RPTV to serve as NBA's new broadcast partner

The NBA is set to have a new home for the three remaining postseason series in the Philippines.

Filipino basketball fans will be able to watch both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, as well as the upcoming NBA Finals, on RPTV, a free-to-air channel offering sports, news, and entertainment.

Coverage already started with Game 1 of the ECF featuring the Boston Celtics and the Indiana Pacers earlier this morning, and will continue with the upcoming matchup of the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Dallas Mavericks, which starts Thursday morning.

Launched back in February with both TV5 and MediaQuest acting as content providers, RPTV provides public service, entertainment, and sports programming that caters to the diverse interests of Filipinos and the whole family.

TV5 President and CEO Guido R. Zaballero shares, "Bringing the NBA to more Filipino homes reinforces our commitment to make RPTV the go-to channel for the best sports content in the country."

RPTV already serves as the home of the PBA and the PBA D-League, and already has shown matches in the just concluded Premier Volleyball League.

One can find RPTV on these channels: Channel 9 Analog and either Channel 19 or Channel 18.3 DTT. It is available on over three hundred cable and satellite providers nationwide, and can be seen through Cignal Play, which you can watch online or through its app.

NCAA Season 93 collegiate basketball stepladder set for Friday

The official stepladder postseason for NCAA Season 93 kicks off on Friday, October 27, as San Sebastian College-Recoletos and Jose Rizal University face off in the stepladder playoff at the Mall of Asia Arena. The game will be shown LIVE on S+A and S+A HD starting at 330pm, with the option to watch via live streaming on sports.abs-cbn.com.

The Golden Stags formalized the postseason by defeating Letran in a playoff this past Tuesday, 74-69. The Knights themselves came off a playoff of their own, defeating Arellano last Friday, 70-68.

San Sebastian rode on Michael Calisaan's heroics, dropping a career-high 36 points and grabbing ten rebounds. His triple with 18.3 seconds remaining served as the necessary cushion for this season's hosts to return to the postseason for the first time in four seasons. Ryan Costelo was the only other Golden Stag to score in double figures with thirteen points in just over fifteen minutes of action coming off the bench.

As for the Heavy Bombers, the third seeds escaped the complications that San Sebastian, Letran, and Arellano got themselves into by finishing with an 11-7 record. After missing out on the postseason last season, the Vergel Meneses-mentored squad will be relying on their explosive backcourt of Teytey Teodoro and Jed Mendoza, veteran forward John Grospe, and their 1-2 foreign student-athlete big man combo of Abdoul Poutouochi and AbdulWahab Abdul Razak.

Two teams are set to make their much-awaited return to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Final Four with hosts San Sebastian College-Recoletos (SSC-R) Golden Stags grabbing the last seat in the Final Four stepladder bus to book a date with the Jose Rizal University (JRU) Heavy Bombers this Friday (October 27).

The San Sebastian vs  JRU winner would advance to the stepladder semifinal against San Beda, which will take place on November 7, also at the Mall of Asia Arena. Whoever survives that matchup will get a crack against undefeated Lyceum on November 10 at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.

ABS-CBN Sports schedule for NBA Playoffs

ABS-CBN Sports affirms its commitment to bring the action from the NBA Playoffs onto its free tv channels with its slate of games in the next few days.

This morning sees the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers attempt to erect a virtually unassailable 3-0 lead against the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of their best-of-seven matchup LIVE at 7am on S+A.

On Saturday, #NBASabaDOS resumes with a slightly delayed telecast of Game 3 of the first round matchup between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder at 10am on ABS-CBN Channel 2. Fans were witness to Russell Westbrook becoming the first player to produce a 50-point triple-double in the playoffs in NBA history in Game 2, although the Thunder fell short in attempting to even the series.

S+A on April 23 (Sunday) will feature a doubleheader with the San Antonio Spurs facing the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 4 of their first round matchup, LIVE at 8am, followed by the LIVE telecast of the Game 3 matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Portland Trailblazers at 1030am. Both the Grizzlies and the Trailblazers are trailing 2-0 in their respective matchups currently, hoping a taste of home could put them back in.

As for Monday, April 24, the lone game to be shown on S+A features the 8th seeded Chicago Bulls attempt to continue to assert its domination over the top-seeded Boston Celtics with Game 4 LIVE at 630am.

Make sure to continue to keep yourselves updated with the latest NBA postseason through ABS-CBN and S+A by visiting sports.abs-cbn.com and its social media hub @ABSCBNSports (on Facebook and Twitter).

Viewing the NBA Playoffs from an international perspective

With the NBA Playoffs already underway, here are some interesting tidbits about how international the league is.

There are 54 international players from 28 countries that are on active playoff rosters, broken down into the following regions:

30 European players, including four Spaniards and six Frenchmen
6 African players
7 Latin / Caribbean players, including five Brazilians
6 Asia-Pacific players, including five Australians
5 Canadian players

Eleven of these players (Diaw, Joseph, Ezeli, Anthony, Irving, Ginobili, Dellavedova, Mills, P. Gasol, Parker, Thompson) have won championships.

The Utah Jazz and Toronto Raptors each have seven international players, which is the most among the playoff teams.

All first round playoff matchups will feature at least three international players, with the Bucks-Raptors matchup having the most at eleven players.

After becoming the Buck to make the All-Star Game since Michael Redd, Giannis Antetokounmpo became the first player in NBA History to be in the top-20 in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks.

Dennis Schroeder stepped in into the shoes left off by Jeff Teague, contributing 17.9 points and 6.3 assists for the Atlanta Hawks heading into their matchup against the Washington Wizards, who will rely on Marcin Gortat down low against Dwight Howard. The Polish Hammer is one of twelve NBA players averaging a double-double in points and rebounds.

The Gasol brothers are facing off against each other for the first time in the playoffs, with Pau's San Antonio Spurs against Marc's Memphis Grizzlies. This matchup also features the two oldest active NBA players in 40-year-old Vince Carter and 39-year-old Manu Ginobili. Both guys have been reliable role players for their respective teams this season. Pau is currently second among active players in double-doubles behind Howard.

Tony Parker is steadily rising in the playoff wins chart, currently tied with LeBron James at seventh overall with 131 victories in the postseason coming in. Both guys are four wins behind Kobe Bryant for sixth place and five wins behind Scottie Pippen for fifth place. Parker is in his 16th season in the postseason, the most among active players. He also has played the most among active players with 213 games.

Clint Capela has ably helped fill the hole Dwight Howard's departure caused for the Houston Rockets. Tag-teaming with Nene, the Swiss big man contributed career high in points (12.4) and rebounds (8.1), and finished third in the league in field goal percentage at 63.7%.

The Oklahoma City Thunder features an interesting set of international big men, with Steven Adams and Enes Kanter forming a tag team down low, serving as a throwback to the big men of yore. Adams is averaging 11.4 points and 7.7 rebounds, while Kanter is building a case for Sixth Man of the Year with his effort off the bench. Rookie forward Domantas Sabonis seeks to carve his niche as a second-generation basketball star.

The matchup between the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers will highlight the comparison between Rudy Gobert and Deandre Jordan, with both players figuring in the race for Defensive Player of the Year and in the All-NBA team as its Center. In addition, Joe Ingles was among the final cuts of the Clippers before the Jazz claimed him on waivers. The Australian is now an integral reserve for Quin Snyder.

Here are the complete list of international players in the playoffs:

Argentina: Manu Ginobili
Australia: Matthew Dellavedova, Dante Exum, Joe Ingles, Kyrie Irving, Patty Mills
Austria: Jakob Poetl
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Jusuf Nurkic, Mirza Teletovic
Brazil: Bruno Caboclo, Cristiano Felicio, Raul Neto, Lucas Nogueira, Nene
Cameroon: Luc Mbah a Moute, Pascal Siakam
Canada: Joel Anthony, Cory Joseph, Trey Lyles, Kelly Olynyk, Tristan Thompson
Cape Verde: Edy Tavares
Congo: Serge Ibaka
Croatia: Bojan Bogdanovic
Czech Republic: Tomas Satoransky
Dominican Republic: Al Horford
France: Boris Diaw, Rudy Gobert, Joffrey Lauvergne, Ian Mahinmi, Tony Parker, Kevin Seraphin
Georgia: Zaza Pachulia
Germany: Dennis Schroeder, Paul Zipser
Greece: Giannis Antetokounmpo
Latvia: Davis Bertans
Lithuania: Domantas Sabonis, Jonas Valanciunas
Montenegro: Nikola Mirotic
New Zealand: Steven Adams
Nigeria: Festus Ezeli
Poland: Marcin Gortat
South Sudan: Thon Maker
Spain: Alex Abrines, Jose Calderon, Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol
Sweden: Jonas Jerebko
Switzerland: Clint Capela, Thabo Sefolosha
Turkey: Ersan Ilyasova, Enes Kanter
Ukraine: Joel Bolomboy

UAAP volleyball do-or-die games slated today

Games today at the Mall of Asia Arena:
10 a.m. – UST vs NU (men)
2 p.m. – Ateneo vs Adamson (men)
4 p.m. – UST vs FEU (women)

Volleyball action set to resume today at the Mall of Asia Arena, with the Final Four for men and the unofficial start of the stepladder for the women.

The lone women's volleyball match features a play-off for the fourth and final seed in the stepladder, with old rivals FEU and UST duking it out at 4pm. Both schools, who have a combined 43 titles to their name, tote the same 6-8 record.

The Tigresses booked their seat in the playoff with a 25-10 25-22 and 25-11 victory over UE, while the Lady Tamaraws eliminated Adamson, 25-20 25-21 25-18 in what tantamounted to a play-in game.

UST head coach Odjie Mamon hopes that they will remain aggressive on both ends of the floor, while for FEU counterpart Shaq delos Santos, their recent do-or-die matches have toughened his squad.

The winner will face 3rd seed NU on Saturday afternoon at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum, in a one-game affair that serves as the official opening match of the stepladder format.

On the men's side, defending champions NU and Adamson seek to overcome a twice-to-beat disadvantage against separate opposition in the Final Four.

The defending champions will go up against UST in the opening match at 10am, while the Falcons will go up against top seeds Ateneo at 2pm.

A win by either the Tiger Spikers or the Blue Spikers earns them a finals berth.