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Show The World In Sports by Bill Roland Basketball and hockey playoffs share the spotlight in the sports world this week, and excellent series matchups are evident in both sports. In basketball, the Boston Celtics took a 1-0 lead over the star-studded Philadelphia 76' ers by virtue of an exciting 113-111 victory Sunday afternoon. The defending world champions displayed a well balanced attack as Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, and Sydney Wicks scored 21 points a piece while Charlie Scott led with 22 and John Harilcek scored 19. Jo Jo White won the ball game with a last second baseline jump shot as the ball hit the nets with no time remaining. George McGinnis was held to 6 points if he gets hot, the 76'ers should win the series. Elsewhere, the Washington Bullets defeated the Cleveland Caus 104.98, win the series 2-1 and play the Houston Rockets in a best of seven series beginning last night. The Portland Trail-blazers Trail-blazers defeated the Chicago Bulls 106-98 to win that series and more on to face the tough Denver Nuggets. In the other semi-final series, the Golden State Warriors face the L.A. Lakers, after Golden State's victory over the Detroit Pistons, 109-101. Rick Varey seems to have the hot-hand as he netted 35 points to lead the Warriors Sunday. Hockey The Toronto Maple Leafs and the hard hitting Philadelphia Flyers are engaged in an excellent battle. The series was tied at two games each going into Tuesday night's game played in the Spectrum. Toronto shocked the Flyers by winning the first two games of the series, a real surprise since both victories were in Philadelphida. But the Flyers came right back and won the next two games, the second a 6-5 win in overtime Sunday night. In other quarter final action, the Islanders had no trouble with the Buffalo Sabres, winning that series 4-0. The Defending Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadians Cana-dians won their series with the St. Louis Blues in 4 games while the Boston Bruins hold a 3-1 advantage over Los Angeles. It's a shame that their is no television coverage of these Stanley Cup playoff games. Everyone knows the Stanley Cup is the world series of hockey and I have to believe there are enough fans to support the broadcasts of these games. And of course some super hocky will be played and millions of hockey enthusiasts will miss out entirely. I'm sure the advertising agencies and rating people on Fifth Avenue have something to do with no hockey on T.V. Golf Jack Nicklaus displayed again on Sunday his almost unbelievable unbeliev-able competitive talent, as he came from five strokes off the pace, dropped an eight-footer to win a sudden - death playoff over Bruce Lietske and won the tournament of Champions for the fifth time. Lietzke had the red-hot putter as he carved out a 66 in the last round and needed only 26 putts. Jack's 62nd victory should soothe the pain of his near-win last week in Augusta. Boston Marathon Jerome Drayton of Canada won the grueling Boston Marathon on Monday as he covered the 26 mile 385-yard course in 2 hours 14 minutes and 46 seconds. A record field of 2,933 runners participated in the 81st Boston Marathon. Bill Rogers, who won two years ago, was leading at the 13.4 mile checkpoint but was side lined shortly after 17.5 miles. At this point Drayton assumed the lead and took "Heartbreak" hill in good fashion to win the close to a minute over second place finisher Veli Balli of Turkey. |