The guys are making it easy for me: AD

HOUSTON — Anthony Davis scored 40 points, LeBron James had 18 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds to tie Jason Kidd for fourth place with his 107th triple-double and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets, 134-109, on Sunday night (Monday, Manila time).

The Lakers (40-38) moved two games over .500 and into a tie for seventh with the New Orleans Pelicans in the Western Conference with four games to go. Los Angeles has won six of its last seven games and owns the tiebreaker over the Pelicans.

CHITO MALABANAN JABONG!

The Azaleas are exploding into colors and blooming, the water at the creeks are flowing, the crowds are flocking. This is mid-April, this is the start of spring. This is the Masters golf tournament.

Augusta Masters is the first among the four majors played annually. The only major that is played on the same course every year. The most beautiful and colorful home course among the golf majors.

The Masters is not only about the four day battle of skills, nerves and wits on the fairways. It is also about the excitement, the fun among golfers and their families while playing in the Par 3 tournament . It is also about the honor bestowed on the previous year’s champion to select the dinner menu during the traditional dinner to be attended exclusively by previous champions.

But traditionally, year in and year out, the Masters is always hounded by intriguing questions by the golfing fanatics.

Will Tiger light up the leaderboard again? Will he make the cut and finish the tournament not limping or un-injured? Will Rory and Patrick Reed exchange hand shake if they will be paired against each other?

But in spite of all this drama and controversy, this year’s edition of The Masters will surely be more colorful than the previous ones. After all, much has been said about the rift among the pro golfers since the establishment of the

“We just want to put ourselves in the position to compete for a championship,” James said. “It’s a journey and obviously we don’t have as much chemistry as a lot of other teams that have aspirations to win a championship, but we’ve been building over the last

IT’S MASTERS TIME ONCE AGAIN

demarcation line between them. The PGA and the LIV. The die has been cast.

Augusta Masters 2023 will be the battle field of Greg Norman and Jay Monahan in terms of pride and propaganda. Tension will surely reach fever pitch as the PGA and the LIV golfers slug it out during the four-day tournament. The battle will not be only in the fairways, bunkers and greens of Augusta but might escalate in parallel as well in other platforms like the social media. It’ll be a surely be a very colorful and exciting match.

I would love to see the flight where Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed paired against each other or Fred Couples hitting shots side by side with Lefty (Phil Mickelson) .

Am surely will be glued to the tube watching the match blow by blow.

On the possibility that an LIV guy will win the Green Jacket, Greg Norman have this to say. “..there are 18 of us LIV guys at Augusta, and if one of the guys, no matter who it is, they are all going to be there on the 18th green, they are all going to be there, and that just gives me goosebumps to think about.

Indeed, a festive atmosphere will surely ensue comparable only to the level of Ryder Cup celebration if that thing happens. The winner will not only be hugging his wife, his baby or his caddy in celebratory manner but the whole contingent of LIV golfers complete with champagne bottles popping up after holing out on the 72nd month or so.

“These last four games are very important for our team, not only wins and losses but also the chemistry side as well. We need to continue to build what we’ve been building over the last month or so. We’ll see

FTHE GUYS, P10

hole.

It’s hard to imagine though that same thing happening if the other camp wins the green jacket.

“But if I‘m the Masters right now, I would want, on Sunday, DJ or Brooks or Cam, any of the guys against Rory (McIlroy) and Jon Rahm. Can you imagine what the TV ratings would be like?” … they have got the best field and they are actually now the true Super Bowl,” Norman added.

But regardless of the brouhaha clouding this year’s Masters, there’s one thing certain about this year’s winner. He would be wearing a long pants. Yes, am sure.

C’mon fellas, think about it if he’s wearing the Green Jacket with matching shorts?