Basketball

The Elite clinched their third straight win as they beat Columbian Dyip behind a strong finish, 118-110, and seized the solo lead in the midseason conference on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

LOS ANGELES -- Kawhi Leonard finished with 27 points and a career high 17 rebounds as the Toronto Raptors advanced to their first NBA final with a 100-94 win over the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks.

“It’s hard to get away from that because I watch the games (when Golden State are on the road) and I saw the lead-up to the game and I saw everybody talking about it,” said Durant, who is averaging 34.2 points per game in the playoffs.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “Just trying to win, either if it’s me scoring points or getting my teammates wide-open looks, just out there trying to win. It’s not really about me scoring, it’s just about being aggressive and don’t shy away from anything.”

Robert Bolick of NCAA three-peat titlist San Beda and Thirdy Ravena of UAAP back-to-back champion Ateneo are the headliners of the Mythical Five in the 2019 Chooks-to-Go Collegiate Awards presented by SportsVision scheduled for Monday at Amelie Hotel Manila in Malate.

Lawal struck 11 straight points early in the second period to give the Bolts a 36-25 lead. The Dyip fought back behind Barone and CJ Perez to narrow the gap at 38-33, but the Lawal, Trevis Jackson, Baser Amer and Mike Tolomia sank a basket each as the Bolts hit the turn with a 50-35 lead.

Fred VanVleet came off the bench to score 21 points, Pascal Siakam finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds and Kyle Lowry tallied 17 points for the Raptors, who became the first team to win on the road in the best-of-seven series. VanVleet nailed seven baskets from beyond the arc.

On opening day last Sunday, the Elite launched their campaign in the midseason conference with a 94-91 upending of Meralco in overtime, in a game where Mike DiGregorio and import Alex Stepheson scored 21 points and Bobby Ray Parks Jr. debuted with 20 points.

Cha Dao-FEU’s UAAP rival Ironcon-University of Santo Tomas was not as fortunate as it crashed out of the Aspirants’ Group playoff chase with a 74-81 loss to already-eliminated FamilyMart-Enderun, giving Che’Lu Bar and Grill a free ride to the next round.

Although it sits in second spot at 6-2, Ironcon-UST is not yet in the playoffs and it needs to hurdle its final Aspirants' Group assignment to eliminate Che'Lu Bar and Grill in the playoff race via the quotient system.

Anthony finished with 22 points and six rebounds, Bolick and Ibeh chipped in 19 points apiece and Tautuaa added 12 as the Batang Pier caught the Aces in their off night this early in the midseason conference.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The Toronto Raptors closed ranks around hurting star Kawhi Leonard, turning in a total team effort in a 120-102 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday to level the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

The good news for the Aces though is that the Batang Pier are likely to play without Pringle, and two others – Garvo Lanete and Bradwyn Guinto – because on injuries. Jarencio confirmed that Pringle is down with foot injury, Lanete is nursing a sprained ankle and Guinto has just undergone knee surgery.

Coach Leo Austria stressed during the weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the Amelie Hotel-Manila on Tuesday that focus of the team right now is to regain the Commissioner’s Cup crown which the Beermen lost to the Barangay Ginebra Kings last year rather than think about going for a three-conference sweep of the entire season.