Basketball, NBA: The Cleveland Cavaliers made light of the ongoing absence of LeBron James, and an injury scare for Kevin Love, to end their three-game NBA losing streak against the Charlotte Hornets. With James sidelined for a further two weeks with knee and back injuries, the sight of Love holding his knee was a concern for Cleveland. But he continued in the game and top-scored with 27 points in his side’s 91-87 success. Kyrie Irving added 23 while Tristan Thompson had 14 points and 14 rebounds.

Darts: Sixteen-time world champion Phil Taylor survived another scare in the PDC World Championships at Alexandra Palace before seeing off Vincent van der Voort to move into the semi-finals. Taylor, who had to come from behind to beat Kim Huybrechts in the previous round, saw a 2-0 lead wiped out as Van der Voort won nine of 11 legs to go 3-2 up. When Taylor missed eight shots at double in the next set, Van der Voort had his chance to go 4-2 up but after he failed to take it, Taylor made him pay in a 5-3 win. Taylor will go on to face Raymond van Barneveld who overcame Stephen Bunting in a 5-4 thriller.

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Cricket: Former England batsman Jonathan Trott (picture) will continue to try to revive his test career on his first overseas tour since leaving the Ashes in Australia with stress issues just over a year ago. The 33-year-old is captain of a 15-man England Lions squad, which begins a month-long tour of South Africa tomorrow. Trott will lead the team in a three-day warm-up match against an invitation side in Soweto and two four-day games against South Africa A this month. He is not in the squad for five one-day ‘internationals’ that follow. The South African-born batsman has said his selection for the Lions squad would help his bid to return to England’s test team.

Dakar Rally: Everything is ready for the 37th edition of the Dakar Rally, universally recognised as the toughest off-road contest on the motorsports calendar, which gets under way today in Argentina with the opening stage. Over 600 competitors representing 53 nations will leave the Argentine capital Buenos Aires aboard 414 vehicles (164 motorcycles, 48 quads, 138 cars, and 64 trucks). This year’s route will take competitors west across the Andes into Chile, then north to Bolivia. The riders will then cross the Andes again from west to east and head back to Buenos Aires on a different route. In total, they will ride 5,772 miles over vastly different terrain, more than half of it timed specials.

Basket, Euroleague: Euroleague royalty enjoyed mixed fortunes in the opening round of the second group stage as Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow ground out tough road wins while Barcelona slid to a shock 80-70 defeat at Alba Berlin on Friday. Eight-times winners Real registered a commanding 79-72 victory over Red Star Belgrade and CSKA beat Fenerbahce Istanbul 84-81 in overtime, with both teams silencing frenetic home support. Sergio Rodriguez scored all of his 12 points in the second half and Rudy Fernandez claimed 11 of his 15 in the third quarter for Real who repelled an early Red Star onslaught and then held off a late rally in front of 20,000 fans in Belgrade.

Athletics: Malaysian discus thrower Muhammad Irfan Shamsuddin could miss the defence of his Southeast Asian Games title in Singapore later this year after being accused of knocking high jumper Kavee Alagan unconscious. Alagan filed a police report saying Irfan assaulted him in a Malaysia National Sports Council hotel room recently, local media reported. Irfan, who won a surprise SEA Games gold as an 18-year-old in Myanmar at the end of 2013, and Alagan were both removed from the room at the hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

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