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The NBA regular season is winding down and the race for playoff seedings is intensifying. Before the playoffs begin on April 20, the play-in tournament will kick off to get the post-season ball rolling. The regular season ends on April 14 with the top six finishers in the East and West advancing to the playoffs outright. Teams that are ranked seventh, eighth and ninth and 10th will battle for the last two playoff slots in each conference via the play-in tournament.
In 1998, Malcolm Bulner was the referee when Manny Pacquiao knocked out Chatchai Sasakul in the eighth round to wrest the WBC flyweight crown on the Phuttamanthon campus grounds just outside of Bangkok. Bulner is now 79 and continues to be active as a referee and judge. He’s an Australian of Sri Lankan descent and a 1964 Tokyo Olympic boxer.
Gilas coach Tim Cone has added two players to the Gilas pool from which to choose who will suit up for the country in the coming international competitions starting with the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Latvia on July 2-7. Cone initially named 12 to the pool but later decided to expand the list to 14 to cover for injuries or other reasons that may make some players unavailable.
In the PBA Philippine Cup, there are 11 players averaging in double figure points without starting a single contest. They could easily be starters but in the concept of today’s game where a deep rotation and instant offense from the bench are a premium, their roles have been tweaked. It’s possible down the road on the way to the playoffs, they’ll be elevated to first five status but for the moment, it’s bombs away as shock troopers.
Scottie Thompson, nursing a bad back, won’t be able to play for coach Tim Cone’s Team Japeth against coach Jorge Gallent’s Team Mark in the highlight of the PBA All-Star extravaganza at the University of St. La Salle gym in Bacolod City tonight.
CEBU, Philippines — Roles were reversed in the EASL Final Four showdown for the $1 million first prize as the Chiba Jets of Japan delivered a deadly dose of defensive medicine on the league’s No. 1 stopper Seoul SK Knights in fashioning a 72-69 win at the Hoops Dome, Lapu-Lapu City, here Sunday night.
CEBU, Philippines —It’s down to one game for all the marbles in the EASL’s inaugural home-and-away season. Unbeaten Chiba is determined to extend its win streak to eight but Seoul is just as focused to bag the championship that comes with a $1 million prize tag. The Jets and SK Knights face off in a blockbuster showdown at the Hoops Dome in Lapu-Lapu City here tonight. In an earlier game, New Taipei engages Anyang in a playoff for third with $250,000 awaiting the winner.
It’s known as the PBA’s most prestigious championship and what makes this conference even more significant is the Philippine Cup stands as the last battleground of the season with the Governors’ Cup taking a break to leave the just-concluded Commissioner’s Cup the only other theater of basketball hostilities.