival the best in the West.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was