PRO BASKETBALL
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - DeMarcus Cousins is sticking around New Orleans to help the Pelicans make a 25-game push for the playoffs.
The Pelicans agreed to acquire Cousins from Sacramento on Sunday, the same night the center was playing in the All-Star Game in their arena.
The Kings dealt Cousins and Omri Casspi to New Orleans in exchange for Tyreke Evans, 2016 first-round draft pick Buddy Hield, Langston Galloway and first- and second-round draft picks this summer, a person familiar with the situation said.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade was not official and had not been announced by either team.
The deal pairs the 6-foot-11 Cousins, a frontcourt All-Star from nearby Mobile, Alabama, with the 6-11 Anthony Davis, who on Sunday night was the All-Star Game MVP after scoring 52 points, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s 1962 record of 42.
At the defense-free dunkfest that now serves as the NBA’s All-Star Game, Davis led the Western Conference past the Eastern Conference, 192-182. He made 26 of 39 shots, scored 20 points in the fourth quarter and became the first player since Kobe Bryant in 2011 to win MVP honors on his home floor.
Davis was the star of stars in a game where the teams combined for more points than in any other All-Star contest. It came on a night when Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant provided a glimpse of the past, Giannis Antetokounmpo had more dunks - 12 - than his name has consonants and LeBron James became the first player to eclipse 300 points in an All-Star career.
GOLF
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Dustin Johnson went to No. 1 in the world with a world-class performance at Riviera.
Johnson birdied his last three holes of the third round Sunday morning for a five-shot lead, stretched it to nine shots and coasted home to an even-par 71 and a five-shot victory in the Genesis Open.
Johnson became the 20th player to reach No. 1 since the world ranking began in 1986, and he ended Jason Day’s 47-week stay at the top.
The U.S. Open champion also got that elusive victory at one of his favorite courses. He had chances to win four of the last five years, and this one was never in doubt.
Johnson went 49 straight holes without a bogey until a sloppy finish that didn’t matter.
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - Fred Couples won the Chubb Classic on Sunday for his 12th PGA Tour Champions title and first since 2014, rallying to beat Miguel Angel Jimenez at TwinEagles.
The 57-year-old Couples shot a bogey-free 5-under 67 to finish at 16-under 200 on the Talon Course, three strokes ahead of second-round leader Jimenez.
Also the 2010 event winner at The Quarry, Couples won for the first time since the 2014 Shaw Charity Classic in Alberta. The Hall of Famer, long hampered by back problems, won 15 times on the PGA Tour - his lone major coming in the 1992 Masters.
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) - Ha Na Jang had an eagle and three birdies over her last six holes in a superb finish Sunday that set up a three-shot victory in the Women’s Australian Open.
The South Korean closed with a 4-under 69 to finish at 10 under at Royal Adelaide. No. 6-ranked Jang finished three shots ahead of Nanna Madsen of Denmark. Haru Nomura, the 2016 champion, finished in a four-way tie for third place at 6 under with No. 2-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand and Australians Minjee Lee and Sarah Jane Smith.
PERTH, Australia (AP) - Brett Rumford beat Phachara Khongwatmai of Thailand 2 and 1 in the final round of match play Sunday to claim the first World Super 6 tournament title near where he grew up in West Australia.
Rumford led by five strokes at 17-under 199 after 54 holes of stroke play in the experimental golf tournament at Lake Karrinyup Country Club in Western Australia, which is being sanctioned by the European, Asian and Australasian tours.
GYMNASTICS
NEW YORK (AP) - Three former elite U.S. gymnasts, including 2000 Olympian Jamie Dantzscher, have come forward saying they were sexually abused by a former doctor currently facing trial on a separate matter.
Dantzscher, three-time U.S. rhythmic gymnastics champion Jessica Howard and former national team member Jeanette Antolin appeared on “60 Minutes” on Sunday , detailing what they have claimed is sexual abuse by Dr. Larry Nassar. All three accused Nassar, a volunteer team doctor for USA Gymnastics for almost three decades before his tenure ended in July 2015 of touching them inappropriately while he disguised the abuse as treatment.
Dantzscher, who helped the U.S. team earn a team bronze at the 2000 Olympics, filed a lawsuit against Nassar in California last September as “Jane Doe.” She gave up her anonymity for “60 Minutes” and described how she was sent to visit Nassar to receive treatment for lower back pain.
BASEBALL
PHOENIX (AP) - Baseball union chief Tony Clark called the public comments surrounding the salary arbitration hearing involving Yankees reliever Dellin Betances “unprecedented” and “unprofessional.”
On Saturday, New York Yankees President Randy Levine said Betances’ representatives had “over-the-top demands based on very little sense of reality” seeking a $5 million salary for 2017. The Yankees won Friday’s hearing and are set to pay Betances $3 million for this season.
“There was a lot said,” Clark, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, said Sunday during his annual visit to the Cactus League in spring training. “That was most troubling thing. The arbitration has been around a long time. The folks that have been involved in the process, particularly with this particular case, have been around a long time. As you read and heard yesterday, that conversation and the particulars in some level related to that case being made public in the fashion that they were, is unprecedented and is unprofessional and should not have happened in the fashion that it did.”
Betances called it “unfair” to take him into a room to “trash me for about an hour and a half.” Levine accused the pitcher’s agents of using him to chase what Levine considered closer-like money though Betances is a setup man.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan State starting guard Eron Harris will need season-ending surgery on his injured right knee, ending his college career.
Harris, a 6-foot-3 transfer who played his first two seasons at West Virginia, was hurt in the second half of Michigan State’s 80-63 loss at No. 16 Purdue on Saturday. Harris had an MRI and the diagnosis was that surgery was required.
Harris, from Indianapolis, finished his career with 1,489 points. He started 46 of 62 games at Michigan State, including 24 this season. He was third on the Spartans with a 10.7 point scoring average.
AUTO RACING
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Chase Elliott nipped Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final qualifying lap to win his second straight pole for the Daytona 500.
Elliott turned a lap at 192.872 mph on Sunday to just edge Earnhardt’s speed of 192.864. Elliott and Earnhardt gave Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet a 1-2 front row for NASCAR’s biggest race.
Elliott also made it three straight years for the No. 24 on the pole. Jeff Gordon won the pole in 2015 in his final season before he retired and turned the car over to Elliott.
The rest of the field will be set Thursday in the two qualifying races.
TENNIS
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - American Ryan Harrison beat Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 6-1, 6-4 on Sunday to win the Memphis Open for his first career ATP World Tour title.
Harrison, 24, took the first set in 27 minutes before fighting off 10 break points in the second to win the match in 1 hour, 16 minutes. For the match, Harrison saved all 12 break points faced.
He took home the winner’s check of $114,595 and 250 points. He joined Gilles Muller (Sydney) as a first-time winner on tour this year and is the first to make Memphis his inaugural ATP title since Joachim Johansson in 2004. Harrison also became the 14th American to win Memphis in the 41-year history of this indoor event and first since Andy Roddick in 2011.
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