The technical fouls were piling high in the third quarter. So was Devin Booker’s point total and the Phoenix Suns’ lead.
By the time the whistles finally stopped, the Suns were well on their way to a 134-105 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night in a game that featured Klay Thompson’s first career ejection and seven technical fouls.
Booker scored 34 points and Deandre Ayton added 16 points and 14 rebounds.
Photo: Mark J. Rebilas-USA Today
“I thought emotionally, we kept it together when it was starting to get a little squirrelly,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “We were able to make enough plays during that time where we could get back to solid.”
Both teams lost their cool at various times during the third quarter, with all of the technical fouls called in less than 6 minutes. Thompson received two quick technicals and was ejected after having words with Booker, who also received a technical because of the exchange.
During the argument, Thompson held up four fingers to signify the four championships the Warriors have won over the past decade. Those rings did not help on Tuesday. The veteran guard finished with two points on 1-for-8 shooting, including 0 of 5 from three-point range.
It was the five-time All-Star’s first career ejection in 651 regular-season games.
“I love Klay Thompson, I have for a really long time, but that doesn’t excuse us from being competitive and talking to each other,” Booker said. “I’ve always admired his game, how he plays on both sides of the ball, and obviously the rings speak for themselves, but I’m going to bring it every time.”
Golden State’s Draymond Green and coach Steve Kerr, along with Phoenix players Chris Paul and Ayton were also whistled for technicals for various outbursts in the third, with most of that ire directed at the officials.
“I’m not one to get into what guys are taking about on the floor,” Green said. “There was chirping on both ends.”
Thompson did not speak with the media following the game.
In the midst of the third-quarter chaos, the Suns were playing well and their lead grew to 19 points by the end of the quarter. Without Thompson, the defending NBA champs were never able to mount a rally and the Suns kept a comfortable lead throughout the fourth.
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