Philippine Azkals draw first match with Sri Lanka

The game almost turned to be a disappointment for the Philippine Azkals.

The "Pilipinas Futbol" squad otherwise known as Philippine Azkals salvaged a 1-1 draw in their away game against Sri Lanka for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers held at Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka witnessed by a very sparse crowd yet Pinoy fans expressed their support by going to the game.

Fil-Am addition Nate Burkey saved the day for the Azkals with his very scrappy goal in the 49th minute to even things up after Sri Lankan Chathura Gunarathna put his team ahead, 1-0 in the 45th minute.

Azkals goalee Neil Etheridge made a spectacular save in the first 10 seconds of the extension period to give his team and the Pinoy fans some moments of relief after some anxious moments of a serious attempt by Sri Lanka to score a goal and sneak in a win.

The Azkals had two attempts to break the deadlock but Ian Araneta and Fil-European, Virado was both thwarted by a masterful job by Sri Lankan goalee Manjula Fernando.

Top striker Phil Younghusband was pulled out of the game somewhere in the 40th minute after a collision with an opposing player that resulted in a reoccurence of his former injury that he suffered playing against Mongolia.

The Azkals need at least a 0-0 tie to advance but we can be assured that they wont settle for just a draw because they would be playing behind their ever supportive fans in the next game to be held in the Philippines at the Rizal Stadium on July 3.

Stinson powers Ginebra over Meralco

Reigning NBA D-League MVP Curtis Stinson registered the first triple double in the 2011 PBA Governor's Cup to lead his team to a 97-81 victory over the Meralco Bolts to sieze a 2-1 standing Friday night at the Araneta Coliseum.

Stinson tallied a monster game of 18 points, 13 rebounds and 16 assists while having able support from an explosive performance from the locals to foil Meralco's comeback hopes with timely baskets down the stretch.

Mark Caguioa led scoring for this game with 25 points and he poured ice cold water to the comeback aspirations of the Bolts especially with a dagger jumper with 2 minutes left to finally seal the deal for his team.

Ronald Tubid and Eric Menk bounced back from their poor performance in the loss to Petron last game to scored 17 and 16 points respectively.

Sol Mercado led the losing team with 22 points while their import Champ Oguchi came through with 19 points.

This was Meralco's first loss in three games.

Petron comes from behind to edge out Ginebra

It's not how you start it but how you end it.

The Petron Blaze Boosters shook off a rough start to secure their first win in the 2011 PBA Governors Cup last Sunday, 100-89 against the Brgy. Ginebra Kings at the "Big Dome" Araneta Coliseum.

Jeremy Wise is proving to be worth the wait for Petron as he scored 21 points, 17 of those came in the first half and his matchup with Curtis Stinson of the Kings was a complete reversal after the latter scored majority of his points in the first half.

Stinson scored 22 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists but he was shut down in the second half by the pesky defense of Petron bringing about the abrupt decrease in the offensive efficiency of the Kings in the 2nd half.

Rabeh Al Hussaini topscored together with Wise with 21 points as he dominated the interior for his breakout game of the conferece.

Petron improved it's standing to 1-2 while they dealt the Kings their first loss of the conference.

Mavs win first championship in franchise history

Revenge couldn't have been any sweeter.

Avenging their loss in their own floor in the '06 Finals, the Dallas Mavericks claimed their first championship in franchise history in the Miami Heat's own home court 105-95 to wrap up the series in six games yesterday.

Jason Terry scored 27 points to lead the Mavs to the victory in spite of the off-night from their superstar Dirk Nowitzki who shot 1-12 in the first half and finished the game with 21 points (9-27 clip) and they got a valuable effort from DeShaun Stevenson who buried 3 three pointers in the first half.

Miami was led by the 21 points of LeBron James and they really seemed determined in the beggining of the game raising an early nine point lead before they allowed Dallas to drop a 21-4 run and take a 40-28 lead.

Eddie House entered the game for the Heat and he drained three 3-pointers to lead the 14-0 Miami run that allowed them to take a 42-40 minutes before halftime but a scuffle between Udonis Haslem, DeShawn Stevenson and Mario Chalmers resulted in a technical freethrow by Nowitzki putting an end to the Heat run.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban hugged Head coach Rick Carlisle in celebration of this long awaited championship crown, the first championship ring for Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry.

On the other hand, LeBron James continues to championship-less and his agonizing wait is the talking point for many NBA fans.

Mavericks comes from behind again to win Game 5

You could really tell that this rally is going to come.

The Dallas Mavericks moved within one win away from claiming their first championship in franchise history by outlasting the Miami Heat 112-103 after almost relinquishing the lead in the homestretch in the final game of the season in their homecourt at Dallas Texas last night.

Jason Terry and Jason Kidd ensured the win with a big three pointer each to finish with 21 and 11 points respectively and JJ Barea provided the 3rd quarter spark with 17 points and 4-5 3 pt. fieldgoals.

As expected, Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavs with 29 points and he got the support he demanded in Game 3 as the Dallas bench clearly rose up to the occasion with even Brian Cardinal providing quality minutes while preserving Tyson Chandler to avoid foul trouble.

The Heat could have more problems than this loss though as Dwayne Wade sustained a hip injury in the first quarter and had to be checked in the locker room until the halfway point of the 3rd quarter after missing most of the 2nd period and the decline of his aggressiveness was very evident since then.

LeBron James tallied a triple double of 17 points 10 rebs and 10 assists in this losing effort but his offensive output is still subpar of what is expected of him most especially that Wade had to leave the court for majority of the game since the end of the first quarter.

"I thank God for giving me strength to be here and to him be all the glory" said a jubilant Jason Terry on a post game interview.

Miami will try to battle back as the series shifts to Miami again for Game 6 and if necessary , a Game 7 for the championship on June 13.

Dirk plays through sinus infection to lead Mavs and tie NBA Finals series

It's hard to keep a warrior down.

Dirk Nowitzki battled through a 101 degree fever yet he catapulted the Mavs to an 86-83 win over the Miami Heat to knot the Finals series at 2 games a piece and boil their battle down to a best of 3 affair last night at Dallas Texas.

Nowitzki and the Mavs were very close to being down 3-1 until they made their run to outscore the Heat 21-9 after they went trailing 74-65 with 10 minutes left in the final period. Dirk scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter including six free throws.

LeBron James was the main missing link for the Heat after accounting for only 8 points, breaking his streak of 433 consecutive double figure scoring games and not only that he also was scoreless in the final quarter in which his team only scored 14 points.

Dwayne Wade scored 32 points but his costly mistakes in the homestretch like the missed freethrow with 30 seconds left and his faulty inbounds pass forced Mike Miller to take a hurried shot that didn't even come close to hitting the rim as the Dallas fans celebrated their team's victory.

Game 5 will ever be more crucial as both teams try to take the driver seat in the series and go up 3-2 still at Dallas' homecourt.

-details courtesy of yahoo! sports

Miami Heat holds on to win Game 3 after a furious rally by the Mavs

The Miami Heat avenged their Game 2 loss by a nail biting win on the road against the Dallas Mavericks 88-86 to take a 2-1 series lead of their championship series last night at the hostile territory of Dallas.

Chris Bosh scored the go-ahead basket and Udonis Haslem shut down Dirk Nowitzki in the final possession to allow their team to escape with this victory after the Mavs mounted their comeback onslaught behind their superstar Dirk Nowitzki who scored 16 points in the third quarter for a total of 34 points with 11 rebounds but he was forced to a tough shot during the last possession.

Dwayne Wade, who led the '06 Heat team to the championship over Dallas, scored 29 points and grabbed 11 rebounds but his timely baskets and motivational words to his teammates was the biggest factor that led to this win.

"I just want to lead my teammates by example and be aggressive" Wade uttered in an interview after this pivotal win.

Dallas didn't offer much help to Dirk on this game as the next leading scorers for the Mavs are Jason Terry with 15, Shawn Marion with 10 and Kidd added 9 points and 10 assists but he committed a total of 4 turnovers.

Game 4 will still be played in Dallas on Tuesday, (US Time) as the Mavs try to take their first win in their home floor in the Finals and prevent a 3-1 lead for Miami.