Taiwanese-American Jeremy Lin of the Golden State Warriors made history on Sunday by scoring two points in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers, his first as an NBA player.
The Warriors lost to defending champions the Lakers 107-83, their first defeat after opening the season with two wins.
Lin — the first person of Taiwanese descent ever to play in the NBA — played most of the third quarter and the last 4 minutes, 52 seconds of the game. In his 16 minutes, he scored two points on one-of-five shooting and had one rebound, three assists and four steals, but he also committed five personal fouls.
After the game, Warriors coach Keith Smart said Lin had made progress in his second NBA appearance, appearing comfortable as the lead guard and putting his imprint on the tempo of the game, the San Francisco Chronicle’s blog reported.
Lin, who got extensive playing time because starting point-guard Stephen Curry was out with an injury, said he was grateful for the coach’s praise, but acknowledged that he still had much to learn.
He said Sunday’s game gave him valuable experience in getting acclimatized to the tempo of an NBA game.
Lin, who grew up in nearby Palo Alto, California, was not selected in the NBA draft, but was signed by the Warriors to a two-year contract after his strong performance in the summer league.
His parents immigrated to the US from Taiwan in the 1970s.
It was Lakers All-Stars Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol who helped the defending champions breeze to a 3-0 start to the season.
Spanish center Gasol paced the team with 26 points and 12 rebounds, while Bryant recorded 20 points and seven rebounds in just 27 minutes of work.
The Lakers got off to a fast start, outscoring the Warriors 34-14 in the first quarter, and they cruised to their 10th straight win against Golden State, who last defeated Los Angeles in March 2008.
Lamar Odom scored 11 of his 16 points in the opening quarter and also chipped in 14 rebounds to continue his strong start to the season.
In their quest for a third straight NBA title, the Lakers have leaned on Gasol early in the campaign while Bryant works his way back from off-season knee surgery and center Andrew Bynum sits it out after his own knee procedure.
HEAT 101, NETS 78
In Newark, New Jersey, LeBron James scored 20 points, while Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade were close behind as the Miami Heat ended the New Jersey Nets’ two-game unbeaten start.
Bosh finished with 18 points and Wade added 17, both getting most of them in Miami’s dominant first half, before sitting out the fourth quarter. James played a little of the final period and added seven rebounds and seven assists.
It was the most impressive offensive performance yet for the Heat, who have won three straight since beginning their new era started with a loss in Boston.
Miami shot 68 percent in the first half, when their “Big Three” combined for 41 points and the stats only lowered when the reserves took over toward the end.
MAVERICKS 99, CLIPPERS 83
In Los Angeles, Jason Kidd ended the first half with a shot-put heave from inside the three-point arc at the opposite end, while Caron Butler scored 17 points and Shawn Marion had 10 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter as Dallas beat the Los Angeles Clippers.
Dirk Nowitzki added 16 points and seven rebounds for the defending Southwest Division champions in their first road game of the season. Kidd finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
Rookie Blake Griffin had 16 points and nine rebounds for the Clippers, who fell to 0-3 on the season under new coach Vinny Del Negro. None of the starters reached double digits until Griffin converted a slam dunk with 5 minutes, 32 seconds left in the third quarter.
Sunday’s other result:
‧ Jazz 120, Thunder 99
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier