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Sports 36 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2020
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nobody
taller than six-foot-six was in Hous-
ton’s starting lineup, and a heavily
bearded guard lost the opening tip.
Nobody bigger than six-foot-seven
Robert Covington played for the
Rockets in a game between division
leaders at Staples Center.
Because Russell Westbrook
went wild and Covington came up
big late in his debut, the Rockets’
†irst experiment in extremely small
ball was a large success — and the
hulking Los Angeles Lakers came
up short.
Westbrook scored 41 points
and Covington hit two clutch late
three-pointers while getting 14
points and eight rebounds, leading
Houston to a 121Š111 win over Los
Angeles yesterday.
James Harden managed just 14
points, but Westbrook picked up
the scoring slack before Coving-
ton had several big moments down
the stretch. The †inal surge sent the
Rockets to a major road win in their
†irst attempt at playing without a
centre in coach Mike D’Antoni’s lat-
est brainstorm.
“Every time you try something
di”erent, these guys have got to
believe in it,” D’Antoni said. “And
this helps a lot, because if you
come in here and get spanked and
they’re all little, it’s like, ‘Oh, maybe
we can’t do this’. So they’re †ired up
to keep trying. It’s just one game,
but the con†idence is good.”
Anthony Davis and the Lakers
capitalised inside on the Rockets’
diminutive defenders, but Houston
still rallied from a late four-point
de†icit and ended the game on a
19Š5 surge highlighted by two of
Covington’s four three-pointers.
The veteran was acquired from
Minnesota on Wednesday in a four-
team trade, and he tried to adjust
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Ante-
tokounmpo believes the Milwaukee
Bucks did the right thing by stand-
ing pat at the trade deadline.
The reigning league MVP and his
teammates kept rolling yesterday.
Antetokounmpo had 36 points
and 20 rebounds in a 112Š101 vic-
tory over the struggling Philadel-
phia 76ers.
Milwaukee did not make a move
at the deadline, preferring to stick
with the team that has put up a
league-best 44Š7 record and is on
pace to become the third team in
league history to win 70 games.
“I think a lot of teams are getting
players so they can play against us,
so they can guard us better,” Ante-
tokounmpo said. “But I think we’re
the best team in the NBA; we have
the best record in the NBA.
“For me, I think there should not
be any change. Good thing there
wasn’t. I think the guys we have,
the chemistry we have on the team
is amazing right now. The guys we
have are playing great. These are
the guys I’ve been going to war with
all season and I’m happy we have
the same team.”
Milwaukee’s swarming defence
stymied the 76ers and their all-star
center Joel Embiid.
Philadelphia shot just 37.4 per
cent from the †ield (37 of 99) and
Embiid was six of 26 while contrib-
uting 19 points and 11 rebounds in
33 minutes.
“Tonight I missed a lot of wide-
open looks,” said Embiid, who was
three of 10 from three-point dis-
tance. “We came into the game with
a plan of shooting a lot of 3s, espe-
cially with the way they guard us.
I’m proud of my teammates. I felt
tonight, compared to the previous
games, we competed.”
The Bucks won for the 12th time
in 13 games, avenging a lopsided
Christmas Day loss to the Sixers in
Philadelphia. The Sixers closed out
an 0Š4 road swing that also included
losses to Atlanta, Boston and Miami.
Bucks forward Khris Middleton,
limited to four points in the †irst
half, †inished with 20 points and
seven rebounds, and point guard
Eric Bledsoe added 14 points, eight
rebounds and six assists.
Tobias Harris led Philadelphia
(31Š21) with 25 points, and Ben Sim-
mons narrowly missed a triple-dou-
ble with 11 points, 14 rebounds and
nine assists.
“I don’t think they had much of
the rhythm they wanted to,” Middle-
ton said. “I think we did a great job
playing physical and not fouling.”
Antetokounmpo had 30-plus
points and 15-plus rebounds for the
†ifth straight game and the 14th time
this season. He became just the †ifth
player in franchise history to record
a 30Š20 game and the †irst since Vin
Baker in February 1996.
He also became the †irst player in
the NBA to have †ive straight 30Š15
games since the 1985Š86 season.
“It’s crazy,” Antetokounmpo said.
“I’m happy that we’re winning and
we’re playing good. But I can get a
lot better. I can be smarter; I can be
sharper. I can make better passes
on time, make three-point shots and
two-point shots. That’s the mindset
I have.”
PORTLAND, OREGON (AP) —With
the trade deadline past and a
playo” race ahead, the Portland
Trail Blazers understood the im-
portance of their game against
the San Antonio Spurs.
Damian Lillard had 26 points
and 10 assists, Hassan White-
side scored 17 points and tied a
season-high with 23 rebounds
as the Trail Blazers beat San An-
tonio 125Š117, taking two of three
games from the Spurs to claim
the season series in matchup
with playo” tiebreaker potential.
The Blazers are two games
behind the Memphis Grizzlies for
the eighth and †inal playo” spot
in the Western Conference. The
Spurs are just over four games
back of Memphis.
“We talked about it,” Lillard
said of his team’s mindset head-
ing into the game.
“I think we past the point of
saying ‘it’s just another game.’
... Every game is important, but
games like this are more impor-
tant because they are one of
the teams that we’re †ighting for
that spot with. It was a tiebreaker
game, we’re not playing them no
more after this. It also gives us
Covington has clutch debut,
Rockets outlast Lakers 121-111
quickly to being the tallest player
on the †loor for his new squad.
“Means a lot, just being able to
come in and make a major impact,”
Covington said. “It just shows that
my coaches and my teammates be-
lieve in me.”
Davis had 32 points and 13 re-
bounds, and LeBron James had 18
points, 15 assists and nine rebounds
in a meeting of †irst-place teams
with sharply contrasting approach-
es. The Lakers didn’t blame the loss
on the Rockets’ unusual lineup, but
instead on their lack of execution in
several key stretches.
“You’ve just got to communi-
cate,” James said. “James is getting a
lot of eyes on him, but Russ was do-
ing what he is de†initely capable of
doing. He was wonderful tonight.”
Harden took just 10 shots in his
follow-up to back-to-back 40-point
games, but Westbrook returned
from a one-game absence with a
sprained thumb and had a huge
performance in the Rockets’ fourth
straight win.
Although Davis, Dwight Howard
and JaVale McGee had a relatively
easy time getting shots down low
and grabbing rebounds in traf-
†ic, the Rockets’ small lineup cre-
ated the o”ensive spacing and ball
movement desired above all else
by D’Antoni.
“They hit some tough shots
down the stretch, and we made
some costly turnovers at the end,”
Davis said.
The Lakers got plenty of simple
baskets down low, but the Rockets
went 15 for 29 on three-pointers in the
†irst three quarters to keep it close.
Covington came up with a key
block of Davis’ shot with about 3:30
to play after Houston reclaimed
the lead, and he hit a clutch three-
pointer from the corner with 2:42
to play.
Houston Rockets guard Russell Westbrook reaches for the ball held by Los
Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis. PHOTO: AP
Antetokounmpo shines as Bucks defeat 76ers
Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo drives past Philadelphia 76ers’
Al Horford during the game. PHOTO: AP
26 for Lillard, Portland
beat San Antonio 125-117
some separation from them. They
lost two coming in here and it
would be good for us to give them
a third. We got the game ahead of
them and we got the tiebreaker,
so it was a huge game.”
The Blazers got a major boost
off their bench from Gary Trent
Jr., who scored 18 points. Trent’s
points late were important as
he hit four three-pointers and
scored 12 points in the fourth
quarter as Portland rallied from
a 92-86 deficit.
Trent, Lillard said, is giving the
Blazers something they need.
“I think he’s giving us some-
thing to be excited about,” Lillard
said. “He’s been consistent. How
he’s playing on the defensive end,
how he’s getting to his spots to be
e”ective and making shots. He’s
somebody that has to be account-
ed for, especially on a night like to-
night, he came up big for us.”
Trent, who barely played as a
rookie, has been getting consistent
minutes and is shooting nearly 42
per cent from the three-point line
on four attempts per game.
“It’s like you belong. I work on
everything with my coaches every
day, it’s just paying o”,” Trent said.
Trey Lyles had a season-high
23 points and 10 rebounds, DeMar
DeRozan added 21 points and La-
Marcus Aldridge added 20 points
and eight rebounds for the Spurs.
San Antonio built a 10-point
lead multiple times in the †irst half,
but Portland stayed within reach
on the strength of the play of Lil-
lard (14 points) and McCollum (11
points), trailing 60Š59 at halftime.
While DeRozan struggled from
the †ield (six for 16), he helped the
Spurs with nine-for-nine shooting
from the foul line.
A pair of three-pointers in the
third quarter by Carmelo Anthony
forced a timeout by the Spurs
with 5:23 left in the third as they
nursed a 75Š74 lead. Anthony’
kept Portland close, scoring 16 of
his 20 points in the second half.
San Antonio Spurs guard Derrick
White blocks the shot of Portland
Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard.
PHOTO: AP