Victor Oladipo leads Pacers rout of LeBron James’ Cavaliers.

Victor Oladipo scored a game-high 32 points to power the Indiana Pacers over LeBron James Cleveland  Cavaliers 98-80 on Sunday in the opening game of their first-round NBA playoff series.

“Stay calm, stay composed, play the game I have all year long,” Oladipo said of the key to his overwhelming day. “This was a great team win.”

James had won 21 first-round playoff games in a row until the rout, having never before lost the opener in a first-round NBA post-season series.

James, seeking his ninth career trip to the NBA Finals and fourth league title, had not dropped a first-round playoff game since the New York Knicks beat Miami in the fourth game of the 2012 opening round, a minor setback on the Heat’s title run, a career first for James.

James said falling behind in a series just motivates him to step up his game.

“I’m down 0-1 in the first found. I was down 3-1 in the finals. So I’m the last guy to ask about what I’m gonna be like the next couple days,” James said.

 

 

The Pacers jumped ahead 33-14 after the first quarter and led by as much as 23 in holding off the Cavs, who came no closer than seven points the rest of the way.

“You can’t ease into the playoffs,” said Cavs coach Tyronn Lue. “I thought (Indiana) came in and they attacked us.”

James had a triple double in a losing cause with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. The rest of Cleveland’s starters only managed 25 points, Kevin Love with 17 rebounds but only nine points.

J.R. Smith had 15 points off the Cavaliers’ bench while Myles Turner had 16 points and Bojan Bogdanovic added 15 for Indiana.

The Cavaliers had their lowest-scoring first period of the season and only five baskets with six turnovers in the opening quarter, drawing boos as they walked off at half-time trailing 59-38.

The Boston Celtics nearly fell victim to another Eastern Conference opening upset bid before edging visiting Milwaukee 113-107 in overtime.

Al Horford scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Boston while Terry Rozier, starting in place of injured Kyrie Irving, added 23 points. Marcus Morris scored 21 off the bench while Jaylen Brown netted 20 and Jayson Tatum contributed 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Celtics.

“We’ve been down a lot, a lot of injuries, and we’ve always found a way,” Horford said. “Morris made some big shots, Tatum down the stretch, Terry — that’s what we’re all about. We just find a way.”

Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 35 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists and gave the Celtics headaches until fouling out in overtime.

“He’s a great player,” Horford said. “He knows how to finish around the rim. He has great touch. We tried to contain him as best we could.”

Khris Middleton added 31 points, hitting five-of-seven three-pointers, with eight rebounds and six assists in a losing cause.

The Bucks, who have not won a NBA playoff series since 2001, have been losers in seven consecutive first-round playoff series.

 

 

 

 

 

7-star PSG humiliate Monaco to regain title

 

Seven-star Paris Saint-Germain(PSG) secured a fifth Ligue 1 title in six seasons on Sunday with a 7-1 rout of last year’s champions Monaco.

Unai Emery’s team blew Monaco away in a first-half blitz that saw PSG score four times in 14 minutes at the Parc des Princes with with Lo Celso striking either side of goals from Edinson Cavani and Di Maria.

Rony Lopes pulled a goal back for Monaco as he scored for the eighth game in a row, but Di Maria added a fifth before Radamel Falcao turned into his own net and Julian Draxler struck late on as PSG romped to the club’s seventh championship.

With a fifth successive League Cup already won, PSG completed the second leg of a domestic treble — they are also through to the French Cup semi-finals — and could yet break their record 96-point haul from the 2015-16 campaign.

PSG also became the first team in Europe’s top leagues this season to reach 100 goals on a night they were without the injured Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, the teenager left on the bench after a bout of illness.

Monaco arrived in Paris unbeaten on their last eight league visits to the capital but any prospect of them prolonging PSG’s wait for the title quickly eroded.

Kamil Glik’s absence in the heart of the visiting defence was acutely felt as Lo Celso started the move that resulted in the opening goal on 14 minutes, sauntering into the box to tap in a Dani Alves cross.

While Cavani’s second half of the campaign has proved less prolific than the blistering spell that yielded 19 goals before Christmas, the Uruguayan bagged his league-best 25th goal with a powerful header from a Yuri Berchiche cross.

Cavani then released Di Maria with a superb hooked pass from inside his own half and the Argentine raced clear before lifting an exquisite chip over the advancing Danijel Subasic.

– Sidibe injury concern –

Javier Pastore supplied Lo Celso to head in PSG’s fourth on 28 minutes and Monaco suffered further misfortune when France international Djibril Sidibe was stretchered off with a leg injury, a worrying sign for both club and country ahead of the World Cup.

Monaco briefly held up the onslaught as Lopes turned home an Almamy Toure cross seven minutes before half-time for the in-form Portugal international’s 13th goal this term.

 

But PSG continued to attack at will and Pastore’s assist for Di Maria allowed the winger to grab his second of the game on 59 minutes.

The hosts were gifted another when Falcao’s attempt to clear a corner went horribly wrong, summing up Monaco’s misery as the ball looped beyond Subasic on 77 minutes.

Germany international Draxler rounded out the demolition, firing home via a deflection as PSG clinched the title at home for the first since 1994 while shattering Monaco’s 17-match unbeaten run.

 

 

I have no problem with Bale – Zidane.

 

Zinedine Zidane insists he has no problem with Gareth Bale despite substituting him at half-time during Real Madrid´s Champions League clash against Juventus last week.

Sources disclosed that Bale was surprised and angry at Zidane´s decision to take him off at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Real trailing 2-0 in a match they went on to lose 3-1. The defending champions progressed 4-3 on aggregate. Bale was then not included in the squad for Sunday´s 2-1 win over Malaga in La Liga but Real insisted the plan had always been to rest players for the match. Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Raphael Varane were also spared the trip to La Rosaleda. Real host Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday and Bale will be hoping for another chance to state his case ahead of the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich next week. Against Juve, Karim Benzema made way for Bale by dropping to the bench but Zidane says neither player feels sidelined by recent selections. “No I don´t think so, this is football,” Zidane said on Tuesday. “I dont see either of them looking sad, they are training well. “I spoke to the pair of them the other day, they would both like to score more goals but everyone is working well. “It is always going to happen in a side like ours. There are players in good form and playing well but I have to be ready always to evaluate who is the best players for the team at any given time.” Zidane has prefered Benzema as a partner for Ronaldo up front this season but the Frenchman has managed only one goal in his last nine games. “We are not worried, we know the quality he has,” Zidane said. “He has to score goals of course, he knows that – he knows he can do other things but he has to score goals. “He does suffer a little bit when he misses chances but the solution is easy. He has to keep working. “It is just a little blip he is in at the moment – we had that as a team earlier in the season but we kept working. If he keeps working, I´m sure in a short time he will be scoring again.” Real are chasing an unprecedented third consecutive Champions League crown and Bayern’s hopes of stopping them have been dented by an injury to key midfielder, Arturo Vidal. Vidal is set to undergo surgery on a knee problem and looks certain to miss the first leg. “Vidal is an important player but nothing will change,” Zidane said. “Bayern have a very big squad, with lots of good players, and they will replace him for sure.”

 

 

Nigeria Athletics Masters hold health symposium, blood pressure check

 

The Nigeria Athletics Masters (NAM) in its effort to organise, regulate and administer athletics for masters (women and men of not less than 35 years) on Tueday held a one day symposium.

The theme of the symposium which was attended by no fewer than 70 sportsmen, is “Health and Wellness for 50 years and above Sports Stakeholders’’

The President of NAM, Dr Gloria Obajimi, said that the symposium, which featured high blood pressure and blood sugar level check was a way of giving back to the society. “This is giving back to the society and to tell us how to live a healthy life as many of us were discovered at a very young age. “We need to be fit for the young ones to be proud of us and remain in the sports. “The symposium is to check our blood pressure and blood sugar and ask questions about issues concerning our health,’’ she said. The Chairman of the programme, Dr Rauf Ladipo, said that a lot of people were walking on the street with the silent killer called high blood pressure. “High blood pressure is deadly, sometime ago, I went to the bank and saw a young man who came to cash a cheque, he put his head on the desk while waiting for the cash and that was the end. “Thank you Dr Obajimi for giving us this opportunity to check our blood pressure and sugar level. I don’t want it to be a one-off programme. I want you to take it to all the states. “I want to thank you and your team for giving us the opportunity to be healthy and to also encourage us to regularly go for checkup,’’ he said. Ladipo, the President-General Nigeria Supporters Football Club, said he was ready to support NAM financially. Chioma Ajuwa, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, and an Olympic gold medalist, said that members of NAM should stop fighting for positions but rather use their position to bring the young ones up. “We need to advise the young ones to take their education serious and to choose an event that will fetch them something in life. “Let us help the young ones and be our brother’s keeper,’’ she said. The facilitators were Dr Lucy Ladipo, Director Post-graduate School of Psychiatry, Yaba, who spoke on depression and Enefiok Udo-Obong, an Olympian spoke on fitness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elechi blames squandered scoring chances for Go Round’s troubles.

 

Go Round FC of Omoku, a sub-urban in Rivers State is still going round the top flight of Nigeria’s elite league less sure footedly than their fans would desire.

 

Perched on the 18th spot on the log after 15 games (with two rescheduled), the club played out a 1-1 draw with on-the-rise Niger Tornadoes at the Krisdera Stadium in Omoku, a result Ngozi Elechi, the Coach believes was not a true reflection of his players efforts on the pitch.

Elechi firmly contended in a post match exchange with www.npfl.ng that his team deserved outright win but were denied by profligacy in front of goal from several opportunities created. The Lions of Omoku were the first to score against the Ikon Allah Boys when their skipper Nelson Esor slotted the ball beyond the reach of Mustapha Aliko before they allowed the visitors to equalize through Segun Alebiosu in the 44th minute. Go Round had a clear chance 15 minutes after to regain their lead but that was fluffed by Chile Azu from the penalty spot. In Elechi’s estimation, it was rate their best game of the season with more chances created than they ever did in their previous matches.

 

“It was a disappointing outing by my team in terms of the result today (Sunday). We wasted lots of scoring chances because we should have been leading by three or four goals in the first half and it was also the same in the second half”, Elechi lamented to npfl.ng “I will say that my players’ mentality in the game today (Sunday) was okay but the kind of chances they missed today was very appalling to me because we even had a penalty kick lost. We didn’t do well today (Sunday) in terms of converting our chances. “With this result against Niger Tornadoes, I am now a bit worried because even in Damaturu when we played against Yobe Desert Stars, we had two golden chances when our players were face to face with their goalkeeper but we were unable to score also. I know I have a lot of talking to do to my players especially the strikers that they need to calm down when they are in the 18 yard box”, Elechi further stated in his assessment of the team’s difficulties. Admitting that they play well but lack the cutting edge in front of goal which has contributed to their languishing in the bottom three, Elechi insisted they will grow out of the challenges and stay up in the NPFL for next season. “In terms of ball play, Go Round has improved seriously but we need to work seriously on converting the chances that come our ways. We played our best game of the season against Tornadoes and created a lot of chances but we couldn’t convert them.” On their precarious position on the log with 18 points from 15 matches, Elechi is optimistic that Go Round will not be relegated at the end of the season as he has worked out ways out of their observed problems. “Yes, Go Round will survive because I have seen the quality in the boys and after this game and in playing our next fixture against Kwara United, we are going to make some changes because we have some new players that we are going to field to reinforce the squad ahead of the second round,” he added.