THREE-POINT PLAY: While I was away (and again...)

while i was away due to my eight day silent retreat from may 31 until june 8, here's what i missed in the basketball world: 

1. teng's three rescues la salle from an ateneo victory


honestly, the ateneo-la salle game in the fil-oil pre-season cup occupied one of my prayer periods during the retreat. and why not? perhaps the game would serve as a preview of the upcoming uaap season, especially with the blue eagles pushing the pedal to the metal for their "drive for five" and the green archers looking ways to "deprive the five" with a revamped coaching staff and key additions from the rookie class including former xavier standout (and my former student) jeron teng. interestingly, teng was key to la salle's victory over ateneo with his clutch three pointer that sent the game to overtime and giving the green archers five more minutes to seal the win. a view of the things to come? who knows? the uaap season is just around the corner.


2. thunder wins 4 straight to stop "nasty" spurs


again, another matter that occupied prayer periods (with emphasis on the plural) throughout the eight-day silent retreat was the oklahoma city-san antonio western conference finals series. before i entered into silence and solitude with the lord, the spurs were playing ageless basketball and went on a 20 game winning streak to put the thunder on a 2-0 hole. their own big 3, tim duncan, manu ginobili, and tony parker, together with key acquisitions boris diaw and stephen jackson, young guns gary neal, kawhi leonard, and daniel green, and the rest of the spurs looked dominant and poised to show the young thunder team the door. but then again, every game, every possession, every basket counts. leads were overturned, runs were made, and the thunder won four straight games to enter the nba finals. kevin durant lit up the score board, russell westbrook channeled his inner "turtle power", serge ibaka went 11-for-11 on the field on game 4, and the rest of the scott brooks-mentored team contributed in their own way to a ticket to the nba finals. upon learning about this victory, i just said "wow." and i have to admit that they were part of my prayers during the retreat. maybe the god of the eight-day retreat was a kevin durant fan too.

3. miami-boston goes to a deciding game 7


like the oklahoma-san antonio series, my retreat began with the miami heat in control of the eastern conference finals with a 2-0 lead over the boston celtics. just when i thought the miami big 3 of lebron james, dwayne wade, and chris bosh were young and dominant enough while boston big 3 of kevin garnett, ray allen, and paul pierce were headed towards the sunset of their careers, i was wrong. the celtics surprisingly won 3 straight games to grab the 3-2 series lead. as the lebron critics and miami haters came out making some noise, the "king without a ring" had other things in mind. immediately after silence was broken to signal the end of the retreat, i got the news that lebron james scored 45 points to bring the series back to miami for a seventh and deciding game. looks like lebron has learned from all his fourth quarter disappearances, and this could be an indicator of how he will perform in the finals, if they get past the celtics in game 7. for now, we will have to wait for sunday (before the pacquiao-bradley fight) to see if the heat returns to the nba finals of the celtics have something left in the tank for a final push to the larry o'brien trophy.