ort but we always want to find a balance with honoring our traditions

BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics took their defense from solid in the first half to stifling in the second.Isaiah Thomas scored 16 of his 26 points after halftime and Al Horford had 18 points and five blocked shots as Boston beat the Charlotte Hornets 96-88 on Friday night to stop a three-game slide.Coach just told us we needed to step up our level of energy a little more on the defensive end, Horford said. We did that and that was the big difference.Getting Thomas back after he missed four straight games with a groin strain didnt hurt, either.Thomas scored nine in the third quarter as the Celtics fought back from a 12-point deficit. He added seven in the fourth to help Boston put away the Hornets.We got stops and got running, Thomas said. The one thing we did in the fourth quarter is we just spaced the floor and made plays for each other. Guys hit big shots.Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder added 12 points apiece for the Celtics, who held the Hornets to 13 field goals in the second half.Charlotte played without leading scorer Kemba Walker, who did not travel with the team due to personal reasons, and lost its fourth straight.Although the Hornets outrebounded Boston 54-46, the Celtics outscored them 38-30 in the paint as Charlotte had trouble converting inside.We have to finish some of these plays, coach Steve Clifford said. You get these point-blank ones and you dont have the floor balance in there back the other way. There were two or three of those that were huge plays.Nicolas Batum led the Hornets with 22 points and 10 rebounds.Ramon Sessions had 13 points and six assists, Marco Belinelli scored 11 and Jeremy Lamb added 10 points for the Hornets.Crowder hit a 3 with 6:11 left to put Boston up 80-79 after Charlotte scored seven straight points. Thomas drew a flagrant foul by Belinelli and hit both free throws. Boston retained possession because of the flagrant, and Crowder drew another foul and added two more free throws to put Boston ahead 84-79.Cody Zeller missed from inside for Charlotte, and Thomas came back with a 3-pointer to make it 87-79 with 4:52 left. Charlotte turned it over right away after the inbounds play and Bradley added another 3 that gave Boston a 90-79 cushion with 4:24 to go.After a basket by Belinelli with 6:32 left completed their 7-0 run, the Hornets went scoreless until his layup with 2:20 remaining cut it to 92-81.Boston held Charlotte to five field goals in the third quarter, when the Hornets were 5 of 23.Charlotte closed the second on a 14-4 run and took a 50-41 lead into halftime. The Hornets led 60-48 early in the third when the Celtics started their surge. Kelly Olynyk hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 62 with 3:57 left, and it was tied 69-all at the end of the third.MISSING KEMBASessions started for Walker and had six assists, but the Hornets offense appeared lost without Walker.Hes one of the best in the league, so we missed him a lot tonight, Batum said. We played better tonight overall. But we should have won that game, anyway. No excuses.COLD OUTSIDEAfter shooting 2 of 14 from beyond the arc in the first half, the Celtics started hitting from outside in the third period. They went 7 of 14 on 3-pointers in the second half and held Charlotte to 19 points in each of the final two quarters.WELCOME BACKThomas hadnt played since scoring 20 points against Houston on Dec. 5. The Celtics went 1/3 in the games he missed and were happy to have him leading the offense once again.It helps all of us just because it opens the floor even more. Teams have to play us a little more honest, said Horford, who also had eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. Its just good to have him back.TIP-INSHornets: Walker is averaging 22.6 points per game. He missed his first game this season, but was expected to return when the Hornets visit Atlanta on Saturday night. Walkers absence made Belinelli and Sessions the only Charlotte players to appear in all 27 games this season.Celtics: Jonas Jerebko scored nine points to lead Bostons reserves.UP NEXTHornets: At the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.Celtics: At the Miami Heat on Sunday night. Wholesale Royals Jerseys ., and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask., took sixth spot on Saturday in pairs at the NHK Trophy ISU Grand Prix figure skating competition. Royals Jerseys China . Rousey will put her perfect 8-0 record and hardware on the line against another undefeated fighter, 7-0 Sara McMann in the main event of UFC 170, which will be held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas Nevada on February 22nd. https://www.cheaproyals.com/ . Kyle Denbrook, a soccer player from Saint Marys University, took the CIS male athlete of the week honour. Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday. Fake Royals Jerseys . In what the team had called a retirement, Ryan said Thursday that he is resigning as chief executive of the Rangers in a move effective at the end of this month. Kansas City Royals Shirts . Peter Holland and Brad Staubitz were sent to Toronto on Saturday as the Maple Leafs traded defenceman Jesse Blacker and draft picks to the Anaheim Ducks. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Taekwondo may be best known for its flashy and acrobatic kicks, but the electronic scoring system used at the Olympics apparently doesnt care whether or not fighters use the correct technique. Thats resulting in a lot of bizarre kicks that no true practitioner of the Korean martial art would recognize, in a departure that some say cheapens the sport.Sparring in taekwondo has traditionally relied on numerous kicks delivered with technical accuracy; depending on the kick, fighters usually strike with the blade of the foot, the heel or the front of the foot, with toes pointed back. To take advantage of the electronic scoring system -- which merely detects force rather than a competitors skill -- some taekwondo fighters and their coaches have figured out that the best-scoring kicks sometimes sacrifice form for expediency.Ive definitely seen some weird kicks that you would never teach at any taekwondo school, said Steven Lopez, the sports most decorated athlete, who was competing in a record fifth Olympics. They flick their legs up trying to do something to score, but it is not taekwondo.Unfortunately for Lopez, his Tunisian opponent Oussama Oueslati, in his bronze medal match on Friday didnt have a problem with those unusual techniques -- and used many of them to defeat him.Oueslati repeatedly used a move referred to by some as a scorpion kick, where he would swing his leg up towards Lopezs head and then snap it back like a scorpion tail. No such kick exists in the traditional taekwondo repertoire but because the technique results in the foot tapping the head guard, it frequently scores on the electronic system.Fighters wont care whether it looks like a banana kick or a twist kick or whatever it is, as long as its working, said Australian taekwondo competitor Safwan Khalil. He recalled a fight he had during the Rio Games with an opponent whose strange kicks caught him off-guard. When he started throwing those twist kicks, I was just like, `OK, What are we doing here? This is taekwondo? But you just have to roll with it.Kim So-hui, this years Olympic taekwondo champion in the womens 49-kilogram divisionn, said she isnt thrilled about the evolution of the martial art either.ddddddddddddUnfortunately, theres nothing I can do about it, said the South Korean athlete after clinching the gold medal on Wednesday. Its the taekwondo federation that decided that, not the athletes, she said, noting that she declines to use any of the hybrid techniques.The sports governing body acknowledged further scoring changes might be necessary.Athletes are at the very heart of the World Taekwondo Federation and so we are always ready to listen to feedback from them on how they think our sport can be improved, said Jung Kook-Hyun, the federations chairman of the technical committee, in an email. We are committed to constantly modernizing the sport but we always want to find a balance with honoring our traditions, he said, adding the federation would consider possible reforms after Rio.Some coaches are divided about whether or not to recommend using the unorthodox kicks.I dont like teaching these techniques, but thats the sport, said Jean Lopez, who directs the U.S. taekwondo team, including his brother Steven. I think its compromised taekwondo so that its become less about fighting -- and taekwondo is a martial art, a fighting sport, he said.Many athletes say that because the odd techniques often score, they cannot be ignored.Our job as athletes is to adapt as best we can and still give our best and produce good results, said South Koreas Oh Hye-Ri, gold medalist in the womens 67-kilogram division. Oh dominated most of her opponents by employing a steady stream of old-school head kicks that her competitors were unable to counter.Still, she said that she wasnt opposed to the evolution of the sport, even though it means extra training.I also practice a lot of those kicks as well, she said, providing a quick demonstration of what some describe as a donkey kick, where fighters jerk their leg up awkwardly to twist the back of their foot onto their opponents body protector. If it can win the fight, you have to try. ' ' '