SPORTSARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2016

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Favourite Wild Oats retine

LOYAL wins Sydney-Hobart in record timeSYDNEY, Dec 27, (AFP): Australian su-permaxi Perpetual LOYAL smashed the race record by almost fi ve hours when it took out line honours in the gruelling Sydney to Hobart race early Wednesday, after eight-time winner Wild Oats XI re-tired.

LOYAL, a long-time rival of favourite Wild Oats, put to bed her failure to fi nish the past two races when the 100-footer arrived at Hobart’s Constitution Dock in a record time of 1 day 13hrs 31mins 20secs.

“Mission accomplished! Huge con-grats to the Perpetual Loyal crew win-ning line honours at the 72nd #RolexSyd-neyHobart,” LOYAL tweeted after the yacht powered towards the fi nish line at 20 knots.

The new fi nish time for the 628-nau-tical-mile (1,163-kms) event was four hours and 51 minutes faster than the previous record of 1 day 18hrs 23mins 12secs set in 2012 by Wild Oats.

New Zealand’s Giacomo and Hong Kong businessman Seng Huang Lee’s entrant Scallywag are next due to cross the finish line, and also complete the race within the 2012 record.

LOYAL had benefi ted from favourable

winds that saw the race leaders tear down Australia’s east coast after departing Syd-ney Harbour on Monday.

Owned and skippered by Anthony Bell, LOYAL was fi rst into the open ocean fol-lowed by Hong Kong-owned Scallywag followed by Wild Oats.

Wild Oats edged into the lead amid freshening northerly winds, but in a bitter blow, its hydraulic keel control mecha-nism failed when it was in the middle of the Bass Strait.

Citing the safety of the crew, skipper Mark Richards made the call to retire from the race on Tuesday morning, with the yacht arriving at the town of Eden some 480 kilometres south of Sydney early Wednesday.

It was the second-straight year Wild Oats had to pull out from the bluewater classic, with a mainsail rip thwarting her ambitions in 2015.

The line honours instead went to Amer-ica’s Comanche, which did not take part in this year’s contest.

But half the world-class crew of Co-manche returned to the Sydney to Hobart on board LOYAL, after Bell brought them in this year in a bid to become more competitive.

This year’s win is the second for Bell, the head of an accountancy fi rm, who took out line honours in 2011 with In-vestec Loyal — the fi rst time he sailed in the race.

Pistons rout Cavs while James restsRaptors top Blazers

AUBURN HILLS, Michigan, Dec 27, (AP): Tobias Harris scored 21 points to help Detroit snap a fi ve-game losing streak by beat-ing Cleveland 106-90 in the NBA on Monday night while LeBron James sat out.

James missed his third game of the sea-son, and Cleveland has lost all three. The Cavaliers had their fi ve-game winning streak snapped in a match they never led.

Cleveland was playing its fi fth game in sev-en days and coming off a thrilling win Sunday over Golden State. So James sat, and the Pis-tons took advantage.

Detroit scored the fi rst eight points, led 50-44 at halftime and took con-trol near the end of the third quarter. Harris and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made 3-pointers early in the fourth, and the Pistons led 82-65.

Kevin Love had 17 points and 14 rebounds for Cleveland.

Raptors 95, Trail Blazers 91In Portland, Oregon, Kyle Lowry scored 27

points as the Toronto Raptors won their fran-chise-best seventh consecutive road game over the skidding Portland Trail Blazers.

Lowry, coming off a season-high 36 points last Friday at Utah, had 20 in the second half as the Raptors (22-8) handed Portland its sixth consecutive loss.

Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan nearly had his fi rst triple-double of the season, with 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Patrick Patter-son scored 15, and Jonas Valanciunas had 12 points and 12 rebounds.

C.J. McCollum scored 27 points to lead Port-land (13-20). The Blazers have lost 10 of 11.

Pelicans 111, Mavericks 104In New Orleans, Anthony Davis had 28

points and 16 rebounds as New Orleans beat Dallas.

Langston Galloway made all fi ve of his 3-point shots and fi nished with 17 points for the Pelicans, who’ve won three of four as they try to climb back into the race for the fi nal Western Conference playoff spot.

Davis made four free throws and a 19-foot jumper in the fi nal 2:12 and got his second block on Harrison Barnes’ layup attempt with 22 seconds remaining.

Rockets 131, Suns 115In Houston, James Harden had 32 points and

12 assists in three quarters and Houston never trailed in a win over Phoenix.

It was the 12th 30-point game this season for Harden, who made 12 of 15 free throws.

Houston led by at least 20 points for most of the night and was up by 27 entering the fourth quarter. Harden didn’t play after that, and coach Mike D’Antoni had the rest of his starters on the bench by the middle of the fourth quarter.

Bulls 90, Pacers 85In Chicago, Dwyane Wade scored 21 points

and Nikola Mirotic added a season-high 20 as Chicago overcame a poor shooting performance to beat Indiana and snap a three-game skid.

Jimmy Butler had 16 points despite shooting only 3 of 12 from the fi eld. Chicago, which had dropped nine of 12, was 32 for 83 (38.6 per-cent) from the fi eld.

Aaron Brooks had a season-high 19 points to lead the Pacers, who have lost three straight.

Nuggets 106, Clippers 102In Los Angeles, Nikola Jokic had 24 points

and 10 rebounds while Danilo Gallinari and Will Barton each added 23 points to lead the Denver Nuggets past the undermanned Los An-geles Clippers.

The Clippers played without their three lead-ing scorers Blake Griffi n, Chris Paul and J.J. Redick but came from 17 points down to start the second half and took a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Denver responded with a 9-0 run of its own and used four clutch free throws by Gallinari down the stretch to hold on.

Kings 100, 76ers 100In Sacramento, California, DeMarcus Cous-

ins made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 20.9 sec-onds remaining and added a clutch free throw moments later, lifting the Sacramento Kings over the Philadelphia 76ers.

After Ersan Ilyasova drove around Rudy Gay for a layup that tied the score at 96-96, Cousins made his second 3 of the game to put Sacramento ahead. Garrett Temple, who had put the Kings up 96-94 with his own key 3-pointer with 58.7 sec-onds left, followed with two free throws.

Sergio Rodriguez’s 3-pointer pulled Phila-delphia within 101-100 before Cousins made the second of two free throws. Sacramento’s 6-foot-11 center then sealed the win by block-ing Joel Embiid’s 3-pointer. Embiid got the ball back but shot an airball at the buzzer.

Wizards 107, Bucks 102In Washington, Otto Porter scored 32 points

and grabbed 13 rebounds while John Wall had 18 points and a season-high 16 assists to help Washington come from behind to beat Milwau-kee.

Bradley Beal scored 22 points as Washing-ton turned the game around with a 15-2 fourth-quarter run. Markieff Morris added 18 in the Wizards’ sixth straight home win and seventh this season after trailing by double fi gures.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 22 points and 12 rebounds for the Bucks, who beat the Wiz-ards by 27 points in Milwaukee on Friday.

Timberwolves 104, Hawks 90In Minneapolis, Karl-Anthony Towns had 22

points and 11 rebounds, and Zach LaVine hit six 3-pointers to lead Minnesota over Atlanta.

LaVine scored 21 points, Andrew Wig-gins had 21 and was 4 for 6 on 3-pointers, and Towns was 8 for 8 from the fi eld, including 3 for 3 from 3-point range. Minnesota hit a sea-son-high 15 3s and led by as many as 29 points.

Magic 112, Grizzlies 102In Orlando, Florida, Aaron Gordon scored

30 points, and Serge Ibaka and Elfrid Payton had 16 apiece to help Orlando beat Memphis.

Seven players reached double fi gures for the Magic, who maintained a large lead most of the night despite playing without leading scorer Evan Fournier (bruised heel). Nikola Vucevic had 13 points and nine rebounds, and Bismack Biyombo added 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Mike Conley led Memphis with 17 points. Troy Daniels had 16 and Zach Randolph 13, but the Grizzlies were down early and never recovered.

Nets 120, Hornets 118In New York, Randy Foye made a 3-pointer

to beat the buzzer and give Brooklyn a victory over Charlotte.

The Nets overcame the loss of Jeremy Lin and a 14-point defi cit in the third quarter to stop a fi ve-game losing streak. Bojan Bogdanovic led Brooklyn with 26 points, Sean Kilpatrick had 23 and Brook Lopez scored 10 of his 21 in the fourth.

Nicolas Batum had 24 points and Jeremy Lamb added 17 for Charlotte, but Kemba Walker was scoreless in the fourth quarter as the Hornets had their three-game winning streak snapped.

Bonex FC and Joker FC

Committee of IFA-K and Pelajar FC

Banyumas Kids FC and Riggae FC

IFA-K holds Liga Futsal 2016IFA-K (Indonesia Futsal Association in Ku-wait) started Liga Futsal 2016 from Nov 18 till the end of December 2016 in Al Sadaqah Al

Salem, Shuwaikh. The tournament is spon-sored by Embassy of Indonesia, McDonalds and Mbak Yuli Indonesia Foods.

The participating teams are Bonex FC, Daiya FC, Mancing Mania FC, Batosai FC, Mangaf FC, Pelajar FC, PPK FC, PIP FC,

Joker FC, Ambulance IBCK FC. The kids teams are as follows: Banyumas FC, PIP FC, ICFK FC, Riggae FC, and Mangaf FC.

Daiya FC and Mancing Mania FC

Futsal Kids team

ICFK FC and Riggae FC

BASKETBALL

Los Angeles Clippers guard Jamal Crawford (left), shoots as Denver Nuggets forward Nikola Jokic, of Serbia, defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game on Dec

26, in Los Angeles. (AP)

James

In this aerial handout photo from Rolex taken on Dec 26, Australian supermaxi yacht Perpetual Loyal competes in the Sydney to Hobart race at the sea off the Australian coast. (AFP)

Blue Jackets pile up the winsCOLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec 27, (AP): When the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Montreal Cana-diens two days before Christmas for the team’s 12th consecutive win, the sell-out crowd at Na-tionwide Arena stayed put and cheered long past the fi nal horn.

Understandable, given that the fans here haven’t had much to celebrate in the team’s 16-year history.

Just a season removed from a last-place fin-ish in the Metropolitan Division — coach John Tortorella called 2015-16 “embarrassing” — the Blue Jackets have hockey’s best record fueled by a roster light on stars but deep in key contributors.

Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky led the way

against the Canadiens on Friday, stopping 36 shots in a 2-1 victory, including two acrobatic blocks using the toe of his skate. The previous night, Scott Hartnell was the star, getting a hat trick in a 7-1 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh to take over fi rst place in the league’s toughest division.

The Blue Jackets are off to their best start ever at 23-5-4. They have the league’s largest goal differential (plus-45) and haven’t lost in regula-tion since the day before Thanksgiving.

Columbus is hunting its fi rst ever division title and third postseason appearance after limping to a 34-40-8 record last season, a shocking feat since the core of the roster largely returned.

NBA Results/Standings

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

W L PCT GBToronto 22 8 .733 -Boston 18 13 .581 4-1/2NY Knicks 16 14 .533 6Brooklyn 8 22 .267 14Philadelphia 7 23 .233 15

Central Division W L PCT GBCleveland 23 7 .767 -Chicago 15 16 .484 8-1/2Milwaukee 14 15 .483 8-1/2Indiana 15 17 .469 9Detroit 15 18 .455 9-1/2

Southeast Division W L PCT GBCharlotte 17 14 .548 -Atlanta 15 16 .484 2Washington 14 16 .467 2-1/2Orlando 15 18 .455 3Miami 10 21 .323 7

Western ConferenceNorthwest Division

W L PCT GBOklahoma City 19 12 .613 -Utah 18 13 .581 1Denver 13 18 .419 6Portland 13 20 .394 7Minnesota 10 21 .323 9

Pacifi c Division W L PCT GBGolden State 27 5 .844 -LA Clippers 22 11 .667 5-1/2Sacramento 14 17 .452 12-1/2LA Lakers 12 22 .353 16Phoenix 9 22 .290 17-1/2

Southwest Division W L PCT GBSan Antonio 25 6 .806 -Houston 23 9 .719 2-1/2Memphis 20 13 .606 6New Orleans 12 21 .364 14Dallas 9 22 .290 16

WASHINGTON, Dec 27, (RTRS): Results and standings from the NBA games on Monday.Denver 106 LA Clippers 102Sacramento 102 Philadelphia 100Toronto 95 Portland 91Chicago 90 Indiana 85New Orleans 111 Dallas 104

Houston 131 Phoenix 115Minnesota 104 Atlanta 90Brooklyn 120 Charlotte 118Detroit 106 Cleveland 90Washington 107 Milwaukee 102Orlando 112 Memphis 102

YACHTING