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2 games were played in the NBA play-offs last night and normality was resumed in the two series that had previously thrown up the wildest results. In Boston the Bulls came close to another upset and kept the Celtics extremely close all game but with only a few seconds left Ray Allen got the ball and took a shot from behind the arc oblivious to the fact that Joakim Noah was in his face. He duly sank the 3 pointer to give Boston the win 118-115 and tie the series at 1-1. The teams now go back to Chicago for the Bulls two home game and you would think the Celtics would show the Bulls who’s boss. Unfortunately Leon Powe found out that he will be out for the rest of the play-offs with a torn ACL, another bad injury for the already weakened Boston.

In Game 2 the aforementioned Allen led the Celtics with 30 points while Rajon Rondo had a triple double with 19 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds, a performance worthy of the play-offs. Glen Davis also had 26 and Kendrick Perkins 16 and 12 rebounds in a game where the Celtics bench didn’t do much work. On the other side Ben Gordon would have been disappointed that his massive 42 points couldn’t carry Chicago to their 2nd win in a row, Gordon hit 14 of 24 from the field including 6 three-pointers.

In the last game of the Monday night San Antonio won the second game of their series with the Mavericks 105-84 but the Mavericks will still be pleased to have taken one game back to Dallas, where the next two games will be played. In what turned out to be a blow out the Spurs restricted Dirk Nowitzki to only 14 points in a great defensive display. On the offensive side Tony Parker top scored with 38 points while Tim Duncan shrugged off any injury worries to get a double double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. A la the Chicago Bulls the Dallas Mavericks will be annoyed that they couldn’t replicate the intensity they played with in game 1 but they’ll still be pleased to be going home with a win under their belts especially as they’re very strong at home.

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On this Monday night there are only 2 games being played, Chicago look to do the impossible (or what most people thought was impossible) and take another game off of Boston in Boston while the game in the West is the 2nd home game for San Antonio against Dallas. San Antonio will still be hurting after their 105-97 loss at home on Saturday night which gave home court advantage to the Mavericks. The Mavericks largely did this by relying on their bench late on in the game and grinding down San Antonio, the only way you beat the Spurs.

San Antonio will hope to build some momentum and stop any more damage being done to their hopes of going deep into the post-season by beating Dallas tonight. They’ll be boosted by the full return of Jason Kidd, who didn’t practice before Saturday’s game and maybe as a result only managed 4 points. Despite the early loss in the series the Spurs are still heavily favoured in the press, it will be interesting to see whether they can tie the series up at 1 each or whether Dallas will have a chance at wrapping up the series at home in 5 days time. Tip off is at 9.30pm ET and the game is on TNT.

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The last 4 play-off series started on Sunday and everyone game went to the home team bar one.

First up in Los Angeles the Lakers easily beat the 8th seeded Utah Jazz 113-100 to take a 1-0 lead in the series. L.A were on top from the start and went into half time with a 22 point lead and while the Jazz did out score them by 9 in the 3rd quarter they were never in doubt. Kobe Bryant started his play-off run with a solid 24 points in 40 minutes on court. Kobe shot 9 of 17 from the field but arguably the best performance of the night came from his less flashy sidekick Pau Gasol. Gasol scored 20 points and just missed out on a double double with 9 rebounds, shooting 7 of his 11 shots from the field along with all 6 of his foul shots. With another their second home game of the series being played next the Lakers will hope to wrap this one up in 4 games which looks a distinct possibility the way Utah are playing.

Next up the biggest shock of the night as a 6th seed went to a 3rd seed and beat them for the second consecutive night. This time it was in the Eastern Conference at Orlando where Philadelphia inflicted some damage to Dwight Howard and his team. The ‘Sixers came back from 18 points down to win this one 100-98 thanks to an Andre Iguodala 2-point jumper with only 2.2 seconds left to play. Iguodala had 20 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists while Lou Williams came off the bench to score 18. Despite hitting 11 of 13 from the field to drop 31 points on the night Dwight Howard couldn’t carry the Magic, who with this loss surrender the home court advantage they had.

In Atlanta the Hawks gave a performance worthy of a play-off place and the home court advantage they battled for all season as they beat the 5th seeded Miami Heat 90-64 in a blow out. Josh Smith and co. held Miami to their lowest points total of the season including only 7 points in the 4th quarter. Atlanta had a 20 point lead at half time and never looked back, Josh Smith top scored for the Hawks with 23 points and 10 rebounds for a double double while Joe Johnson dropped 15 to see the Hawks to a 1-0 lead in the best of 7 series.

Finally in Denver the 2nd seeded Nuggets showed why they were so high up in the regular season standings with a 29 point victory over the New Orleans Hornets, 113-84. Chauncey Billups led the Nuggets with 36 points and 8 assists while center Nene grabbed a double double with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Denver will look to wrap this one up in 4 or 5 games to give themselves some rest for the Conference Semi-Finals and after this display they will be confident that they can go into New Orleans and win at least one game.

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In the NBA tonight the remaining 4 ‘Game 1’s are being played tonight, Utah @ L.A Lakers, Philly @ Orlando, Miami @ Atlanta and New Orleans @ Denver. Orlando rested Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu in the final games of the season which is why they lost games to teams like Milwaukee and Toronto but while both are questionable for tonight’s game they’ll both definitely play in an important game. The Magic cannot afford to go into the 2 76ers home games 1-1 because Philly are a strong team at home (24-17) and Iguodala and co. can make them pay wherever they play.

Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy will be looking for big performances from Howard and Rashard Lewis, two of the Magic’s mainstay throughout the season and if they can go into the 2 road games at 2-0 they will be confident that they can at least nick one and settle this game in 5 as a team that were way over .500 on the road in the regular season. Tip off is at 5.30pm ET and the game is being televised on TNT.

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There was a full set of fixtures played in MLB on Saturday starting in Pittsburgh where the Pirates shutout the Braves whilst scoring some late runs to win 10-0. Starting on the mound for the Pirates was Ian Snell who completed 7 innings giving up only 4 hits and striking 3 out to earn the win. To show how comfortable Pittsburgh’s win was Atlanta only left 4 batters on base and three of those were walks by Snell. Lights out pitching was the order of the day but the game was won in the 6th innings when, with the Pirates leading 2-0, right fielder Craig Monroe homered to center field to score himself, Nate McLouth and Ryan Doumit in a 3 run jack. After this the Pirates looked comfortable but to make sure the game was put to bed Monroe did exactly the same thing again in the 7th innings to make the score 9-0. Atlanta and the rest of the NL East won’t want to keep dragging their feet early in the season because before long they could see a large gap between themselves and the
1st placed Florida Marlins.

In Washington the aforementioned Florida Marlins improved to 10-1 after Jeremy Hermida saved them twice late on. The Marlins were trailing for most of the game after the Nationals scored 6 runs in their first two innings and were behind 6-3 going into the 9th before Ross Gload (pinch hitting for pitcher Josh Johnson) hit an RBI single into left field before Hermida hit a home run to tie the game. This took the game into extra innings and while the Marlins couldn’t do anything in the 10th they did prevail in the 11th when Hermida hit a 3 run homer scoring Wes Helms and Ross Gload again to win the game 9-6.

In Toronto the Blue Jay fought back after a disappointing loss on Friday to tie their 3 game home series with Oakland after a walk-off win in extra innings. This one was 2-2 after 9 and the next 2 innings saw nothing from either side offensively before Toronto first baseman Lyle Overbay hit a 2 run homer to win the game. Jason Frasor was given the win for Toronto after he got the last two outs of the Oakland 12th innings and way before him Brian Tallet started the game for the ‘Jays and gave up 4 hits, 1 earned run (2 overall) and a walk in 5 and 1/3 innings. Toronto will hope to take the series on Sunday when Ricky Romero is starting for them to stay high on top of the AL East.

In a pitcher’s battle at Citifield Johan Santana emerged victorious and in doing so handed victory to the New York Mets in a tight game. The Mets beat the Milwaukee Brewers 1-0 in a game with only 12 hits. The most important one came when Jose Reyes grounded out into a fielder’s choice to score Omir Santos from third in the 7th innings, this gave the loss to Brewers reliever Carlos Villanueva, who had come on for Yovani Gallardo in the 7th, and gave up 1 hit and the all important run. Johan Santana’s numbers looked much better though, he pitched through 7 and struck out exactly the same number whilst giving up only 5 hits in the process. He’s only started 3 games but of those 3 games he’s only collected an E.R.A of 0.46 and is 2-1.

Over on the pinstriped half of the Big Apple the Cleveland Indians had a field day off of the pitching of Chien-Ming Wang who started for the Yankees and only managed 1 and a third innings before he was pulled off of the field. This was because in his brief period on the mound he gave up 8 hits, 8 runs and 1 home run, all of these were in the 2nd innings when the Indians amassed 14 runs to effectively take the game from New York in one swoop. They didn’t stop there though and scored another 8 runs in the game to win this one 22-4 in a game when the Yankees went though 5 pitchers before the game ended.

In another game that went to extra innings the Chicago Cubs recorded their 7th win of the season against the St. Louis Cardinals in a game that went 11 innings. With the game tied at 5 going into the overtime the Cards were shut out twice before Aramis Ramirez hit a 2 run homer to earn the walk-off victory for Chicago. Angel Guzman earned the win on the mound for the Cubbies after giving up nothing and striking out one batter in the top of the 12th while Ryan Dempster started for the Cubs and pitched 6 innings, giving up 4 runs and striking out exactly the same number of Cardinals batters.

The L.A Dodgers carried on their good run of form at home after beating Colorado 9-5 in the second game of their 3 game series. L.A are still unbeaten at Dodger Stadium after 5 game and are tied at the top of the NL West with San Diego. They won this game at a canter and were ahead early after a pair of Manny Ramirez home runs in the 1st and 3rd innings before right fielder Andre Ethier hit a 3 run homer to make it 5-0 in the 4th. They exploded in the 7th inning to score 4 more to wrap up the game and were assisted by starting pitcher Chad Billingsley who pitched through 6 innings and struck out 6, giving up 4 hits and 3 earned runs in the process, he’s now 3-0 in his 3 starts for Los Angeles.

In a game between two misfiring teams the Arizona Diamondbacks won the second game of their 3 game road series with the San Francisco Giants 2-0, to tie the series up at 1. Both starting pitchers got through 8 innings and Giants’ starter Tim Lincecum will be disappointed not to have got the win after a stellar performance that saw him strike out 13 and give up only 5 hits. On the other side Doug Davis improved his record to 1-2 this season after giving up 8 hits and striking out 6. Chad Qualls earned the save in the bottom of the 9th after center fielder Chris Young hit a 2 RBI double to win the game in 9th.

In Houston the Astros tied the 4-game series at 1 with a 7-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds thanks to some great pitching coupled with a poor Reds offense. Wandy Rodriguez improved his record to 1-1 after pitching 7 complete innings during which he struck out 10 and allowed only 2 hits (the only hits Cincinnati were able to muster all game). The Astros signalled their intent to win this game from the off and took a 2-0 lead after right fielder Hunter Pence and third baseman Geoff Blum hit consecutive RBI singles to left field in the 1st innings. They didn’t have to do much to wrap up the win, although they did in the 7th with a string of RBI doubles, against a Cincinnati line-up that only had one player that was batting over .300 on the season.

In Philadelphia the San Diego Padres made sure they stayed at the top of the NL West with a late comeback against the Phillies. San Diego took the lead 4-3 in the 8th innings thanks to a Nick Hundley RBI single but Philadelphia hit straight back with 2 runs of their own, a Chase Utley home run followed by a Pedro Feliz sac fly to right field to make it 5-4. The Padres however, had the last laugh and after Brian Giles grounded out to 1st which let a run in, 3rd baseman  Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a 3 run homer to make the game 8-5. Heath Bell then earned the save by getting the last 3 outs including a strikeout in the bottom of the 9th.

In Tampa the rapidly improving Chicago White Sox offense beat the Rays 8-3 with designated hitter Paul Konerko going 3 of 5 on the night. Konerko had 3 RBIs including a 2 run jack that scored Jermaine Dye in the 5th to make the game 6-0 and despite an immediate rally from the Rays that scored 2 runs they didn’t have enough to fight back. Mark Buehrle earned the win for Chicago as the starter and pitched 6 innings and 2/3rds and in the process struck out 5 but gave up 8 hits and 3 earned runs, he improved his record to 2-0.

Boston recorded their fifth win of the season at Fenway Park with a 6-4 win over Baltimore thanks to an early surge of runs. The Red Sox were up 6-0 after 4 innings thanks to a Jason Varitek RBI double in the 2nd, a Kevin Youkilis 3 run homer in the 3rd followed by a Mike Lowell RBI single before another Youkilis RBI in the 4th. The Orioles hit back with 4 runs in the bottom of the 5th but Boston held on for the win. Josh Beckett won his second game of the season after pitching 6 whole innings during which he struck out 5 and gave up 4 runs, he’s now 2-1 for the season.

A solid outing from Twins starter Kevin Slowey meant that Minnesota have won their 3 game home stand with the second win out of two games against the Angels. Slowey pitched 7 complete innings, striking out 5 and only gave up 2 runs, the only runs Los Angeles were able to get. On the offensive end after going behind 2-0 in the 2nd the Twins halved the lead in the 4th before taking the lead on a Jason Kubel 2 RBI double in the 4th, Kubel himself scored later that innings along with another run to make it 6-2 and Minnesota never surrendered that lead eventually winning 9-2.

In Texas the rapidly improving Kansas City Royals won their second game in a row against the Rangers to take the 3 game series with one game to go. A Billy Butler RBI double saw Coco Crisp home in the 6th before catcher Miguel Olivo homered in the 7th for the second run. Zack Greinke was able to pitch out the whole game and got the win due to that. Greinke struck out 10 Rangers batters and gave up only 7 hits without walking a single batter and after 3 starts he is 3-0 with an E.R.A of 0.00 and will be a big part in the Kansas City Royals’ season.

Finally in Seattle the Detroit Tigers shutout the Mariners to win 2-0 and tied the 3 game series at 1. Edwin Jackson started on the mound for the Tigers and pitched 7 and 2/3rds innings without much trouble and in doing so struck out 6 and only gave up 5 hits. Fernando Rodney came into pitch the 9th innings to get the save despite walking 1 batter. The winning runs were hit off the bat of third baseman Brandon Inge who hit an RBI single which soon turned into a 2 RBI triple after a throwing error by Ichiro, Seattle’s right fielder.

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Well while the baseball season has just started the NBA season is nearing it’s end, it’s the start of the play-offs today so instead of a recap of the MLB that was on offer last night we’ll be doing a preview of the best looking game on offer in the Conference Quarter-Finals.

Half of the 8 games are being played today starting in the Eastern Conference where the 7th placed Chicago Bulls are beginning their first round series with the Celtics in Boston before the Detroit Pistons will start what’s likely to be a short series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland.

Then we move to the Western Conference and before the 4th/5th match up in Portland the most exciting series, in my opinion, begins in San Antonio where there’s the most chance of an early upset. The Dallas Mavericks ended the season strongly and as a result were able to leap frog the stumbling Utah Jazz and the misfiring New Orleans Hornets into 6th place in the West to set up a match between them and San Antonio. While the Spurs have home court advantage in this best of 7 series the Mavericks won’t be scared, San Antonio lost 13 games at home during the regular season including losses to Oklahoma City and Golden State, two bad, bad, teams in the West.

Compare this with Dallas’ record at home (32-9) and the Spurs will be hoping that they don’t slip up at home otherwise this game could go to a decider. It was only Dallas’ away form that held them back from challenging for a 3rd or 4th seed (18-23), however with Dirk Nowitzki firing on all cylinders the Mavs will hope to sneak an away victory and swing the series in their favour. The first two games of this series are being played at the AT&T Center so the Mavericks will hope to nick one of these two games before going back to Dallas for two games, if the series is tied at 2 after 4 games Dirk and co. will be happy.

The Spurs have been bolstered in recent days by the return of Manu Ginobili, who they hope will take some of the pressure off Tim Duncan, who in recent weeks has only been able to play 25 to 30 minutes a game after coming back from a knee injury. Game 1 of this series is on ESPN and tip-off’s at 8pm ET.

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Seeing as the NBA play-offs don’t start for another day we’ll focus on the baseball that was played on Thursday night starting in Atlanta, where the Marlins completed their sweep of the Braves with a 6-2 win. In this three game series Florida have outscored Atlanta by 14 runs and have only given up 7 runs altogether, early signs that they’re a tough defensive team. Last night was no exception with Anibal Sanchez starting on the mound for the Marlins, he went on to earn the win giving up 8 hits and the 2 earned runs in 6 completed innings. On the offensive side right field Cody Ross hit 3 for 3 on the day including a 3 run homer and a sac fly in the 6th to make the score 5-2. With this win Florida move to 8-1 at the top of the NL East and are looking like an early pacesetter in a mostly sluggish division.

In Pittsburgh the Astros took the 3 game series 2-1 with a 6-3 win despite an early Pirates run splurge. Pittsburgh were up 3-1 after 2 innings after a Nyjer Morgan ribeye triple before Houston battled back culminating in a 3 run homer by Lance Berkman in the 6th innings to take the game away from the Pirates.

The Yankees were unable to christen their new home with a first win in the first game of their 4 game series with the Cleveland Indians. In a tight pitcher’s battle the game was tied at 1 going into the 7th innings before the Indians exploded off the pitching of the New York middle relief. Again showing how weak the Yankees’ relief is the Indians scored 9 runs including a Grady Sizemore grand slam and a Victor Martinez home run. This one ended 10-2 and while starter C.C Sabathia’s numbers looked respectable (5 2/3 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned run, 5 walks and 4 strikeouts) the rest of the NY chuckers just looked grim. The loss went to Jose Veras, didn’t even get an out and gave up 3 earned runs and a walk before handing to Damaso Marte. Marte gave up the grand slam and 2 more runs and finished with an E.R.A of 27. Ouch.

On the North side of Chicago the Cardinals took the first game in their series with the Cubs, 7-4, thanks to some lights out pitching from their relievers. After going down 4-3 in the 5th thanks to a Kosuke Fukudome 3 run homer the Cardinals scored 4 runs in 4 innings culminating in a Brian Barden home run in the 8th innings. While this was happening Kyle McClellan and Ryan Franklin came on to relieve Adam Wainwright of his duties and struck out 4 (2 each) altogether without giving up a run in 3 complete innings.

The Washington Nationals managed their first win of the season to move to 1-7 at the bottom on the NL East. They did this by beating Philadelphia 8-2 at home thanks to some much needed offense. The Nats took the lead in the first innings and never looked like they were going to relinquish it, Adam Dunn homered to right to score 3 and Philly never recovered despite pulling it back to 3-2 in the 5th when Jimmy Rollins sac flyed to score Lou Marson. Washington then secured the win by scoring 4 runs in the 8th innings including two consecutive home runs into left field.

In Tampa Bay the Devil Rays succumbed to a late loss despite scoring a run in the 9th innings. In a tight game against the White Sox the Rays were down 2-0 early after Jermaine Dye hit a 2 run homer in the second and despite getting a run back in the 6th the Sox tied the game up when they went 3-1 up in the top of the ninth.

In New York the San Diego Padres consigned the New York Mets to their second loss at their new Citifield home after a 6-5 loss. New York went ahead early in this one after a Carlos Delgado 3-run homer in the 1st and kept the Padres quiet until the 3rd when they scored 5, all RBI singles including one off the bat of David Eckstein. This innings took the game away from the Mets and despite a rally in the 8th when Ramon Castro homered to score 2 the Mets couldn’t complete the fight back and gave San Diego their second road win of the season.

In Minnesota the Blue Jays ended their 4 game road series with the Twins with a 9-2 win to take the series 3-1. The Blue Jays are looking hot in the first few weeks of the season and most of this is down to their offence, which won the game for them in the 7th innings on Thursday. They were already 2-1 up going into the 7th and can thank Roy Halladay for that, Halladay is now 3-0 for the season and pitched 7 complete innings, striking out 8 and giving up only one run. However, in the 7th Marko Scutaro scored himself and Rod Barajas with a home run before Kevin Millar scored a grand slam to see Vernon Wells, Adam Lind and Scott Rolen home to see the Twins go down to their 7th loss of the season.

In Seattle the L.A Angels won the game after a big 6th innings against the Mariners to take one game off Seattle. The Angels were trailing 1-0 going into the 6th in a pitcher’s battle before catcher Mike Napoli hit a 2 RBI single in what were the winning runs. The Angels then proceeded to score another 3 to wrap this one up for their 4th win of the season and their 1st on the road.

Finally in Los Angeles the Dodgers won their 3rd home game of the season to sweep the San Francisco Giants 3-0 in their first home stand. The Dodgers were 3-2 up going into the 6th before they put their foot on the gas and accelerated from the Giants with 3 runs from a sac fly and a Mientkiewicz 2 RBI double. This one ended 7-2 in favour of Los Angeles.

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The final day in the NBA was pretty meaningless for most of the teams, the only thing left to fight for was seedings in the play-offs so if your team weren’t already in the play-offs they were presumably reading holiday brochures at half time. However 13 games means a choc-a-block round up before this blog focuses on the baseball for a couple of days while waiting for the Conference Quarter Finals to begin. If you’re wondering why your team’s game hasn’t been featured in today’s round up it’s because the game was meaningless and frankly this writer doesn’t want to work on anything that’s pointless. J

After that trimming of the schedule it leaves us with 5 all important games to cover starting in Chicago where the Bulls picked the worst night to have a blow out defeat. Just when you wanted to end the season on a high and maybe get a better seed the Bulls accidentally lost very, very badly to the Toronto Raptors. At home. Not exactly play-off material and this could have repercussions on Chicago’s play-off hopes in general. A win last night would have seen them move up to 6th seed to face the Orlando Magic, a team they might have had a good chance against, however as 7th seed they are now confined to have to play the Boston Celtics, a much harder task.

They lost this one 109-98 at the United Center and Shawn Marion was the architect for the Raptors scoring 34 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for a double double while Chris Bosh scored 21 and grabbed 19 rebounds for his double double.

Next up in Cleveland there was another shock win with the Sixers beating the Cavs, who had only lost once at home all season, to gain 6th seed in the East and the right to play Orlando in the Quarter Finals. Philly kept the Cavs (minus LeBron who didn’t play any part) close all game and took this one into over time before winning 111-110. Andre Miller scored a team high 30 while Andre Iguodala scored 24 in a win that saw Philadelphia end the season .500, the same as Chicago but the 76ers held the season tie breaker so jumped above the Bulls.

We move into the Western Conference with the next game and the Dallas Mavericks ensured they’ll have a better chance at going deep into the post season by beating the Houston Rockets at home, 95-84. This win coupled with New Orleans’ loss meant that the Mavs climbed into 6th spot and will now face San Antonio in the first round. For Houston however, it means that they drop down to 5th spot to face Portland without home court advantage. Everything that could’ve got wrong for the Rockets went wrong last night, they lost, San Antonio won and Portland won meaning they tumbled down the rankings after things were looking so promising earlier in the day. Dirk Nowitzki again came up trumps for the Mavericks with 30 points and 15 rebounds for a double double while Jason Terry had 23 points from the bench.

Next to the aforementioned San Antonio where the Spurs beat the New Orleans Hornets to grab 3rd seed, home court advantage and the Southwest Division title. They will now face Dallas in the first round where as New Orleans, with this loss, are confined to play the Denver Nuggets. The Spurs won this one 105-98 and can thank Tony Parker for his instrumental part in the win, Parker had 29 points on the night and 6 assists while team mate Tim Duncan had a double double with 20 points and 19 rebounds.

Finally in Portland the ‘Blazers ensured they had home court advantage for at least one round of the post-season with a blow out win over Denver, 104-76. Denver didn’t play hard in this game since they were practically ensured 2nd place in the West and will play New Orleans in the first round. For Portland however they still needed to fight for their seeding, and so they did except it was their bench that did most of the fighting. The bench combined for 72 of the 104 Portland points with Travis Outlaw grabbing the most with 21 while Rudy Fernandez weighed in with 18 of his own. Portland will now play Houston in the first round with home court advantage which could prove vital for Brandon Roy and co.

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The biggest game tonight is between Houston and Dallas in Dallas. Houston can clinch their first division title in 15 years with a win over the Mavs and could finish as high as 2nd in the West if Denver slip up away to Portland. However if things go wrong and they lose they could fall as low as 5th and give up all important home court advantage as well as losing the division if San Antonio and Portland win (San Antonio are play at New Orleans).

As you can tell the Western Conference is tight and this applies to the Mavericks situation as well, if the Mavs win and New Orleans lose Dallas can pip the Hornets to the 6th seed. With L.A beating Utah last night it meant the Mavs could only finish 7th or higher, something that will please every Mavericks fan due to the fact that the Lakers have won 6 straight against Dallas.

Yao Ming is questionable for tonight’s game but everyone assumes with so much up for grabs the Rockets’ talisman will play, the same also goes to Josh Howard of the Mavericks. Houston will hope to replicate their early season win in Dallas to make sure they tie up the Southwest Division, they won by 10 points that day, 112-102. Tip off is at 8pm ET and the game is on ESPN.

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Only 3 games were played in the NBA on Wednesday in preparation for tonight’s end of season extravaganza.

In a match-up that’s likely to be repeated in 4 days time the Atlanta Hawks showed the Miami Heat some of what they can expect if they hold onto 5th place in the Eastern Conference. At the Philips Arena the Hawks won this one 81-79 in a game where the benches of each team got a lot of time on court, every player that was in uniform played some part in the game for both teams and due to this big numbers couldn’t really be put up by any individual player. Despite this Michael Beasley scored 23 points and 13 rebounds for Miami and Ronald Murray came off the Hawks’ bench to score 17 despite only shooting 5 of 20 from the field.

In Philadelphia the Boston Celtics powered past the 76ers with a 100-98 victory in another game that’s likely to be replicated in 4 days time. The men in green won this one due to Paul Pierce’s 31 points that led the Celtics while Tony Allen scored 18. This was likely to be Pierce’s last game before the play-offs (he’ll probably be rested for the home game against Washington tonight) so he made sure he had some form going into the post-season shooting 12 of 16 from the field including 7 of 9 from behind the arc.

Finally in L.A the Lakers warned the Jazz of what was likely to happen to them in under a week after beating them 125-112, and thus confining them to the 8th seed and a re-match in the Conference Quarter Finals. Andrew Bynum dropped a team high 22 points in half an hour on the court while Pau Gasol just missed out on a double double with 20 points and 9 rebounds. This was the Lakers’ last game and despite wanting to give their main players some time to find their rhythm before the play-offs started they gave all their players suited up some time on court at the Staples Center and will be confident of sweeping the Jazz in their upcoming series.

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