Sports Eye
Picking the Heat to win again
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
I’M SURE we, as avid fans of basketball games, followed the NBA playoffs especially the Eastern Conference finals between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers that surprisingly lasted the maximum seventh game. Before the start of the playoffs, no basketball guru, virtuoso, pundit, connoisseur or sportswriter boldly predicted that the Pacers will enter the Eastern Conference finals. Majority of the sports analysts following the NBA believed that it could be the Heat versus the New York Knicks in the finals. Probably because these basketball analysts hugely based their predictions on the Knicks records or just because of Carmelo Anthony’s hardly stoppable capability.
In short, the Pacers defied many skeptics and surprised us all. And despite their lopsided win (99-76) in the seventh and final game, the Pacers proved to us that they’re not just a ‘flash in the pan’ and clearly pushed the defending champions Heat to the limit that produced a lot of respect for them by the world’s basketball aficionados. I assure you, the much improved and youthful Pacers will be the team to reckon with next year and hopefully they will not be like the Oklahoma City Thunder. Honestly, I bet for Miami (half case of SML) in the fifth game and won. I lost in the sixth match with the same quantity. Seventh game I found no bettors. It is but just friendly betting.
Fil-Am Heat head-coach Erik Spoelstra deserves a round of applause for bringing the Heat to the NBA championship for three consecutive years. They failed to win the crown in 2011 (won by Dallas Mavericks) but bounced back last year to capture the title, 4-2, against the Thunder. They will defend their title against seasoned, more experienced and four-time champions (1999-2003, 2005, 2007) San Antonio Spurs, all under the tutelage of the aging coach Gregg Popovich, 64, considered as the league’s finest tactician. On the other side, Spoelstra, 42, whose mother is originally from San Pablo City, Laguna, is optimistic that they will do a ‘repeat’ with his Big Three Lebron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade plus quality support from the bench to counter the Big Three version of Spurs’ Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Anthony Parker.
NBA experts favoured the two-time champions Heat to win the best-of-seven series. I cannot blame them. According to my own survey from my place Mangaldan, to Mapandan, to Lingayen and Dagupan City, all my friends that I have talked to picked the raging Heat to win the title anew, failing to anticipate that there’s always room for an upset like what happened to Manny Paquiao against Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth fight. In the same vein, there was our football Azkals team who upset the heavily favoured Hong Kong squad at their own field in Mongkok, the friendly match turned ugly.
So let’s watch all the games of the series with bottles of beers, with a simple pulutan of inihaw na bangus, pinakuluang talaba with sibuyas and sili. Yum, yum, yum. Cheers Pareng Al and JunV. Let’s go to Trish Hotel and Restaurant, the newest and most elegant place in my town, Mangaldan. I will pick up the tab.
And despite the defeat of the Heat in the first game of the Finals, 92-88, at Miami’s own patio, I will still go for the Heat.
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I bumped into NABRO (National Basketball Referees Association) Pangasinan chapter commissioner Jon Cansino last June 3 and he informed me that there will be a five-day seminar for basketball coaches and referees to be held on June 10-14 at the UPang-PHINMA employees cafeteria. Cansino also said that based on the letter he received from UPang-PHINMA’s executive assistant to president Catherine Joan Mangune, the five-day seminar will be conducted by international referee Romy Guevarra of BRASCO group of referees and with no entry fee. Registration is ongoing and any Pangasinan group of referees/coaches or interested individual can contact UPang-PHINMA office through landline number 522-5635 or cp number 09982505399 c/o Jay Ronquillo. See you there.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Jesus answered him. “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. “And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” MARK 12: 29-31
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