American NBA legends, Shaquille O’Neal (right) and Alonzo Mourning (left), during a visit to Aspetar Hospital in Doha, yesterday. O’Neal and Mourning where taken on a guided tour by Dr Nebojsa Popovic, Aspetar Surgeon and Barry White, Senior Physical Coach. The basketball legends are in Qatar for the four-day Aspire4Sport Conference which will end today. O’Neal was impressed by the Aspetar facilities: “I’ve never seen a place like this in my life, even in my home country; it’s really amazing.” Compatriot Mourning also praised Aspetar services, “This is heaven for an athlete”.
LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles Lakers capped an encouraging weekend with a much-needed NBA win yesterday, using a 16-0 second-half scoring run to down Detroit 114-99.
The struggling Lakers had dropped two straight and four of their last five going into the contest.
They were buoyed on Saturday by superstar Kobe Bryant’s return to practice for the first time since he tore his left Achilles tendon on April 12.
After Bryant took part in some shooting drills, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni found himself fielding questions as to Bryant’s expected return.
The coach said it was too soon to say.
“I know why there’s anticipation, but it’s too early,” D’Antoni said.
Bryant, who recently said he was stepping up his fitness training, discussed his progress with sharpening his on-court skills in an interview for NBA TV. “The fadeaway still works, the ball-handling and being able to post,” he said. “Those are things that I can do right now.”
But with the time frame for his return to competition still uncertain, Sunday’s performance was welcome evidence the Lakers can find ways to win without him.
Jordan Hill had 24 points and 17 rebounds. Steve Blake handed out 16 assists, while Nick Young and Jodie Meeks scored 19 points each.
The Lakers engineered a 16-0 scoring run spanning the third and fourth quarters, holding the Pistons without a basket for more than five minutes.
“We got ourselves in a hole and couldn’t get out,” Pistons head coach Maurice Cheeks said.
Brandon Jennings scored 23 points with 14 assists, while Andre Drummond added 14 points and 13 rebounds for Detroit, who have lost five of their last six games.
Rodney Stuckey’s layup gave the Pistons a 71-69 lead before the Lakers exploded.
Young launched the run with a brace of three-pointers and Hill capped it with two baskets that gave Los Angeles an 85-71 lead with 10:35 remaining.
“Once we got the energy going, the shots started falling,” Young said.
Meanwhile, after some early struggles to start the season, the Memphis Grizzlies appear to have found the formula that led to a franchise-record 56 victories in 2012-13. Zach Randolph scored nine of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and also had 10 rebounds to lead the Grizzlies to a 97-86 victory over the slumping Sacramento Kings on Sunday.
Memphis was an efficient team offensively that played strong defense last season. That same formula has worked well in two straight victories that have evened the Grizzlies’ record at 5-5. Memphis shot just over 55 percent and had a season-best 30 assists. The Grizzlies blocked four shots, played the Kings tough inside, and limited Sacramento to 38 percent shooting.
‘’It’s where we are as a team, that’s the important thing,’’ Memphis coach David Joerger said. ‘“We’re trying to lay the foundation back down to who we are as a team. Zach and Marc (Gasol) were beasts and Mike Conley was really efficient today.”
Gasol had 19 points, nine assists and eight rebounds against the Kings, which followed a similar effort Friday night in a victory over the Lakers.
‘’I always try to be who I am and I always help out,’’ Gasol said. ‘’I really don’t care about numbers. I really don’t. Teams go through struggles during stretches of the season. Ours have come to start the season. We just want to keep getting better.’’
The Grizzlies led by 20 points in the third quarter and survived a second-half rally by the Kings to win their second straight on their four-game road trip that includes tough games against the Clippers and at Golden State. Agencies
