Basket, NBA: Toronto guard Kyle Lowry scored 26 points and DeMar DeRozan had 22 as the Raptors spoiled Phoenix interim coach Earl Watson’s debut in a 104-97 victory over the Suns on Tuesday at Talking Stick Resort Arena. “We knew they would come out and play extremely hard and go out there and do their thing and try to get a win,” Lowry said. “We kind of weathered the storm and just paced ourselves throughout the whole game and found a way to win the game.”

Tennis: World number three Simona Halep decided to postpone an operation on her nose to play in the Federation Cup against defending champions Czech Republic this weekend, the Romanian tennis federation said. Halep announced last month she would skip the match in Cluj-Napoca and tournaments in Dubai and Doha, hoping to return to defend her title at Indian Wells in March. Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru will miss the match against the Czechs due to injury.

Athletics: Olympic pole vault champion Jenn Suhr does not plan to compete in next month’s IAAF indoor championships even though she has just broken her world indoor record, the American said yesterday. A desire for more gold at the Rio Games and the stress of having to go through the US trials and the world indoor championships with just four days in between led Suhr and her coach to rule out the March 17-20 worlds in Portland, Oregon. Plans did not change after Suhr boosted her world record to 5.03 metres on Saturday in Brockport, New York.

Rugby Union: Twice World Cup-winning All Black Victor Vito will head to France to play for Top 14 side La Rochelle after finishing the Super Rugby season with the Wellington Hurricanes. The 33-cap loose forward, a member of both New Zealand’s World Cup squads for the 2011 and 2015 tournaments, had signed a three-year deal with the western France club, the Hurricanes said yesterday.