Germany, Czechs Head Towards Fed Cup Final
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SUNDAY, APRIL 20, 2014 SPORTS No April, May or June Photo of the day madness in NBA ATLANTA: If the playoff-bound Atlanta season victories have hoarded 32 champi- Hawks were in any other sport, they might onships. Those at No. 2 have finished on top have a glimmer of hope for winning a cham- 18 times, a staggering 50 of 67 titles. pionship. The NBA? No way. Naturally, those entering this year’s playoffs More than the NFL, NHL or Major League with lower seeds would prefer to stay away Baseball, the cream of the regular season in from that cold, hard fact. “With all due respect the NBA always seems to rise to the top of the to a good question,” said Dallas coach Rick rim come playoff time. Carlisle, whose Mavericks were the last team In the last two decades, all but three titles to qualify in the West, “it’s a question to ask have been claimed by teams that had at least some other historian.” the fourth-best overall record in the league. OK, here goes. Beyond the top four, there’s So maybe the two-time defending champion not much reason for hope - a mere five titles Miami Heat have some reason to worry: They in NBA history. The fifth-best team has pulled were No. 5 this season. “For the most part,” out a couple: the aforementioned Heat and Atlanta’s Kyle Korver said Friday, “the best the 1969 Boston Celtics, the last hurrah for team wins.” the NBA’s greatest dynasty. Detroit had only The Hawks, therefore, have no chance. Not the sixth-best record before it won the title in with the worst record (38-44) among the 2004. The team formerly known as the playoff qualifiers. Not in this league, which Washington Bullets was eighth best before a tends to weed out the sort of surprises you surprising run to the championship in 1978. see in the one-and-done NCAA tournament - And, finally, there’s the Houston Rockets, who where a No. 7 seed (Connecticut) beats a No. were sixth in the West and 10th overall before 8 seed (Kentucky) for the championship. Or in they won the crown in 1995. the NFL, where a team getting hot at the right But even that last one wasn’t a huge time can spring a major surprise on the right shocker: The Rockets were showing their age, day. but they were the defending champs and had The NBA is best-of-seven through four a pair of future Hall of Famers in Hakeem grueling rounds; but, then again, so is the Olajuwan and Clyde Drexler. Not exactly NHL, which also requires 16 playoff wins to some Cinderella team that caught everyone take the championship. Baseball, for that mat- off guard. This sort of top-end dominance ter, has the same format for its league cham- isn’t as pronounced in the other major team pionship series and World Series. Why, then, sports. do those leagues produce far more surprise In the NFL over the last two decades, only B-Boy Pluto, B-Boy Hong 10 and B-Boy Bootuz pose for a portrait before Red Bull BC One Tajikistan Cypher at the National Flag champions than the NBA? five teams with the best regular-season Parkin in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.— www.redbull.com “There’s not a hockey goalie who can get record have gone on to win the Super Bowl. hot or a pitcher who can be dominating and During that same span, there have been just change a series,” Hawks coach Mike as many champions from the wild-card ranks. Budenholzer theorized. “In the NBA, it’s hard More recently, there was a run of three to go against the numbers. It just doesn’t straight titles by teams that had no better Federer and Wawrinka into happen as often.” than the eighth-best record during the sea- If you’re going by the numbers, top overall son, a streak finally broken this year by the seed San Antonio (62-20) or Oklahoma City top overall team, the Seattle Seahawks. all-Swiss Monte Carlo final (the next-best record at 59-23) are the most Of the last 20 Stanley Cup winners in the likely teams to be celebrating after the final NHL, there have been the same number of game. champions that finished with the best regu- MONTE CARLO: Roger Federer and Stanislas That’s not to say LeBron James & Co. might lar-season record as those who didn’t even Wawrinka eased into the Monte Carlo Masters as well call it a season. In an interesting twist, crack the top four (six apiece). Most notably, final yesterday, setting up the first all-Swiss title the last champion to finish outside the top the Los Angeles Kings celebrated in 2012 showdown in 14 years. four during the regular season was ... the after being the very last team to make the Federer, who has never won the trophy in the Heat. playoffs out of the Western Conference, with principality, beat Novak Djokovic 7-5, 6-2 as the That was in 2006, before the Big Three only the 13th-best record overall. defending champion and world number two united in South Florida. Led essentially by In baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals slipped struggled with a right wrist injury which limited Dwyane Wade, Miami went 52-30 during the into the playoffs in 2006, also with just the his serving to the 150kph range. regular season and finished second in the 13th-best record overall, and went on to Wawrinka, the Australian Open champion, East, a staggering 12 games behind Detroit. claim an improbable World Series title. Heck, saw off David Ferrer 6-1, 7-6 (7/3), a day after the But the Heat upset the top overall seed in the they had a worse record than five teams that Spaniard stunned eight-time champion compa- conference finals, then beat Dallas for the didn’t even make the postseason but benefit- triot Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals. title. ed from a weak division. Federer featured in the last all-Swiss final Still, history shows that’s a major anomaly In those other leagues, you sound more when he lost to Marc Rosset in the 2000 in the NBA. Over the entire history of the believable when you say everyone starts 0-0 Marseille decider, back in the days when the 17- league, stretching back to 1947 when it was at playoff time. In the NBA, most teams have time Grand Slam title winner was still a raw known as the Basketball Association of already been eliminated. Before they even teenager. America, the teams with the most regular- play a game.—AP Federer, a loser in three Monte Carlo finals to Nadal, will be making his first title bid in the tournament since 2008. “It comes as a bit of a surprise to be in the finals, especially the first one on clay,” said Federer. “But, of course, I’ll take it. “I’ve put in the performance to be there, gave myself the opportunity this week. So I’m very happy with my play.” Djokovic’s loss ended a 13- match win streak and a run of 23 in a row at the Masters level. “It’s just a match to forget for me,” said the Serb who is unsure when he will play again. MONACO: Switzerland’s Roger Federer returns the ball to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic during the “It’s unfortunate that when you’re playing at Monte-Carlo ATP Masters Series Tournament. —AFP this level against Roger, in a big tournament, “It’s incredible that we are in the final togeth- Australian Open slump where he lost early in that you are not able to play your game because er, the same week we’ve been playing well for both Indian Wells and Miami. something else is taking away all your energy some time now,” said Federer. The Swiss had not faced a break point until and effort. Wawrinka won his only match in the series his meeting with Ferrer, improving his record in “This injury that has been present for last 10 against Federer in the 2009 Monte Carlo third the series with the Spaniard to six wins against days, and I tried not to think or talk about it, I did round. “It’s great, for sure, to play a Swiss player, seven losses. everything I could really, I was on the medica- especially Roger,” said Wawrinka. “Today I’m very “Stan was very good, he was playing unbe- tions every day, I was doing different therapies, satisfied with the way I played. I was very lievable,” said Ferrer, who trailed 5-0 in the first injections. “But at the end of the day, the end of pleased with my game in the first set. I was also set. “I didn’t have options to resist him. the tournament, the semi-finals are a good pleased with my game in the second set, “I didn’t return very well, but in the second result. But I’m disappointed that I could not play although I was a bit more hesitant. Stan had a few mistakes and I was able to play NBK employees compete in as well as I could have.” “He changed his tactics and became more with more power with my forehand. But he was The Easter Sunday title match-up will be aggressive with his forehand,” he said of Ferrer, better, and he moved the ball better than me.” huge for both Swiss men, but Federer goes into who on Friday had condemned Nadal to his ear- The win marked the 100th victory for Bowling Tournament the match with a psychological edge standing liest exit from the tournament since 2003.