The Philippine Online Chronicles

In today’s sports roundup, the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat took a commanding 3-0 lead by beating their respective rivals in the first round of the 2010-2011 NBA playoffs. In other playoff games, the Portland Trail Blazers finally grabbed their first win in their series against the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas still holds a 2-1 lead over the Trailblazers.

In boxing, Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye finally agreed to fight on July 2 at the Hamburg Imtech Arena in Germany. The Klitschko-Haye bout is one of the most anticipated heavyweight bouts in recent years since it’s the first unification bout in the heavyweight division after Wladimir destroyed Sultan Ibragimov in New York three years ago.

Finally, tennis superstar Caroline Wozniacki almost suffered a huge upset before regrouping to defeat Andrea Petkovic of Germany, 6-4, 6-1 in the 2011 Stuttgart Grand Prix. With the win, the number-one ranked Wozniacki has already booked a slot in the semifinal round.

NBA Playoffs

Portland 97, Dallas 92 (Dallas leads series 2-1)

The Portland Trailblazers avoided falling 0-3 in their first round matchup against the Dallas Mavericks by claiming a hard-fought 97-92 win earlier today.

Shooting guard Wesley Matthews scored 25 points while power forward LaMarcus Aldridge added 20. Brandon Roy meanwhile, racked up 16 markers off the bench for the Blazers.

For the Mavericks, Jason Terry had 29 points off the bench while Dirk Nowitzki added 25 points and nine rebounds.

The Blazers were up by as much as 13 points with over six minutes left in the final quarter, but Nowitzki made consecutive jumpers to cut the lead down to six. After that, point guard J.J. Barea made a layup, before Aldridge drained a jumper to give the Blazers extra cushion.

With a few seconds remaining, Jason Kidd tried to salvage the Mavericks’ chances by nailing a long jumper, but the time expired.

The Mavericks and the Trailblazers last met in the playoffs back in 2003 where the Mavericks won the first three games before the Trailblazers claimed the next three. The Mavericks eventually beat the Trailblazers in Game 7.

Chicago 88, Indiana 84 (Chicago leads series 2-1)

Despite the tough and physical defense played by the Indiana Pacers against the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose, he still made the biggest play when it counted the most.

Rose struggled all game long but still finished with 23 points, with the last two being the most important to help the Bulls beat the Pacers, 88-84. Aside from Rose’s 23 points, Luol Deng added 21 points and Kyle Korver had 12 for the Bulls.

Rose only made four of his 18 attempts as he was totally covered and controlled by Paul George and Dahntay Jones. Despite missing most of his shots, Rose was able to convert 13 points from the free throw line.

The Pacers did an excellent job on Rose, but they failed to capitalize on it, missing most of their shots from the field.

For the Pacers, Danny Granger scored 21 points, but his three-pointer with a few seconds remaining hit the front end of the rim. Had he made the shot, it could have given the Pacers the lead and perhaps even the team’s first victory.

Miami 100, Philadelphia 94 (Miami leads series 3-0)

The Miami Heat continued their domination of the Philadelphia 76ers to take a 3-0 lead in their first round playoff series.

The Heat’s “Big Three” figured prominently all game, with Dwyane Wade leading the charge by scoring 32 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Meanwhile, fellow All-Star LeBron James finished with 24 points and took down 15 boards while Chris Bosh added 19 markers.

For the 76ers, Jrue Holiday had 21 points and Lou Williams 15, while Elton Brand had a quiet double-double by scoring 21 points and pulling down 11 rebounds.

The 76ers had a chance to win the game in the end, but Williams missed an open three-pointer that could have given his team a one-point lead with 43 seconds left.

The Heat went to the foul line 30 times compared to the 76ers' 19. Aside from that, the Heat also outrebounded the 76ers by 16.

Wade missed the Heat’s practice game because of a migraine that started back in Game 2. However, the 6’4" guard came back with a vengeance.

Boxing: Klitschko-Haye is set on July 2

Finally, Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye have agreed to fight on July 2 to determine who is the best heavyweight boxer in the world today.

The most anticipated fight in boxing will be held in Germany, where Klitschko is considered a boxing icon.

For years, both Klitschko and Haye have called on each other to fight inside the ring. Haye even made big claims that he’ll knock out Wladimir and his older brother Vitali.

In 2009, Haye signed a contract that would pit him against Wladimir, only to pull out of the fight in the last minute. Months later, he negotiated to fight the older Klitschko, Vitali, before pulling out again to fight Nikolai Valuev of Russia. Haye eventually won against the 7’0" Valuev to claim a belt of his own.

Despite the fact that Haye has already signed the contract, Klitschko is still worried that Haye might pull out once again to duck the fight.

Whoever wins the fight will unify the heavyweight division. Haye is the holder of the WBA belt while Klitschko is the holder of the IBO, IBF, and WBO titles.

Haye has been the undisputed champion in the cruiserweight division for years and has already defended the WBA heavyweight title twice after defeating Valuev in 2009.

Tennis: Wozniacki enters Stuttgart semis

World number one Caroline Wozniacki struggled early against Andrea Petkovic before cruising to a 6-4, 6-1 win in their quarterfinal match in the 2011 Stuttgart Gran Prix, to enter the semifinal round.

Petkovic, who is known to be a slow starter, went out of the gates early by erecting a commanding 4-1 lead in the first set. Eventually, Wozniacki, who has won three titles already this year, was able to regroup to win the set.

In the second set, Wozniacki didn’t allow Petkovic to dictate the tempo, and the current number one seed blasted the 25-year-old German to finish the match and barge into the semis.

Wozniacki is waiting for the winner of the Kristina Barrois-Agnieszka Radwanska to determine who she’s going to play in the semifinal round.

“Wesley Matthews” by Tiago Hammil c/o Flickr. Some rights reserved.