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LOS ANGELES — Devin Booker poured in a game-high 30 points before sitting out the final quarter as the NBA-leading Phoenix Suns routed the last place Detroit Pistons 135-108 on Sunday.

Booker played 30 minutes, making 11 of 18 field goal attempts while teammates Cameron Payne and JaVale McGee each finished with 20 points in front of a crowd of 18,100 at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.

“I was just hitting shots and the guys were getting me the ball in good places,” said Michigan native Booker. 

“I never got to see the Pistons play in person very often — I grew up about two hours west of here — so I love coming here to play what was my favourite team growing up.”

Booker invited 40-50 family and friends to the game on Sunday.

“Because of the pandemic, I didn’t get to have normal interaction with my family,” Booker said. “But at least I got to see them and I got to wave to a lot of friends.”

Landry Shamet added 11 points and Chris Paul chipped in 10 points with six rebounds and six assists for the Suns, who improved to 33-9 and have won six of their last seven contests. Mikal Bridges also scored 10 points in the win.

The Suns are also an NBA-best 16-4 on the road.

“We had two 39-point quarters, so we were obviously hitting shots,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “Detroit wears teams out by getting into the paint and getting to the line, and we were able to stay away from a lot of that.”

Pistons first overall draft pick Cade Cunningham was ejected after being slapped with two technicals during the third quarter. 

The second was ruled “taunting” after he pointed at a Suns player after making a dunk. Cunningham finished with 21 points in 25 minutes of action.

Canadian Cory Joseph also had 21 points and added seven assists and Trey Lyles tallied 18 points and six rebounds.

Booker exploded for 21 points on nine-of-11 shooting in the first half as the Suns seized a 64-54 halftime lead.

He scored 15 points in the opening quarter before Phoenix blew the game open with a 10-4 run in the final three minutes of the second.

In Denver, Donovan Mitchell scored 31 points, Rudy Gobert returned to the line-up with 18 points and 19 rebounds as the Utah Jazz beat the Denver Nuggets 125-102. 

Bojan Bogdanovic scored 21 points, Jordan Clarkson had 16, Royce O’Neale finished with 11 and Eric Paschall scored 10 for Utah, who won for the first time in five games.

Gobert missed the last five games because of COVID-19 measures.

“I felt pretty good. Every time you play in Denver you’re going to get tired at some point,” Gobert said. “I got tired in the first and third quarter but I felt great, better than I usually do in Denver. Just grateful to be back.”

Warriors hurting

Elsewhere, Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 119-99 victory over the Golden State Warriors, who were missing injured star Stephen Curry.

Jaylen Nowell scored 17 points and Malik Beasley nailed five second-half three-pointers in the win.

Jordan Poole scored 20 points and Jonathan Kuminga had 19 points for the Warriors, who finished a four-game road trip. 

Not only were they missing Curry with an injured right hand, but they also played without Draymond Green.

In Sacramento, Christian Wood posted his 20th double-double of the season as the Houston Rockets beat the host Sacramento Kings 118-112. 

Wood had 23 points and 14 rebounds while Kevin Porter added 23 points and seven assists for the Rockets.

Jordan’s Omar Aburouss broke the national Track and Field U-20 60-metre Indoor Sprint record with a time of 6.95 seconds at the Brigham Young University (BYU) Indoor Invitational in Provo, Utah, in the United States in December 2021, according to the Jordan Athletics Federation.

The BYU meet was held on December 9 and 10. 

Aburouss first broke the Jordanian national record that was 7.23 seconds, in a time of 6.99 seconds in the semifinal.

Then he broke his own record again in the final. ‘I’m aiming to break the men’s 60m record soon, which now stands at 6.86 seconds,’ he told his mother, Alia Hammad, in an email, after the meet

MELBOURNE — World No. 1 and home favourite Ashleigh Barty is strongly fancied to win her maiden Australian Open when the first tennis Grand Slam of the year begins on Monday.

AFP Sport highlights five players to watch in an open-looking women’s draw:

Ashleigh Barty

The 25-year-old Wimbledon champion ended her 2021 season early, following a shock third-round loss at the US Open in September, opting to return to Australia because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Australian made her major breakthrough by winning the French Open in 2019 and rising to No. 1, but is yet to reach the final of her home Grand Slam.

Her best performance was a semifinal in 2020, losing to eventual champion Sofia Kenin, but she slumped out at the quarter-final stage last year, shocked in three sets by the 25th-seeded Czech Karolina Muchova. 

Started her 2022 season in style by winning the singles and doubles titles at the Adelaide International.

Naomi Osaka

The defending Australian Open champion is back after a long break following a disrupted year in which she said she had suffered “long bouts of depression”.

Japan’s Osaka pulled out of the French Open after being fined $15,000 and threatened with disqualification after refusing to attend a news conference following her first-round win. 

She subsequently withdrew from Wimbledon but has declared that she has a new outlook for 2022. 

“I just want to feel like every time I step on the court I’m having fun,” she said.

The 24-year-old four-time Grand Slam champion looked in good touch in her first outing since the US Open, winning three matches at a Melbourne warm-up event.

Garbine Muguruza

The 28-year-old Spaniard is back in the top five after tumbling down the rankings following a drastic dip in form after her French Open and Wimbledon wins in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

She rounded off a resurgent 2021 campaign where she won titles in Dubai and Chicago by coming out on top of a weakened field to triumph at the WTA Finals in November, rising to No. 3 in the world.

Muguruza has a good recent record in Melbourne. She came agonisingly close to defeating eventual champion Osaka last year, failing to convert two match points in the final set of an epic last-16 clash.

The year before, she went all the way to the final, where she took the first set off American Sofia Kenin before losing 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Simona Halep

It has been a tough couple of years for the former No. 1 — now 15th in the world — largely due to a calf tear that scuttled her mid-season in 2021.

It meant the Romanian failed to reach a tournament final for the first season since making her WTA Tour debut in 2010 and it also saw her briefly fall outside the top 20.

But the 30-year-old, a two-time Grand Slam champion, won her first title in 16 months in an Australian Open warm-up in Melbourne on Sunday.

“Physically I’m in the right place. Confidence is growing. I feel that I have the game to win matches,” she said.

Emma Raducanu

Made history by becoming the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam singles title at the US Open and the 19-year-old will be making her Australian Open debut as the first British woman in 44 years to win a major.

She also reached the last 16 at Wimbledon on debut but has endured a rocky few months, winning only two matches in four tournaments since New York and testing positive last month for coronavirus. 

Finally made her Covid-delayed season’s bow on Tuesday in Sydney but slumped to a 6-0, 6-1 defeat.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Qatari driver Nasser Al Attiyah won the Dakar Rally for a fourth time after the gruelling two-week trek through the Saudi Arabian desert came to a climax on Friday.

Attiyah, already champion in 2011, 2015 and 2019, took the overall honours by almost half an hour from France’s nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb.

British motorbike rider Sam Sunderland claimed his second Dakar Rally crown earlier in the day.

The final stage was marred by tragedy as 20-year-old French mechanic Quentin Lavallee was killed in a car accident.

Attiyah — also a bronze medallist in skeet shooting at the 2012 London Olympics — led from start to finish to secure his first win in Saudi Arabia after two runners-up spots.

“It was an incredible Dakar for us,” said the 51-year-old Toyota driver.

“We hadn’t won since 2019. There were three solid teams capable of winning. Matthieu [Baumel his French co-driver] and I, the team, we all did a good job to win.

“We had finished second every time since we came to Saudi Arabia two years ago, now we’re really happy to achieve our goal.

“The whole race went without a hitch.”

The final stage of the car race was won by South Africa’s Henk Lategan with the overall Dakar recordholder Stephane Peterhansel second in his electric hybrid Audi.

The German manufacturer had said prior to the race they had no aspirations of winning the overall title in what was its first entry with a hybrid model but they did secure several stage wins.

‘My head can explode’

Sunderland, who in 2017 became the first British champion in either car or bike category, finished 3min 27sec ahead of Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla and Austrian Matthias Walkner to take the chequered flag in Jeddah.

Sunderland, 32, dominated the first week but had to battle for the overall lead over the final days and surrendered it several times before finally coming out on top.

He said it had not been all plain sailing on the final stage which he entered with a healthy lead.

“I honestly can’t be happier,” said Sunderland.

“This last stage was so difficult and so much stress... A lot of navigation, a lot of tricky notes, a few times a bit confusing and not sure I was going the right way.”

“Phew. Honestly, my head can explode. The last ten minutes, I was not sure whether I’d won, now they’ve told me and, wow, dream come true.”

“I had a pretty rough season, but when you win the Dakar, it’s all worth it. So nice.”

For Quintanilla it was handsome reward having left Husqvarna to replace 2021 champion Kevin Benavides at Honda.

The 35-year-old said it had been “the most stressful” Dakar for him yet, though, his spirits had been boosted throughout by his compatriots writing to him.

“I’m over the moon with this result,” he said.

“It was a really, really tough race. I did my best. This is a good result for me as part of a different team.

“We fought hard from day one. It was physically and mentally exhausting. But I’m really pleased with my performance in the race.”

Walkner, who was champion in 2018, was ecstatic with his final placing.

“If you’d said to me before the rally I could finish in the top three, I would have said, ‘where do I have to sign?’,” said the 35-year-old.

“I’m going to enjoy this podium spot, which almost feels like a victory.”

MELBOURNE — Novak Djokovic drew a first-round clash against a fellow Serb in the Australian Open on Thursday, taking a step closer to his dream of a record 21st Grand Slam despite a looming decision on his deportation.

The unvaccinated world number one, top seed and defending champion is looking to clinch a 10th title at Melbourne Park.

The 34-year-old tennis superstar was drawn to play Serb Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round.

But the openly vaccine-sceptic Djokovic's championship hopes were in peril as Australia's Immigration Minister Alex Hawke pondered whether to revoke his visa for a second time and throw him out of the country.

Hawke is considering using his powers to annul the visa, his spokesman has said, although "lengthy further submissions" from Djokovic's legal team have delayed a decision.

In a lengthy press conference, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said no decision had yet been taken.

Djokovic flew into Melbourne airport on January 5 carrying a vaccine exemption because of a claimed positive PCR test result on December 16.

Border agents rejected his exemption, saying a recent infection was an insufficient justification, tore up his visa and placed him in a detention centre.

But Djokovic's high-powered legal team overturned the visa decision in court on Monday on a procedural matter related to his airport interview.

Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper quoted an unnamed government source as saying that allowing Djokovic to stay in Australia without a COVID-19 vaccine would set a dangerous precedent.

The source was quoted as saying Morrison's government was expected to act despite any international "backlash" because cancelling the visa would be line with Australia's efforts to control the fast-spreading virus.

'Drift on and on'

The government's legal battle with Djokovic is politically charged in a country that has endured nearly two years of some of the toughest COVID-19 restrictions in the world, and in the run-up to May general elections.

"Australia has a policy of not allowing unvaccinated people into Australia. It is beyond my comprehension how we have got to this point," Labour Party opposition leader Anthony Albanese said in an interview Thursday.

"How is it that Novak Djokovic was able to come here?"

As Covid-related hospitalisations rise in Melbourne, the Victorian state government said Thursday it would cap capacity at the Australian Open at 50 per cent.

Spectators must be vaccinated or have a medical exemption. 

Face masks will also be mandatory at the opening Grand Slam of the year except when eating or drinking, and those watching must socially distance while indoors. 

The tournament starts Monday.

As the Omicron variant races through Australia's population, Djokovic's anti-vaccine stance has come under scrutiny.

The tennis ace described reports about his post-infection outings in Serbia as "misinformation" in an Instagram post Wednesday.

On the day of his claimed positive test in Serbia, he appeared at a ceremony to honour him with stamps bearing his image. The following day he attended a youth tennis event. He appeared at both apparently without a mask.

Djokovic said he only received the PCR test result after attending the children's tennis event on December 17.

But he admitted that he also went ahead with an interview with French sports daily L'Equipe on December 18.

'Error of judgement'

"On reflection, this was an error of judgement and I accept that I should have rescheduled this commitment," Djokovic said.

The journalist who carried out the L'Equipe interview, Franck Ramella, said Djokovic's representatives had told him not to ask about COVID-19 vaccinations.

The reporter said he had been unaware at the time of the interview that Djokovic was Covid-positive.

The tennis star also admitted to a mistake on his Australian travel declaration, in which a box was ticked indicating that he had not, or would not, travel in the 14 days before flying to Melbourne.

In fact, social media posts and reports show he flew from Serbia to Spain during that period.

Djokovic blamed his support team for this. 

"My agent sincerely apologises for the administrative mistake in ticking the incorrect box about my previous travel before coming to Australia," he said.

Leading immigration lawyer Christopher Levingston said the immigration minister could cancel Djokovic's visa because the travel declaration was incorrectly completed.

But the minister may also act if he believes Djokovic may flout Australian public health orders, based on his failure to self-isolate in Serbia, he said.

Various options to appeal would be open for both Djokovic and the government, but at the end of the day, the immigration minister can exercise his personal power to cancel the visa, the lawyer said.

MELBOURNE — The Australian Open is mired in controversy and confusion just days before it begins, with Novak Djokovic’s title defence in grave doubt and questions about his fitness even if he is allowed to play.

The World No. 1’s decision not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 blew up when he was detained trying to enter Australia on a medical exemption last week.

The vaccine-sceptic Serbian won a court battle to remain and has been training at Melbourne Park, but he still might not play in the tournament with Australia’s immigration minister mulling whether to quash his visa.

Djokovic, who is chasing a record 21st Grand Slam title, was named the top men’s seed on Tuesday, even as his status remains unclear. The draw is due to be made on Thursday.

His former coach, Boris Becker, said that the 34-year-old was “shell-shocked” by having to spend five days in immigration detention — far from ideal build-up for the first Grand Slam of the year.

“Obviously his preparation is beyond bad. I don’t think he’s ever been in a worse position entering the week before a Grand Slam, but that’s just the way it is,” Becker told the BBC after speaking to the Serbian star on Monday.

If he does play, Djokovic is sure to face hostility from crowds upset that he is able to compete unvaccinated in a city that went through one of the longest series of lockdowns anywhere in the world.

“The crowd will be difficult with him but with each match he starts, he will win the crowd and they will embrace him again,” Becker said.

Speaking this week, as his fate hung in the balance, Djokovic said: “I just want to have the opportunity to compete against the best players in the world and perform before one of the best crowds in the world.”

Known as the “Happy Slam” because of its bumper crowds, good weather and party atmosphere, it is the second year in a row that the Open has started under a cloud, after it was hit in 2021 by coronavirus.

Back then, top stars including Djokovic were forced to spend two weeks in their hotel rooms as part of Australia’s mandatory quarantine requirements, with many angry about it. 

A resilient Djokovic emerged to win a record-extending ninth Australian Open title, while Naomi Osaka clinched the women’s crown.

‘Unanswered questions’

Australia’s treatment of Djokovic has divided observers and angered the Serbian government, but most can agree that tennis is the loser.

The ATP, the governing body of men’s tennis, called the affair “damaging on all fronts” and Britain’s former World No. 1 Andy Murray said Tuesday that a resolution was needed as soon as possible.

“It’s the first match that I have played here or won here in over three years, and yes, this is where the situations like this are frustrating for players because I want to come off and talk about my tennis,” he said after victory in a Sydney warm-up tournament.

But the 34-year-old Murray, a three-time Grand Slam champion, added that Djokovic also has “a few questions” to answer.

Covid and the highly infectious Omicron variant also stalk the Australian Open.

Australian crowd-pleaser Nick Kyrgios — who said that “how we are handling Novak’s situation is bad, really bad” — has tested positive for the virus, throwing his participation into major doubt.

Several high-profile players, including Spanish great Rafael Nadal, US Open champion Emma Raducanu and Tokyo Olympic champion Belinda Bencic are only just now returning to action from the virus.

Serena Williams and Roger Federer — two of tennis’s greatest players in the twilight of their careers — are missing from Melbourne as they recover from injury-hit 2021 seasons.

It is easy to forget there is actually some tennis happening.

Nadal, who showed few ill effects in winning the build-up Melbourne Summer Set on Sunday, is also chasing a 21st Slam title.

In the women’s draw, World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty is the overwhelming favourite to break through and win a Grand Slam on home soil for the first time.

MADRID — It is traditional to say there are no favourites in the Clasico but this time even Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti was unable to keep up the pretence.

For the past decade, there has been some justification in the usual platitudes, the assertion that games between Real Madrid and Barcelona have a rhythm unto themselves, that form is no measure and the victor will be the one that holds firmer in the heat of the battle.

Any superiority has been fleeting, a strong run of form here, a vulnerable coach there. Sometimes the dynamic has depended simply on the competition the game has been played in.

Since 2010, 40 meetings have brought 16 Barcelona victories, 10 draws and 14 wins for Real Madrid.

Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona team were the last to enjoy real dominance, beginning a run of five consecutive wins in 2008 that included a 6-2 thrashing at the Santiago Bernabeu and a 5-0 humiliation at Camp Nou. Across those five games, Barcelona claimed an aggregate score of 16-2.

Since then, neither club had put together four wins on the bounce against the other, until this season, when Madrid ground out a 2-1 victory in the rain at Camp Nou in October, in what was the first meeting of the two clubs since Lionel Messi departed last summer.

Madrid’s ascendancy has not been so dramatic, or even, until recently, particularly noticeable. Unlike Guardiola’s Barca, it is not a dominance of ideas or style. There is yet to be a scoreline that spells out their supremacy in capital letters.

Yet, Real Madrid are clear favourites on Wednesday in the semi-final of the Spanish Super Cup, staged not in Spain, but Saudi Arabia. 

The winner will play either Atletico Madrid or Athletic Bilbao in Sunday’s final in Riyadh.

‘Doesn’t make sense’

In football terms, it adds to the sense of a tournament becoming more an exhibition than a serious trophy.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Raul Garcia, whose Athletic Bilbao play Atletico Madrid on Thursday. “These days it’s all about money and sponsorships. We’re forgetting about the basics of football.”

Real Madrid sit 17 points clear of Barcelona in La Liga. They are on course to win the title while Barca would sign now for the top four. Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior have scored only two fewer goals in the league than the entire Barca squad. In Europe, the two clubs are no longer even playing in the same competition.

The gap has widened, not because of Madrid’s improvement this season under Ancelotti — although that has helped — but because of Barcelona’s plunge into mediocrity. 

The club’s debts of more than a billion euros have dictated a decline that has been both fast and painful. 

Yet there is perhaps also an opportunity for Barcelona if they can seize it, not just to end Madrid’s winning streak but to attach a statement result to some less tangible signs of progress in recent weeks. 

Xavi Hernandez’s side are unbeaten in six games. They have moved out of La Liga’s mid-table and sit only a point away from the top four. They have a system and a plan. They concede fewer goals, even if scoring them remains a problem.

Ferran Torres could be a solution and he is finally able to play after Samuel Umtiti’s contract extension freed up space in the budget and he tested negative for Covid on Monday. Pedri, the team’s best creator, is available again. Ansu Fati, who has not played since November, has also travelled to Riyadh.

It would, though, resemble something close to a cup upset if Barcelona were to avoid a fifth consecutive Clasico loss. So heavy are the odds in Real Madrid’s favour, many have suggested a narrow Madrid victory would count as a Barca success.

“In theory, we are favourites,” said Ancelotti on Saturday. “But there is the theory and there is what happens in practice.”

MILAN — Inter Milan kept their lead in the Serie A title race thanks to a tight 2-1 win over Lazio on Sunday, while Juventus pulled off an incredible comeback to sink a distraught Roma 4-3.

Milan Skriniar thumped home the decisive goal with a towering header from Alessandro Bastoni’s cross in the 67th minute to put Inter back one point ahead of AC Milan, who had moved into first place after a 3-0 win at Venezia in Sunday’s early match.

Simone Inzaghi’s side have a game in hand on their local rivals after their match at Bologna on Thursday was not played due to COVID infections among the opposition squad.

“We need to carry on like this, because all our direct rivals won today so there’s no time to stop and think, we just have to keep winning,” said Inzaghi after Inter’s eighth straight league triumph.

It was a strong display at the San Siro for Inter against Inzaghi’s old club, who however gave a good account of themselves and levelled in the 35th minute through Ciro Immobile’s 15th league goal of the season after Bastoni had crashed the hosts into the lead with a long-range daisy cutter five minutes before.

Maurizio Sarri’s side even gave Inter some scares after Skriniar crashed in his third league goal of the campaign, with Immobile having a goal ruled out for an obvious offside, but they couldn’t create anything clear cut and left Milan with their seventh defeat of the season.

Six points behind Inter in third are Napoli, whose faltering Serie A title hopes were kept alive by Andrea Petagna in a 1-0 win over Sampdoria.

Burly forward Petagna struck the winner with an uncharacteristically acrobatic bicycle kick just before half-time to keep Napoli — missing a number of key players to COVID-19 infections and the Africa Cup of Nations — just about in the hunt.

‘Weak’ Roma

Lazio meanwhile sit eighth, level on 32 points with local rivals Roma who completely fell apart in their loss to Juve, who are three points behind fourth-placed Atalanta in the race for the Champions League after their 6-2 win at COVID-hit Udinese.

Deservedly losing 3-1 in the 69th minute and having lost Federico Chiesa to a potentially serious knee injury in the first half, Juve were leading with 76 minutes on the clock at the Stadio Olimpico as Roma collapsed so dramatically that Jose Mourinho openly questioned his players’ character.

“It was 70 minutes of complete control... We did very well for 70 minutes, but after that it was a psychological collapse,” Mourinho told DAZN.

“When you’re in the sh*t you’re supposed to get back up and show what you’re made of, but there are people in the changing room here who are a bit too nice, a bit too weak.”

Juve’s win in what was probably the match of the season so far was all the more remarkable as soon after Mattia De Sciglio had lashed the away side ahead Lorenzo Pellegrini has the perfect chance to level the scores at four each but hit a dreadful penalty which Wojciech Szczesny easily pushed away.

That was a disappointing end to the match for Italy midfielder Pellegrini, who had lapped up the roar of the home crowd eight minutes after the break when his sumptuous free-kick looked to have given Roma the third goal they needed to seal what would have been Mourinho’s biggest win to date as coach of the capital club.

However after Manuel Locatelli’s free header cut the deficit with 20 minutes left, Roma collapsed, letting Dejan Kulusevski sweep in a leveller two minutes later which was confirmed after a lengthy VAR check for offside.

De Sciglio’s strike left the previously buoyant home support in complete disbelief and after Pellegrini fluffed his spot-kick they knew the game was up, despite Juve’s Matthijs de Ligt being sent off for handball after giving away the missed penalty.