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Only 2 games are being played tonight and the aforementioned Denver Nuggets can see off the New Orleans Hornets in Denver and book their place in the Conference Semi-Finals with one more win. After their demolition of New Orleans in New Orleans on Monday the Nuggets went 3-1 up and are a game away from winning their series at a canter, each Denver win has seen a double digit margin of victory with the lowest being 15. This has sent a big signal to the rest of the Western Conference and could possibly set up a tantalising Western Conference Final between 1st seeds L.A and 2nd seeded Denver in a shootout. The Nuggets have only once been kept under 100 points in this series and when that happened they lost 95-93 in New Orleans in Game 3 but responded in glittering fashion with a historic 121-63 victory in Louisiana. In that game Carmelo Anthony scored 31 points and is averaging 21 points in this series while Chauncey Billups is leading the Nuggets with 25 points a game. New Orleans will have to pray for a miracle if they want to be in the next round of the play-offs and to do so will have to beat Denver, a team that’s only lost 8 times in the regular season at home, 3 times in a row with two in Denver. Tip-off is at 10.30pm ET and the game is on TNT.

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4 games were played in the NBA last night and the first one of the night went into overtime in Boston. The Bulls again held the Celtics close but like many times in this series failed to get the upper hand, this time losing in overtime, 106-104. Boston now lead 3-2 in the series with the next game in Chicago where they could wrap up the series and move on to the Conference Semi-Finals, in this game they had Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce to thank for the majority of their points. Pierce scored 26 points while shooting 50 percent while Rondo led the C’s with 28 points and 11 assists for a double double while shooting 12 of 22 from the field. The other star performer for the men in green was Kendrick Perkins Boston’s center. Perkins scored 16 points and grabbed 19 rebounds for a double double.

On the other side Ben Gordon produced another fantastic effort that just failed to see his team over the finishing line, he had 26 points (a team high for Chicago) with the majority of those points coming from the foul line (11) while center Joakim Noah scooped a double double with 11 points and 17 rebounds. Even if the Bulls bow out in Game 6 or 7 like expected they’ll be able to hold their heads high in the knowledge that they’ve been so close to beating the Celtics so many times.

In Orlando the Magic took a 3-2 lead in their series with the Philadelphia 76ers after a 91-78 win at Amway Arena. The Magic will be glad that they were able to take the lead in the series especially with Dwight Howard now out of Game 6 with a ban after a flagrant foul, Howard was one of Orlando’s star performers and scored 24 points and grabbed 24 rebounds including 10 offensive boards for a double double while Rashard Lewis scored the same number of points while shooting 9 of 16 from the field.

Philadelphia will hope for the same kind of performance from Andre Iguodala in Game 6 if they’re to stave off elimination for at least a few more days, Iguodala scored a team high 26 points while playing 47 minutes. One performance that didn’t sparkle was Thaddeus Young’s contribution, in 40 minutes he managed only 9 points on 4 of 9 shooting while Samuel Dalembert couldn’t even get that. Dalembert scored a flimsy 4 points and 9 rebounds in 20 minutes on the hardwood. Philly will hope for one final push to take this game to a decider in Orlando but will have to seriously increase their game if they want to achieve that.

In San Antonio the first shock of the play-offs were confirmed as the Dallas Mavericks knocked out the Spurs in 5 games after beating the Spurs 106-93 in their backyard. Dallas won the series 4-1 and now moves onto a much more daunting task of no.1 seed Los Angeles in the Conference Semi-Finals. This really was a team performance from the Mavs, each of their starters scored double figures while Dirk Nowitzki led the line with 31 points and 9 rebounds while Erick Dampier grabbed a double double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Jason Terry also came off the bench to score 19.

The San Antonio box score was a much worse sight. Only two players dropped double figures, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker who had 30 and 26 respectively. Parker also helped with 12 assists for a double double but apart from that the Mavericks shut the Spurs down and meaning their exited the play-offs at the first hurdle for the first time since 2000.

Finally in Portland the Trail Blazers hit back at their critics by finally shutting down Yao Ming (well sort of) and winning Game 5 of their tie with Houston to stop elimination talk for at least a few days. Portland won this one 88-77 with their two main men LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy scoring 25 points each while shooting 50 percent between themselves while Steve Blake scored 15 at point guard. The biggest story of the night was Yao Ming who was limited to 15 points and 12 rebounds for a double double while Shane Battier could only score 4 points despite playing nearly the whole game. Houston’s top scorer was Luis Scola who dropped 21 points and 6 rebounds while shooting 10 of 13. With the next game in Houston the Rockets will still be confident of winning the series for the chance to face the Denver Nuggets who, barring a miracle, will be going through to the next round.

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4 games are being played tonight and two series can be wrapped up today if teams can win on the road. Firstly in San Antonio Dallas who are leading 3-1 can upend the 3rd seed for the first shock of the play-offs if they can go into the Spurs’ home and win. Secondly the Houston Rockets can cause a 4th/5th shock of sorts if they can beat Portland in Oregon and this seems the more likely. Portland just hasn’t been able to cope with Yao Ming all series and it looks like it will cost them while Brandon Roy hasn’t been able to have the same success against the Houston defense. They even managed to lose a 6 point lead going into the 4th quarter on Sunday night which has led them to this situation and it was down to sloppy play that led to turnovers.

They know that tonight is last chance saloon and with Ming averaging 15 points a game in this series they know that they’ll need to find a suitable match-up to stop him. Not only that but Aaron Brooks is averaging 16 points and Luis Scola 17 suggests that so far in the play-offs Houston are a fast-paced shooting team. Tip off is at 10pm ET and the game is on NBA TV.

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3 games were played in the NBA play-offs last night and none of them were close games. Firstly the closest game of the night resulted in an 81-71 win for the Atlanta Hawks in Miami that tied the series at 2-2 with at least 2 more to play. This looks like the series that’s most likely to go to a 7th game and with the teams in it were seeded 4th and 5th that’s not a surprise. In Game 4 last night the Hawks had a comfortable time in Florida holding a 4 point lead going into half time before increasing it in the second half.

Point guard Mike Bibby led Atlanta in scoring with 15 points 9 of which were from 3 point range. Bibby hit every 3-point shot he took last night and finished with 5 of 10 field shooting. Other than that Joe Johnson dropped 14 while playing most of the game and Maurice Evans hit 4 of 6 field shots for 10 points. The other performance of note was Zaza Pachulia who came off the bench to replace center Al Horford and played a greater number of minutes than Horford during which time he scored 12 and grabbed 18 rebounds for a double double.

On the other side Dwayne Wade hit 22 points despite only shooting 9 of 26 while Jermaine O’Neal scored 20. With the win Atlanta took home court advantage in the series back from Miami with the next game in Atlanta.

In New Orleans the Hornets were thoroughly humbled at home to a better team as they lost 121-63 to trail Denver 3-1 in the series, in a game that equalled their worst play-off defeat of 58 points. By the start of the 4th quarter the New Orleans Arena was nearly empty as the Nuggets led by 38 points before rubbing salt into the wounds by out scoring the Hornets 33 to 13 in the 4th to add another 20 to the total.

The Nuggets shot 57 percent on the night while New Orleans managed only 31 percent and in particular the Nuggets completely shut down Chris Paul, who could only score 4 points and 6 assists whilst giving up 6 turnovers. This was his worst play-off showing in his career while on the other end the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony had a great night. He scored 26 points and 7 assists in only 36 minutes as most of the Denver starters didn’t even both coming out for the 4th quarter. Due to this the bench got some time and with the game wrapped up early they decided to show boat and even these came off. Linas Kleiza came on for 15 minutes altogether and scored 14 points, 9 of which were 3 pointers and he still managed to miss another 3.

The Hornets will now have to go into Denver knowing that a loss will see them out of the play-offs at the first hurdle, surely a shock for a team that in December and January was in 2nd place in the Western Conference. If the Nuggets replicate their performance in New Orleans then Chris Paul and co. won’t have a chance.

Finally in Los Angeles the Lakers wrapped up their series with the Utah Jazz in 5 games as they won 107-96 to win the series 4-1 and advance to the next round. The Jazz started ok and held the Lakers at 26-26 after the first quarter but soon fell to pieces and went into the break 13 points down as their road blues quickly set in. Kobe Bryant had 31 points including 3 of 4 from behind the arc while two more players had double doubles. Firstly Pau Gasol dropped 17 and grabbed 11 rebounds and then Lamar Odom shot 10 of 15 from the field for 26 points and 15 rebounds as Utah just couldn’t cope with the L.A firepower. The Lakers will now go onto face either Dallas or San Antonio and it’s hard to see them losing to either team on the form they are in.

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The second number one seeded team in the league has the chance to win their series tonight in Game 5. That team of course are the L.A Lakers, who despite losing one game to Utah in Salt Lake a few days ago recovered to take the second one and a 3-1 lead back into Los Angeles where they’re fully expected to win against a team that only won twice against teams over .500 on the road in the regular season. Despite having a good line up in Boozer, Williams and the like the Jazz just haven’t been able to shake off their terrible away form that cost them a shot at the 2nd seed in the West and in the end ensured they only had the lowest seed in the division despite having only lost 8 games at home all season.

On the other hand the Lakers will be looking forward to a short break before the Conference Semi-Finals where they’ll play either Dallas or San Antonio (more likely Dallas as they’re currently 3-1 up) in a mouth-watering tie. While they won’t want to go into tonight’s game with any complacency even they’ll know that the Jazz aren’t the best and the home fans at the Staples Center will be fully expecting Kobe Bryant and the team to put on a show worthy of the play-offs. Tip off is at 10.30ET.

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4 games were played in the NBA play-offs on Sunday night starting in Chicago where the Bulls refused to lay down against the Boston Celtics and eventually won in the second period of overtime 121-118 thanks to some late free throws to tie the series at 2-2. The Bulls might have won it late on but the first late dramatics were provided by Boston and Ray Allen in particular. Allen, who had won game 2 for the Celtics with a late 3 did exactly the same from 27-feet away from the basket to tie the game at 96-96 with only 9 seconds left in regular time. Chicago failed to convert their last possession of the quarter and the game went to OT.

Then in the first period of overtime the Bulls’ Ben Gordon (who had previously put up numbers of 36 and 42 in the first two games) hit a 25-foot tray with only 4 seconds to go when Chicago were down 107-110 to take the game into 2OT. Gordon had 22 points on the night and shot 10 of 22 from the field in 49 minutes. Then with less than 30 seconds on the clock in 2OT the Celtics’ Paul Pierce fouled John Salmons to send him to the line (the Celtics were over the limit at that point), Salmons hit both shots to make the game 119-115 but the aforementioned Pierce then brought Boston back within a point of Chicago with a 3 pointer to make the game 118-119. Boston had to foul and did so to Salmons again and he promptly put both shots away to re-establish the 3 point lead. The Celtics had one last chance to tie the game with 16 seconds on the clock, however when Pierce went for a 24-foot 3 at the buzzer Salmons completed his heroics by blocking the shot to the crowds delight as the
Bulls won 121-118 to tie the series at 2-2 going into the next game in Boston.

Derrick Rose led the Bulls with 23 points and had a double double with 11 rebounds to boot. Behind him was the previously mentioned Gordon and John Salmons, who scored 20 points in 47 minutes including all 9 of his foul shots. On the other side Paul Pierce had a big game scoring 29 including 3 shots from behind the arc, a total that was only eclipsed by Ray Allen who shot 5 of 11 from behind the arc for 15 of his 28 points. The Bulls are proving tougher than Boston expected but with home court advantage back in their favour they will still expect to get through albeit in 6 or 7 games.

In Detroit the Cavaliers completed their easy sweep of the Pistons with a 99-78 win in Game 4 to progress to the Conference Semi-Finals. Cleveland never looked in trouble in this game and were rarely behind, up by 9 at half time they coasted the rest of the way in the end winning by 21 points. LeBron James led the Cavs with 36 points and 13 rebounds for a double double while Mo Williams impressed with his 3 point shooting as he dropped 4 on his way to a 24 point game. Cleveland will now go onto face either Orlando or Philadelphia and in this form it’s hard to see them losing even a game let alone a series especially with home court advantage.

In the series that will decide who Cleveland plays in the next round the Orlando Magic wrestled home court advantage back from the Philadelphia 76ers in a game where every starter scored double figures. Orlando won this one 84-81 to tie the series at 2-2 with the next game in Orlando and their star performer was Dwight Howard, the towering center, who scored 18 points and 18 rebounds for a commanding double double while Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu (who hit the game winning 3) each dropped 17. On the other side Andre Miller led the Sixers with 17 points while Andre Iguodala had his own double double with 13 points and 11 assists. A special mention also goes to Willie Green who hit all 3 of his shots from behind the arc for 9 of his 11 points. Despite pulling off two good wins Philly haven’t been able to build on them and that leaves them with the task of having to go into Orlando again needing a victory with at least two games to go.

Finally in Houston the Rockets took a 3-1 lead over the Portland Trail Blazers in their second home game to take a two game lead into Portland and Game 5 with an 88-89 win. Talisman Yao Ming led the Rockets with 21 points and 12 rebounds for a double double while Luis Scola dropped 17 and Shane Battier hit 4 of 6 3-pointers for a large part of his 14 points. On the other side Brandon Roy top scored for the ‘Blazers with 31 while shooting 8 of 17 from the field while LaMarcus Aldridge scooped 19 with exactly the same shooting figures. Portland’s task looks a hard one now, having to make up two games on Houston when they’re in this form will be very difficult especially since they will have to go into Houston and get a win to stay alive in Game 6, they just haven’t been able to stop Ming in this series and it has cost them.

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15 games were played in the Major Leagues last night starting in Cincinnati where the Atlanta Braves prevailed thanks to some early power hitting. The Braves were up 6-0 by the 2nd innings as 3rd baseman Jones hit a RBI single to right field in the 1st before hitting a 3 run jack in the second to make it 6-0. The Reds tried to hit back immediately with a 2 run homer from short stop Gonzalez but Atlanta made sure of the win in the 6th innings when Ross hit an RBI double before Escobar homered to left center to score Ross. The game ended 10-2 and with it the Braves moved into a 2-0 lead in the 3 game series. Lowe pitched the win after 7 complete innings during which he only gave up 4 hits and 2 runs while striking out 8. Arroyo moved to 3-1 for Cincy after giving up 9 earned runs in 5.2 innings.

Next up in New York the Mets beat the Washington Capitals 8-2 after an explosive first three innings during which they scored 5 runs. After that they were in cruise control and starter Pelfrey was able to earn the win, pitching 5.2 innings allowing 6 hits and only 2 earned runs. An error by Washington center fielder Elijah Dukes allowed Wright to be get a 2 RBI double that scored Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado to make it 2-0 in the first before Church hit an RBI single to center field to score Wright. Beltran then hit an infield single to score Luis Castillo in the second and Santos scored on a fielder’s choice in the third. The Nats tried to come back in the 4th and 6th when the aforementioned Dukes hit first an RBI single and then an RBI triple to make it 5-2 but the Mets hit back immediately in the 6th and scored 3 runs including an 2 RBI single to center by Church that scored Beltran and Wright. Young Nats starter Daniel Cabrera had a poor game, giving up 6 hits, 5 r
uns, 1 earned run and 4 walks in only 2.1 innings before he was pulled off the field.

In Oakland the A’s won their 6th game of the season when they beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-2 to tie the series at 1-1. In a low scoring game the A’s were up early thanks to a Buck home run to right field in the 3rd innings and a Nomar Garciaparra 3 RBI double to center field in the 4th that scored Cabrera, Giambi and Cust to make it 4-0. Tampa responded in the 5th when Iwamura RBIed to center but Jason Giambi effectively ended the game in the 7th with a solo home run to right to make it 5-2. The Rays added another run in the 8th but it wasn’t enough and Oakland held on. Braden got the win for Oakland after pitching 5.2 innings allowing 4 hits, 1 earned run and 3 walks whilst striking out 2 before Ziegler got the save in the 9th innings.

In a shootout at Fenway Park the Boston Red Sox triumphed over their AL East rivals the Yankees 16-11. New York managed to give away a 6 run lead that they had accumulated in the first 4 innings when the Soxs scored 5 in the bottom of the 4th before taking the lead in the 5th when they scored 3 more. New York made it 8-8 in the 6th but only held a tie for a half innings as Boston responded with 1 run in the bottom of the 6th to make it 9-8. The lead then changed hands again when the Yankees scored two in the 7th to make it 10-9 before the Red Soxs hit 3 runs to make it 12-10. The Yankees tried to find another response but could only muster one run to make it 12-11 before the Soxs but the game to bed in the bottom of the 8th with 4 runs. This of course led to some horrific pitching stats, Burnett, New York’s starter, pitched 5 innings and gave up 8 hits, 8 earned runs, 3 walks and 2 home runs before being carted off the field. It didn’t get any better from there and the Ya
nkees went through their entire bullpen trying to find someone that would stabilize their defense, none of which did. The 6 relievers that they tried all failed to complete one innings with Albaladejo taking the loss after he gave up 3 earned runs in 0.1 innings.

In St. Louis the Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 8-2 thanks to some nice hitting in the 4th and an Albert Pujols grand slam in the 7th to make it 7-1. Before that though Greene hit an RBI double to deep left to score Ludwick before Barden followed up with a single to left that scored Molina and Greene to make it 3-0. Theriot then responded for the Cubs with a single to left that scored Marshall in the 5th to make it 3-1 but Pujols stole the show with his hit to left field in the 7th to make it 7-1 before Thurston hit an RBI single to right to score Greene in the 8th. Theriot then hit another RBI in the 9th but by then the game was over and with it the Cardinals took the series with one game to go as they were now up 2-0.

In Baltimore the Texas Rangers guaranteed at least a tied series as they beat the Orioles 6-5 to take a 2-0 lead in their 4 game road series. Texas were up 5-0 by the end of the 3rd innings as firstly Kinsler homered in the first, Davis homered in the second and Kinsler again homered in the third and in the process scored Andrus before Jones capped off the innings with another homer to make it 5-0. Baltimore then responded with an RBI single courtesy of Wigginton but Byrd sac flyed in the top of the 5th to make it 6-1 to the Rangers, a lead they nearly, but in the end didn’t, give away. In the 6th Wigginton again scored with a home run to center before Izturis hit a double to deep left to score Zaun in the bottom of the 9th. Jones then followed up by singling to right center to score Montanez and Izturis to make it 6-5. Alas the Orioles just couldn’t complete the comeback and with it the Rangers’ starter Feldman earned the win off of 5 completed innings in which he gave
up only 4 hits and 1 run while striking out 2.

In Chicago a 6 run 5th innings took the game away from the Toronto Blue Jays in a 10-2 win for the White Soxs. After trading runs in the 2nd innings to make it 2-2 the White Soxs exploded in the 5th when Paul Konerko singled to center to score Fields before Anderson singled to left to score Dye and move Konerko to third. Ramirez then scored Konerko, Miller and Anderson with a grand slam that made the scoreline 8-2. Jermaine Dye then hit a home run to left field in the next innings to score Quentin to make the 10-2 and end the game. With this it gave Buehrle his 3rd win of the season as a starter for the Chisoxs, he got through 6 complete innings and gave up only 6 hits, 2 earned runs and 3 walks while striking out 4 and has an impressive E.R.A of 3 on the season.

In Cleveland the Twins gave a good performance in an easy win over the Cleveland Indians to make sure of a series win in the second game of their 3 game series. Minnesota now lead the series 2-0 and won this one 7-1 after a good performance by starter Kevin Slowey in which he pitched 8 full innings and gave up only 8 hits while striking out 7. He gave up the one Indians run in the 9th before being taken off but will still be happy with his 3 win of the season to take him to 3-0 despite an E.R.A of 4.44. Morneau started the scoring for the Twins with a single to right in the 1st that scored Casilla before Young singled to left in the 4th to score Joe Crede. It didn’t end there in the 4th though as Redmond singled to right to score Cuddyer to make it 3-0. Jason Kubel then homered to right to make it 4-0 in the 5th before Span hit a sac fly to left to score Young in the 6th. To make sure of no Indians comeback Jason Kubel and Joe Crede each hit a solo home run in the top of th
e 9th to make it 7-0 before Shoppach tacked on Cleveland’s only run with an RBI single to left center in the 9th to score Martinez.

Milwaukee needed extra innings to get past the Astros in Houston but triumphed thanks to a Braun RBI single in the 11th to win 9-8. With this DiFelice got his first win of the season for the Brewers after pitching the last Houston innings in the bottom of the 11th during which he struck out 2 of the 3 outs. The runs didn’t get flowing for a while though with the first one coming in the 4th as Fielder homered to left to put Milwaukee 1-0 up. Houston then responded with 3 runs of their own with a 2 run homer from Lee to center field to score Berkman before Matt Hampton RBI singled to right to score Geoff Blum. Bourn then hit a solo homer in the 5th to make it 4-1 before Milwaukee tied the game in the 6th with a Hall 3 run jack that scored Braun and Hardy. They then took the lead with a Hall RBI single in the 8th before Kendall hit a sac fly in the same innings to score Cameron to make it 6-4. The hitting didn’t stop there though as Houston regained the lead in the bottom of
the 8th as Towles singled to shallow center to score Blum before Matsui doubled to left to score Towles and Erstad to make it 7-6 in favour of Houston. Fielder then stepped up to hit a 2 run homer to left field in the top of the 9th to make it 8-7 Milwaukee before Pence got safely on base thanks to a throwing error by the third baseman that scored Berkman and tied the game at 8-8. With this we went into extra innings and finally after an innings of nothingness Braun stepped up to single to right to score Hart and eventually win the game after DiFelice did his business.

In Kansas City the Detroit Tigers tied up their 3 game road series with the Royals after they won 9-1 on Saturday night. The Tigers won this won in the 6th innings during which they scored 4 runs, an Anderson 2 RBI triple to deep right and a Paul Polanco 2 RBI double to deep left to score the aforementioned Anderson and Curtis Granderson. This made the score 8-0 and despite a Mike Jacobs ground out that scored Coco Crisp immediately after that Detroit flurry of runs the Royals couldn’t find anything else and eventually lost this one 9-1 after a Ordonez homer to left center in the 9th. Detroit starter Miner therefore got the win after his pitched 5 innings during which he only gave up 3 hits and 1 earned run before the Tigers’ relievers kicked in and did their job.

In Florida the Marlins carried on their bad run of form with their second loss in the same number of days to the Phillies, 6-4. Despite being up 4-2 after a 4 run 4th innings the Marlins couldn’t hang on. In that innings Cantu homered to center to score Baker and Ramirez before Dan Uggla hit a solo home run to make it 4-2 but Philly fought back and tied the game in the 9th when Bruntlett grounded out to third to score Werth and therefore took the game into extra innings. It didn’t take long for the winning runs to come though as Chase Utley RBI singled to center to score Victorino before Werth again RBI singled to center to score Utley and make it 6-4 in the 10th. Brad Lidge then got his 4th save of the season as he struck out each out despite giving up a run and two walks as the Phillies took the series regardless of what happens in tonight’s game as they made it 2-0 in the 3 game series.

In Colorado the Los Angeles Dodgers won their 13th game of the season with a 6-5 win over the hapless Rockies. The Dodgers were ahead early in this one thanks to a Ethier RBI single that scored Furcal, a 2 RBI single that scored Ethier and Loney off of the bat of Martin and a Blake single to right that scored Martin. All of these in the first innings that made it 4-0. Colorado never really recovered despite getting 3 runs back in the 3rd after Smith singled to right to score Jimenez and Hawpe singled to right to score Fowler and Smith. After that the Dodgers made sure of the win when Martin singled to shallow center to score Hudson and Ethier to make it 6-3. Colorado gained another 2 runs after Atkins homered to left to score himself and Helton in the 5th but couldn’t find that extra run to take the game to a tie in the remaining innings and the Dodgers escaped with a series win whatever happens in the last game as they took a 2-0 lead in the best of three.

In Arizona the San Francisco Giants moved to .500 in their so far short season after they beat the Diamondbacks 5-3. The Giants move to 8-8 in an NL West division where you don’t have to be that great to win it and did so after a 4 run 5th innings eventually won the game for them. 2-0 down after Upton homered to left to score Young for the D’backs the Giants responded with Renteria’s double to deep center that score Ishikawa and Torres before Winn homered to left to score Renteria himself to make it 4-2. While a Byrned home run made it 4-3 in the bottom of the innings Arizona couldn’t find anything else and San Fran made sure of the win in the 6th when Burriss singled to center to score Schierholtz to make it 5-3. Despite only giving up 3 runs the Giants used 6 pitchers and in those 6 Miller got his first win of the season as he pitched out the 4th and 5th Arizona innings and gave up only 1 hit and 1 run in his 1.2 innings of chucking.

In Anaheim the L.A Angels couldn’t complete a late comeback against the Seattle Mariners and went down 9-8 in the second game of the 3 game series (which Seattle now leads 2-0). Trailing 5-3 after 5 innings the Angels proceeded to give up 4 runs in the next two Seattle innings. First up Johnson hit a sac fly to left to score Branyan in the 6th before Ken Griffey Jr. singled to right to score Ichiro, Beltre singled to center to score Chavez and Branyan singled to right to score Griffey Jr. to make the game 9-3 in the 7th. Then the Angels started to play but despite a Bobby Abreu RBI single in the 7th, Kendrick double to deep center in the 8th that scored Morales and Rivera and Hunter 2 run homer in the 9th Los Angeles just fell short and lost 9-8.

Finally in San Diego the Padres lost in a blow out to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-1, and in doing so moved to 10-7 after a good start. This win for Pittsburgh tied the series at 1-1 and they managed it thanks to some great pitching from Duke who pitched 8.1 innings during which he gave up only 6 hits, 1 earned run and 2 walks and struck out 5. Thankfully his effort wasn’t in vain as the runs flowed for Pittsburgh. Monroe hit an RBI single in the first to score Morgan before Adam LaRoche grounded into a double play at first that scored Sanchez in what turned out to be the winning run. The Pirates didn’t stop there though and in the 4th Duke hit a sac fly to center to score Vazquez before Morgan did the same to score Jaramillo in the same innings to make it 5-0. In the 6th Monroe doubled to deep right to score Morgan and Sanchez before Gonzalez got San Diego’s only run after he grounded out to second to score Hairston to make it 8-1. Pittsburgh then polished off their win with a 2 run 8th innings in which Hinske singled to right to score Sanchez while Adam LaRoche hit a sac fly that scored Monroe to make it 10-1.

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After Utah’s late victory a couple of days ago in Salt Lake City the Jazz are hopeful of doing the same to the Lakers to level the series, a great achievement considering they were looking so down and out after the two games in Los Angeles. Doing this would put, at least, a little bit of pressure on the Lakers, something they haven’t had to cope with for a while. I say a little because the Jazz’ away form is so atrocious that even if they do win tonight to level up the series they still won’t pose that much of a threat to L.A, the team with the home court advantage.

However, hope springs eternal and to keep that hope alive they’ll need to win tonight and will need Carlos Boozer and co. to step up a la a couple of days ago. If they can take this series to Game 6 or 7 at least they can hold their heads high even if they do go out as expected. This could even have an effect on the Lakers, who I’m sure were expecting an easy 4-0 sweep that hasn’t materialised. However, if they can get the job done in 5 games they will still be relatively happy and to do this they’ll have to win tonight and will hope for a bigger night from Kobe Bryant, who was quite quiet in Game 3. Tip-off is at 9pm ET and the game’s on ESPN.

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There were 3 NBA play-off games played last night starting in Detroit where Cleveland took another step towards sweeping the Pistons after they won 79-68 at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Despite a bad 3rd quarter when the Cavaliers scored only 9 points LeBron and co. got through the game thanks to a 4th quarter when they outscored the Pistons 26-15 to win by 11. LeBron James led the Cavs with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists, just missing out on a triple double whilst shooting 9 for 19 from the field. Behind him Joe Smith came off the bench to make 6 of 8 of his field shots and 6 foul shots to score 19 and also grabbed 10 rebounds for a double double.

On the other side Rip Hamilton led the Pistons with a paltry 15 points while Rodney Stuckey was just behind with 12 as Cleveland shut out Detroit in a defensive game. With Detroit now just about out of the play-offs they’ll just hope to salvage some pride and win their last home game in a couple of days to avoid a 4-0 sweep.

In Philadelphia the 76ers took the lead once more in this series and kept their home court advantage with a 96-94 win over the Orlando Magic thanks to a strong first half that Orlando couldn’t come back from. The Sixers were up 11 points by half time and despite an good Orlando fight back they just couldn’t complete it and fell behind 2-1 in this series.  Philly won this one thanks to a Thaddeus Young lay up with only 2 seconds left on the clock but despite hitting the game winner Young had a quiet game, scoring only 6 points off of 3 of 7 shooting. The big scorers in the Philadelphia team were Andre Iguodala and Andre Miller who scored 29 and 24 respectively. The 76ers will be confident that they can replicate this success and take their next home game in the series to make it 3-1 and in a tie winning situation. I don’t think anyone could see them not winning 1 of 3 games after that.

On the other side Dwight Howard, Orlando’s towering centre led with 36 points and 11 rebounds for a double double while Rafer Alston scored 17 to help out but Orlando were always battling from behind in this game and their last lead was with 7 minutes to go in the 1st quarter when the score was 11-10, after that Philadelphia just sprinted away with it and this is now set to be an upset unless Dwight and co. can win the next game in Philly.

Finally in Houston the home team again won thanks to a strong first half as the Rockets beat Portland in Texas to take a 2-1 series lead. Houston were also ahead by 11 points at half time before the ‘Blazers tried to fight back, unfortunately they just couldn’t finish it and the final score was 86-83 in a game not dominated by one player. The highest scorers were Brandon Roy and Ron Artest, who both had 19 points but apart from that there wasn’t anything to write home about. This wasn’t a game with one superstar but more of a team performance from both sides, Shane Battier dropped 16 while Yao Ming had a quiet night with only 7 points and 13 rebounds.

On the other side Rudy Fernandez came off the bench to score 17 including 5 3-pointers while Steve Blake had a productive night at point guard as he drilled 16 points and 10 assists for a double double. The Trail Blazers won’t want to lose the next game in Houston which would see them on the brink of a play-off exit at the first hurdle especially since seeing how they ended the regular season it would be a massive disappointment.

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Another 3 games are being played today and while the Pistons get a chance to revive their hopes of a miracle after going 2-0 down after both games in Cleveland and the Trail Blazers try to reassert themselves after a shaky 1-1 start in their series against Houston the biggest game tonight is between Orlando and Philadelphia in Philly.

Once the ‘Sixers had won the first game in Orlando they gained the home court advantage and with the series tied at 1-1 they’ll hope that this can be put to their advantage. However that won’t be a large advantage as the Magic tied the Cavaliers and the Celtics for the best record on the road this season at 27-14, a record that was better than Philadelphia’s home record. Because of this and their convincing victory in game 2 on Wednesday they are being touted as favourites for tonight’s match up and will hope for a large performance from Dwight Howard, who was stifled in the first game and scored less than 20 points, a rare occurrence for him.

Orlando’s objective will be largely to win one of the two Philly home games, as soon as they do that then they have home court advantage back and it would be unlikely for the 76ers to win two games on the road against a team that were 32-9 at home in the regular season. Tip off is at 8pm ET and the game is on ESPN2.

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