LeBron James on Thursday had 28 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds while leading the Los Angeles Lakers’ late rally for his first home victory at Staples Center, 128-111 over the previously unbeaten Denver Nuggets.
Kyle Kuzma scored 22 points and JaVale McGee added 21 to complement James’ 74th career triple-double, his first with his new team.
With Kobe Bryant watching from a courtside seat for the first time since LeBron’s arrival in LA, the Lakers trailed by eight points with six minutes left in the fourth quarter before Lance Stephenson started a 15-2 rally with back-to-back three-pointers.
James got Staples Center rocking on a go-ahead dunk with 3 minutes, 31 seconds to play before Lonzo Ball made an artful step-back three-pointer.
Kuzma added two huge dunks down the stretch of Los Angeles’ second win in two days after an 0-3 start.
Nikola Jokic scored 24 points for the Nuggets, who were off to their best start since the 2009-2010 season. Jamal Murray scored 22 points and Monte Morris had 20, but Denver could not answer the Lakers’ rally.
In Thursday’s other games, it was:
‧ Celtics 101, Thunder 95
‧ Pistons 110, Cavaliers 103
‧ Trail Blazers 128, Magic 114
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS