Reaves sizzles as Lakers down Suns

LOS ANGELES — Anthony Davis had 27 points and nine rebounds, D’Angelo Russell added 26 points and the Los Angeles Lakers snapped a six-game losing streak against Phoenix with a 122111 victory over the depleted Suns on Wednesday night (Thursday, Manila time).

Austin Reaves had 25 points and a career-high 11 assists after moving into the starting lineup for the Lakers, who improved to 7-5 in LeBron James’ latest injury absence with an impressive second half against the powerhouse Suns.

Devin Booker scored 25 of his 33 points in the second half for Phoenix, which has lost five of six. Chris Paul had 18 points for the Suns, who hadn’t lost to the Lakers since May 2021.

Kevin Durant missed his seventh straight game for

Phoenix with an ankle injury, and Deandre Ayton also didn’t make the trip to Los Angeles while sitting out his second game with a hip injury.

James is still sidelined with a foot injury, allowing the Suns to miss him for the third time this season. The Lakers have kept James’ recovery under wraps, but he is scheduled to be re-evaluated later this week.

Booker added six rebounds and five assists, but was limited at key moments by Jarred Vanderbilt while the Lakers maintained a steady lead in the fourth quarter.

Los Angeles endangered its playoff hopes with losses to Houston and Dallas last week, but has surged back into a tie for ninth place in the Western Conference postseason picture with consecutive victories.

The Lakers shot 27 free throws while taking a 12-point lead in the first half, and Davis scored 14 points in the third quarter to keep Los Angeles narrowly ahead.

TIP-INS Suns: Landry Shamet scored 15 points in his second game back from a 25-game absence with a left foot injury ... Phoenix coach Monty Williams used 11 players in the first half.

Lakers: Reaves scored a career-high 35 points in Los Angeles’ last game against Orlando, prompting coach Darvin Ham to promote him into Malik Beasley’s starting spot. Beasley has struggled to shoot consistently since joining the Lakers in a trade at the deadline, shooting 38% from the

I have been doing some “muni muni” these past few days, struggling on how to write this column.

You see friends, as I aged and my seniors, editor in chief nong Tony Ajero, editorial consultant Ram Maxey and sadly recently, our sales director Ate Chay Panes have gone to the great beyond, I must admit, I have mellowed down.

Hopefully, gone are the years that I am very combative in my writing, that earned some threats of libel cases, and a sincere advise from a humble lawyer, Attorney Guillermo Iroy Jr., although I was tempted to be one young and idealistic sportswriter once again.

So, this time, after days of “muni muni”, I am writing this on a different tone.

Frankly, I was bit shocked by the football game result between my beloved alma mater, Holy Cross of Davao College and St. Mary’s College of Tagum in the recent Davao Association of Catholic Schools (DACS) Meet.

The final game result was 110.

If this game happened 31 years ago, I would not mind and I will just simply write about it. Who cares, right?

Fast forward three decades later, my outlook towards this kind of game result has changed.

I must tell you, I have more feelings towards game results these days. With an 11-0 shutout, I was a bit concerned.

You see my friends, the DACS Meet was organized to promote better friendships among Catholic school students.

An 11-0 massacre of a fellow Holy Crossian school was just too much. It does not make any sense to me, that is to humiliate an opposing squad that way.

Kinahanglan ba gyud e 11-0 ang kontra?

I find this very arrogant and not even close to a Christ-like attitude towards others.

As members of the DACS community, let us be reminded to be kind to one another. Even in sports competitions.

“Isports man na Mo!”, you can say that. Yes, I agree. We must do our best to beat our rivals. But this is the Davao Association of Catholic Schools. This is not the SEA Games, Asian Games or the Summer Olympics.

I am blessed that I have mentors, both in journalism and sports management, who I described as true gentlemen in the profession. I learned from them, that is to practice humility, despite the great accomplishments they have done for this country. Pwede gyud mang hambog gud, pero dili lang sila ana.

So, I am expecting my beloved alma mater never to pursue in humiliating fellow Holy Crossians again. Have we forgotten that St. Mary’s College was first known as Holy Cross of Tagum?

I hope my friends at Holy Cross will see my point.

Balo man tas dula oi! That it can be controlled.

But to the point of handing a humiliating defeat to a fellow Catholic school team, that is too much.

Please, do not forget that we are all brothers and sisters in sports, and we keep on “building a more humane world”. Kana lang.

* * * For comments, email mpb_ sports@yahoo.com.