Sports briefs
Vonn withdraws from race with back injury
After injuring her back in a World Cup race, Lindsey Vonn withdrew from another scheduled super-G on Sunday before the race was canceled due to fog.
“Unfortunately I will not be able to race today,” Vonn wrote on her Twitter account 45 minutes before the original scheduled start.
“I am extremely disappointed but my biggest goal this season is the Olympics,” said the American star, who won the downhill title at the 2010 Vancouver Games but missed the 2014 Sochi Games due to injury.
Vonn jarred her back Saturday early in a World Cup super-G on the same St. Moritz course, and completed the race in obvious pain in 24th place.
Late Saturday on Twitter, she described the injury as “an acute facet (spinal joint) dysfunction,” though she had not had an MRI.
Vonn added Sunday: “I need to take care of myself now so I can be ready for next week, and more importantly, for February.”
The Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea are staged Feb. 9-25.
In the NBA
Al Horford had 18 points, Kyrie Irving scored 16 and the Boston Celtics get revenge for a rare loss, beating the Detroit Pistons 91-81 on Sunday.
The Eastern Conference-leading Celtics bounced back from a loss Friday night at San Antonio, extending their feat of losing consecutive games only once this season.
The Pistons, meanwhile, have lost six straight for the first time since late in the 2014-15 season.
- DeMar DeRozan scored 13 of his 25 points in the third quarter and the Toronto Raptors held off the Sacramento Kings 102-87 on Sunday for their sixth straight victory.
Kyle Lowry added 15 points, 12 rebounds and six assists on an off-night shooting, Serge Ibaka scored 20 points, and C.J. Miles had 11 for the Raptors. They won for the first time in Sacramento since 2014.
- Victor Oladipo had a career-high 47 points and added seven rebounds and six assists to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 126-116 overtime win over the Denver Nuggets Sunday.
The Pacers used an 8-0 scoring run capped by Thad Young’s putback with 5 seconds left in regulation to tie it. Then, Indiana got the first nine points in overtime to secure its fourth straight win, outscoring the Nuggets 12-2 in the extra period.
Myles Turner finished with 24 points and eight rebounds, and Lance Stephenson had 12 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Pacers.
Lomachenko stops Rigondeaux
Vasyl Lomachenko doesn’t just beat fighters. He makes them quit.
Even Guillermo Rigondeaux, who had never even lost a fight as a pro.
“I guess I should change my name now to NoMaschenko,” Lomachenko said.
Lomachenko won their bout Saturday night when Rigondeaux’s corner stopped the fight after six rounds because the boxer was complaining of pain in his left hand.
Lomachenko was easily winning boxing’s first pro match between two-time Olympic gold medalists when Rigondeaux and his trainers jointly called for the match to be stopped.
Promoter Dino Duva said Rigondeaux first felt pain in the second round and hurt it more significantly in the third. Duva said doctors believed the hand could be broken and were sending the 2000 and 2004 Olympic gold medalist from Cuba to the hospital for X-rays.
Duva said the injury came from a punch – though Rigondeaux certainly didn’t hit Lomachenko with many of them.
“Where did he hurt his hand, in the dressing room?” promoter Bob Arum said.
Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) earned his seventh straight victory by stoppage and defended his WBO 130-pound title. And for the fourth straight time, his match ended with his opponent quitting.