The Late Push to the NBA Playoffs


After the All-Star break, action resumes today in the NBA regular season here in the United States.

And as the teams return to the court, news regarding trades have been hugging the spotlight lately.

During the break, a big-name star in DeMarcus Cousins found himself traded by the Sacramento Kings to the New Orleans Pelicans while other stars like Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, Carmelo Anthony and Paul George have found themselves involved in trade rumors as well.

In the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers are still at the top of the standings while the Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors complete the top four where homecourt advantage awaits at the end of the season.

Chicago, Indiana, Milwaukee, Charlotte, New York, Atlanta, Detroit and Miami are battling it out for the remaining four slots.

Over in the Western Conference, the Golden State Warriors are safely at the top primarily because of Kevin Durant's addition while San Antonio, Houston and the Los Angeles Clippers complete the top four.

Battling it out for the eighth and last slot are New Orleans, Sacramento, Minnesota, Denver and Portland although the Kings may have given up the playoff hunt with their decision to trade Cousins.

Every game counts from here on and this is why some teams are still burning the lines as we write this in an effort to strengthen their lineups through trades which may surprise a lot of fans even back in the Philippines where the NBA is avidly followed.

ABS-CBN S+A resumes its free TV coverage of the NBA this week with the Warriors-Clippers match on Friday while the Timberwolves face the Rockets on Sunday.

ABS-CBN Sports' Ken Ti told me once that it was the decision of the network to move the Channel 2 games from Sundays to Saturdays in order to strengthen the Sports+Action channel especially with most TV owners now switching to digital TV.

In addition, ABS-CBN is trying to woo more children to watch its Sunday programming even if its Disney movies have been frequently shown in their dubbed Tagalog language.

By switching the NBA to Saturdays, ABS-CBN also avoids a problem with the noontime show ASAP starting late if the live NBA game goes overtime, After all, ASAP has a lot of viewers because it is only in this show where practically the entire ABS-CBN family of talents performs every week, not to mention the presence of veterans Martin Nievera and Gary Valenciano who are still going strong even in their '50s.

The cable channels like BTV, NBA Premium and Fox Sports also still have their NBA coverages although one problem is that NBA Premium may not be affordable for those who don't have enough money to subscribe to satellite or digital cable TV.

The NBA playoffs start in April and lasts until June with the finals so just enjoy the ride.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The NFL on Philippine TV

Image
THE National Football League will finally have a Philippine TV carrier this season. A day ago, TV5 announced in its social media sites that it will air one NFL game every Monday, Tuesday and Friday live at 8 am with replays over its sister cable channel Hyper for Cignal subscribers. NFL games have been irregularly televised in the Philippines because obviously, many Pinoys don't understand the rules of American football. Previously, ABS-CBN tried airing the NFL on its defunct Studio 23 but the games didn't catch on with many viewers. And now, TV5 is gambling on the NFL as it tries to keep pace with ABS-CBN's Sports+Action 23 which airs the NBA, UAAP and NCAA games. Under TV5's schedule, the following NFL games will be televised: Monday mornings (Sunday Night Football on NBC) Tuesday mornings (Monday Night Football on ESPN) Friday mornings (Thursday Night Football on NFL Network) The Sunday morning, US time, games will not be televised on TV5 since the...
Read more

More Troubles at RX

Image
Photo of Gino Quillamor's tweet to Chico Garcia that led to Gino leaving RX. ANOTHER major blow has struck Monster RX 93.1 with the departure of Gino Quillamor from the morning show The Morning Rush. Quillamor left the show last week after being with Chico Garcia and Delamar Arias for close to a decade. Since then, he has not intimated of any plans to join another FM radio station. Earlier, Arias retired from RX in January this year to focus on marriage and motherhood. She resurfaced on Magic 89.9 to host the weekly show The Mother Show on Friday Madness mornings with Andi Manzano and Riki Flores. Quillamor and Arias's departures from RX have further weakened the station's lineup of DJs. In a previous post, other RX jocks have also left due to various reasons, such as recently married couple Andre Co and Cerah Hernandez, Jay Abastillas, Jinri Park, Sel Guevara, Carla Lizardo, Chris Schneider and Karen Bordador, who still remains in jail due to drug charges. As ...
Read more

The Slow Death of Magazines in the Philippines

Image
IN a sudden move that caught many people by surprise, Summit Media announced that it was shutting down its magazine division. Affected by the closure were the popular magazines FHM, Cosmopolitan and Yes, all of whom were leading in terms of circulation. In a statement, the Gokongwei-owned company announced that it would shift to digital media which explained why it had to close down its magazine division. As a result, FHM and Cosmo both ended up online through their respective websites, plus their respective social media accounts. Summit also owns other websites such as Philippine Entertainment Portal, which provides showbiz updates; and Spin.ph, which is a standalone sports website. Actually, a similar sports website, philsports.net, came out in the early 2000s and yours truly was one of the writers but it failed to catch on because at that time, internet wasn't easily accessible. Both FHM and Cosmo were at the height of their popularity when they both closed do...
Read more