Sports

AMMAN — It’s now up to the upcoming two rounds of the 64th Jordan Professional League to determine the champion in a season that has witnessed inconsistency at both ends of the standings.

Wihdat lead Faisali by only two points and both still have a chance to be crowned champ. Wihdat need to win their upcoming two matches. If they fail and Faisali score two wins the latter will be crowned champ. If Wihdat draw in a match, there might be a need for a title-deciding match.

Ahli have lost the chance for the title, but are still in contention for runner-up. The team is now eyeing their May 6 Jordan Cup final which will bring the veteran club to the forefront of competitions.

The two leading teams lost important points last week: Wihdat, who went down 3-1 to That Ras, next have a tough match against Ramtha, who beat Ahli 2-0. Faisali will play Hussein Irbid after a 1-1 draw with Kufrsoum stopped them in their tracks last week.

Ahli are now third and next have an easy match against already relegated Asala. Shabab Urdun, who beat Hussein 1-0, next play Baqa’a, who scored a 21-1 win over Asala and are trying to move away from the relegation zone.

Jazira, who were held 0-0 by Sarih and are fifth, next play That Ras, who are eightth.

Faisali and Wihdat are also gearing up to resume Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup next week. Wihdat are third in Group A after a 0-0 with Turkmenistan’s Altyn Asyr. The Jordanian champs earlier held the Turkemen team 1-1 in leg 1, lost an away match against Lebanon’s Al Ahd 3-2 after their opening 2-0 win over Bahrain’s Hidd.

In Group B, Faisali are second after they beat Lebanon’s Tripoli 3-1. They were earlier held 1-1 with Tripoli beat Iraq’s Naft Al Wasat 2-1 after their opening 0-0 draw with Turkmenistan’s Istiklol Dushanbe.  

So far this season, Jordan Cup titleholders Faisali beat league titleholders Wihdat 1-0 to win the 33rd Super Cup. Apart from conceding the Super Cup, and elimination from the Jordan Cup, Wihdat now have the league title left for grabs. Wihdat have been league champ for the past two consecutive years while Faisali finished at a disappointing 7th place as runner-up and third places went to Jazira and Ramtha. Ahli are the surprise team of the league this season. After relegation to Division 1 in 2004 for the first time in their history, they but were back among the Pro League clubs in 2014, and finished 5th in 2015. They have now made it to the Jordan Cup final against Shabab Urdun slated for May 5.

Standings
(Previous position in parenthesis)

LONDON — If Premier League titles were decided by statistics alone then Tottenham Hotspur would already have one hand on the trophy rather than playing catch-up to Leicester City.

Mauricio Pochettino's side lead the charts in pretty much every department apart from the all important points column where they trail Leicester by five with four games to play.

Monday's 4-0 demolition of Stoke City away from home saw striker Harry Kane move two goals clear of Leicester's Jamie Vardy in the race to win the coveted Golden Boot with 24.

As former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said on Sky Sports, however, it is Tottenham's teamwork which has given them a chance of reeling in Leicester.

They have scored the most goals (64) in the Premier League and conceded the fewest (25).

Spurs also lead the way in shots on target (234), chances created (449) and goals from set pieces (17) while they have restricted opposing attacks to 102 attempts on target all season, again the best in the league.

Their goal difference (+39) is 11 better than the next best, which is Manchester City's.

Midfielder Dele Alli's seven assists for Kane this season makes that route to goal the most lethal in the division, ahead of the six assists Arsenal's Mesut Ozil has supplied for Olivier Giroud and the five Riyad Mahrez has set up for Vardy.

"The best thing I can say about Spurs is that they are a team," said Carragher. "Kane and Alli are superstars, two fantastic players, but this Spurs team is a team."

Carragher reckons former Southampton manager Pochettino should be praised for developing another exciting young side.

"When you pick a man of the match for Spurs it could be five or six players, everyone is playing well," he said.

"The main person who deserves credit for that is the manager, what he has created at Spurs is absolutely fantastic."

Tottenham's playmaker Christian Eriksen has also stepped up his game and his sublime assists for two goals on Monday means only Ozil has created more goals this season.

At 12.2km the Denmark international also covers more distance per game than any other midfielder in the top flight.

All this has been achieved by Spurs with the average age of just 24 in the starting XI — the youngest in the top flight.

Alli, 20, typifies the energy in the Tottenham ranks.

This time last year he was playing for MK Dons in the third tier of English football but Pochettino's faith in the youngster has been vindicated in spectacular fashion, so much so that he will be a key figure for England at Euro 2016.

Shaun Livingston, subbing for injured Stephen Curry, began and ended a key fourth-quarter spurt with baskets Monday night as the Golden State Warriors won a second straight from the Houston Rockets in their best-of-seven series, 115-106.

Golden State, now 2-0 in the postseason after a record-setting, 73-win regular season, was able to win without Curry, who injured his right ankle late in the second quarter of the Warriors’ blowout win in Game 1 on Saturday. He had been listed as questionable for Game 2.

The reigning NBA Most Valuable Player, who scored 24 points in just 20 minutes in Game 1, was declared out shortly after cutting short a pregame warmup that was designed to test the ankle.

Curry sustained the injury while pivoting late in the second quarter Saturday, and he played less than three minutes in the second half before being benched for the remainder of the Warriors’ 104-78 win.

His status for Game 3, which is scheduled for Thursday night in Houston, is unknown.

Livingston started in Curry’s place and complemented guard Klay Thompson’s 34 points with 16 of his own. He also found time for six assists in 29 minutes.

Livingston’s two biggest hoops came in an 11-1 flurry in the fourth quarter after the Rockets, trying to put Saturday’s 26-point debacle behind them, clung within 88-85 with 9:51 to play.

Livingston began the key run with a jumper, after which the Warriors made seven consecutive free throws, including five by Thompson.

Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff got nailed with a technical foul along the way, accounting for one of Thompson’s foul shots.

Livingston then capped the burst with a fastbreak hoop that created the Warriors’ biggest lead of the game to that point, 99-85, with 6:48 left.

Golden State were never threatened the rest of the way, beating Houston for a sixth consecutive meeting and the 14th time in their past 15 matchups.

Thompson, hitting three 3-pointers and 15 of 16 from the free-throw line, led all scorers.

Draymond Green recorded a 12-point, 14-rebound double-double, and backup Andre Iguodala dropped in four 3-pointers en route to 18 points for the Warriors, who shot 49.4 per cent from the field and hit eight of their 23 3-point attempts.

Green, who earlier in the day found out he finished in second place in the NBA Defensive Player of the Year balloting, also had a team-high eight assists, and centre Andrew Bogut helped out with 10 points (on 5-for-6 shooting) and seven rebounds.

James Harden led the Rockets with 28 points, 13 coming from the line on 15 free throws. However, he shot just 7-for-19 from the field, including 1-for-8 from 3-point range. Harden also had 11 assists.

Dwight Howard posted a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double for the Rockets, who bettered Golden State in 3-pointers, making 10 of 25, but fell well short from shorter range, finishing at 44.3 per cent overall.

Patrick Beverley and Jason Terry added 13 points apiece for the Rockets, who also will host Game 4 of the series on Sunday.

Down by as many as 11 points in the first half, the Rockets got seven third-quarter points from Harden and rallied within three late in the period.

An interior hoop by Warriors reserve guard Leandro Barbosa extended the lead back to 88-79 in the first minute of the fourth quarter. But as occurred all night, the Rockets wouldn’t go away.

Harden hit a tough jumper and Terry added a hoop and two free throws to make it a three-point game.

However, each then missed interior attempts that could have gotten Houston within one, and the Warriors followed with Livingston’s hoops and a parade to the free-throw line, finally pushing the visitors an arm’s length away.

The Rockets managed to stay within striking distance at halftime, down 66-58, despite getting just four total field goals from Harden and Howard.

Harden did have 12 free throws, accounting for three-quarters of his team-high 16 points.

The Warriors countered with seven 3-pointers from Thompson and Iguodala. Thompson had three in six attempts on his way to 20 first-half points; Iguodala had 12 of his 14 points on four 3-pointers in six tries.

Defence carried San Antonio to the second best record in the NBA this season, but it’s likely to be the Spurs’ ability to get the most out of their offensive opportunities that will be the key for a push for a sixth championship since 1999.

Kawhi Leonard scored 20 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 17 points as the San Antonio Spurs dominated the middle two quarters and romped past the Memphis Grizzlies 106-74 on Sunday in Game 1 of the two teams’ Western Conference quarterfinal play-off series.

San Antonio outscored the Grizzlies 24-6 over the final 8:04 of the third period, turning a contentious game into a runaway, and led 81-51 with a quarter to play. The fourth quarter was left to mostly the reserves, with Game 2 in the series to be played on Tuesday in San Antonio with 8:30pm CDT tip-off.

“It just takes a little while,” said the Spurs’ Tim Duncan, who had seven points and 11 rebounds. “Once we got it going, then some shots started falling. That’s when we were able to extend the lead. Defensively, we were pretty solid the whole way through.”

Tony Parker and Patty Mills scored 15 points each for the Spurs and Kevin Martin added 10 points, all in the fourth quarter. San Antonio hit on 42 of its 81 shots (52 per cent), outrebounded the Grizzlies 44-35 and had nine blocked shots to Memphis’ three.

Vince Carter led the Grizzlies with 16 points while Lance Stephenson hit for 14 points, all but two in the second half. Memphis, who have now lost all five games they played against the Spurs this season, were held to a season low in points, shot just 39 per cent and went to the free-throw line only six times.

“Defence is the focus of our programme and I thought in the second half we did that pretty good,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Our offense really bogged down in the first half — we didn’t move the ball and it was a lot of one on one.

“Against the Grizzlies, who are tough, physical and aggressive, the ball has to move other than dribble,” Popovich added. “It’s got to be passed and people have to move.”

Both teams played a ragged first quarter as there were nearly as many bodies pushed to the floor as baskets made while each squad tried to establish a physical presence. The Spurs led 22-13 after 12 minutes of play despite shooting just 35 per cent from the floor. Memphis hit on just 5 of its 22 field-goal attempts with the ageless Carter, making just his fourth start of the season, scoring the Grizzlies’ first seven points.

Two baskets by Carter cut the Spurs’ lead to 26-22 four minutes into the second quarter and gave the Grizzlies some momentum. But a Leonard steal and dunk followed by another dunk by Leonard off an assist by Mills on the ensuing possession propelled San Antonio on a 7-2 run and created some breathing room at 33-24.

Parker reeled off five straight points on back-to-back drives and a free throw in the final minute of the quarter to push the Spurs’ lead to 48-37 at half-time. Aldridge had 13 points in the half and Leonard added 12 for the Spurs while Carter led the Grizzlies with 11 points in 12 minutes of court time.

“When you are turning the ball over and not getting shots, a five-point lead can turn into a 20-point lead in the blink of an eye,” Carter said. “That’s what happened tonight, and it rattled us a little bit. San Antonio takes pride in the way they close out quarters — you are aware of what they are going to try to do when you play against them — and that was the difference.”

The Spurs rolled out to a 61-45 lead five minutes into the third quarter behind Duncan, who roared through the lane for a left-handed finger roll and then took the ball away from Zach Randolph at the defensive end, starting a fast break that resulted in a driving layup for Parker.

Duncan’s play on both ends of the floor seemed to lift the Spurs, who found another gear over the second half of the third quarter and kept their foot on the accelerator.

“We have got to close quarters better,” Memphis coach David Joerger said. “San Antonio went 10-2 at the end of the first quarter, 9-0 at the end of the second and 24-6 at the end of the third to go up 30 [points]. San Antonio executed well offensively and our lack of offensive execution hurt our defense. We get mixed up, jumbled up and don’t get back very well in transition. Those are things hopefully we will get better at.”

AMMAN — Taekwondo star Ahmad Abu Ghaush has secured his qualification to this summer’s Olympic Games to become the second Jordanian guaranteed a place at Rio de Janeiro, according to the Jordan Olympics Committee News Service.

The 20-year-old beat Thailand’s Sila Peertheb 12-1 in the semifinal to book his place as the two finalists qualify. He then crushed Mongolia’s Temuujin Purevjav 14-2 to win the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament’s gold medal.

Jordan Olympic Committee Secretary General Lana Al Jaghbeer, was one of the first to congratulate him with a message from HRH Prince Feisal, JOC president, who also congratulated the Jordan Taekwondo Federation.

Abu Ghaush joined boxer Hussein Ishaiash in the team. He won his place for Rio earlier this month. While it was celebrations for Abu Ghaush, it was heartbreak for three of his teammates who lost in the semifinals.

Julyana Al Sadeq lost 2-0 to Uzbekistan’s Nigora Tursunkulova, while Anas Al Adarbi came painfully close, losing his match by just one point to Nikita Rafalovic of Uzbekistan 5-4. Teammate Bana Daraghmi lost in the last four to eventual gold medallist Huang Huai-Hsuan of Taiwan.

OAKLAND, California — Stephen Curry dazzled from long range and drove to the hoop with fire and flair, scoring 24 points before tweaking his ankle as the Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets 104-78 on Saturday in their NBA play-off opener.

Draymond Green added 12 points and 10 rebounds as top-seeded Golden State carried momentum from setting the all-time wins record Wednesday night with No. 73 into a testy play-off opener.

On the opening day of play-offs, Indiana’s Paul George led the Pacers to victory at Toronto, Oklahoma City routed Dallas, and Atlanta clung on to beat Boston by a point.

The Warriors topped the Michael Jordan-led Bulls of 1995-96, then immediately made one thing clear: that mark will mean nothing if they don’t bring home back-to-back titles to the East Bay.

James Harden scored 17 points for cold-shooting Houston, held to six field goals in the first quarter of the rematch from last year’s Western Conference finals, won by Golden State in five.

Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Monday at Oracle Arena, and Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Curry is questionable for that one. He will be re-evaluated Sunday.

Indiana’s Paul George scored 33 points in the Pacers’ 100-90 win at Toronto.

Monta Ellis had 15 for the Pacers.

Jonas Valanciunas fouled out after setting a Raptors’ play-off record with 19 rebounds while All-Star guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan both struggled. Lowry made 3 of 13 field goal attempts while DeRozan made 5 of 19. The pair went 1 for 10 from 3-point range and 8 for 15 at the free-throw line.

Toronto dropped to 0-8 in the first game of an opening-round play-off series.

Oklahoma City dominated Dallas in a 108-70 victory.

Russell Westbrook had 24 points and 11 assists while Kevin Durant added 23 points for the Thunder, who recorded their largest victory margin in a play-off game since moving from Seattle before the 2008-09 season, and allowed the lowest point total the franchise has conceded in a postseason game.

Dallas scored its fewest points ever in a play-off game, and its .298 field-goal percentage was the worst ever in a postseason game for a franchise that has existed since 1980.

Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 18 points.

Game 2 will be Monday in Oklahoma City.

Atlanta’s Jeff Teague stymied another big Boston comeback, taking matters into his own hands in the closing minutes to lead the Hawks to a 102-101 win.

Teague scored 23 points and doled out 12 assists, making sure Atlanta maintained the home-court edge after the gritty Celtics rallied from a 19-point deficit.

With the game tied 88--88, Teague worked the pick-and-roll to set up a lay-up for Al Horford. The Celtics missed and the Hawks again got the ball to Teague, who found Paul Millsap alone under the basket for a dunk that pushed Atlanta to a 92-88 lead with 2:56 remaining.

The Celtics had a chance to tie in the final minute, but Evan Turner missed an open 3-pointer.

Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Tuesday in Atlanta.

BERLIN — Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski scored twice in a 3-0 victory over Schalke 04 on Saturday that edged them closer to a record fourth consecutive league title.

The Bundesliga’s leading scorer took his tally to 27 goals after a fine turn and shot in the 54th minute and a well-timed header 11 minutes later before Arturo Vidal sealed the win.

Bayern, eyeing a second treble-winning season after 2013 and facing Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, are on 78 points, 10 clear at the top.

Second-placed Borussia Dortmund can cut the lead down to seven when they take on Hamburg SV on Sunday.

“I got some rest this week because I did not play in the Champions League,” Lewandowski told reporters. “We were a bit too slow in the first half but we did much better after the break with the three goals.

“It’s important for us to play well in the league because only then can we play well in the Champions League.”

Bayern were in control from the start, dominating possession against a two-line defence in the first half.

Vidal’s left-foot effort scraped the post seven minutes after the restart with the Bavarians again pressing for a goal.

The Chilean did everything right when he headed on to Lewandowski, the Bundesliga top scorer turning beautifully after controlling the ball with his chest.

The Poland forward claimed his second when he rose at the far post to head in Rafinha’a cross.

Vidal, on target against Benfica in midweek, also got on the scoresheet, sliding in to complete a superb Franck Ribery solo run into the box.

Schalke’s second defeat in three games left them in seventh place on 45 points and at risk of missing out on European football next season.

Bayer Leverkusen struck twice in five minutes to beat struggling Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 and move into the third place that offers Champions League qualification.

Slovenian midfielder Kevin Kampl struck with a fine volley less than a minute after coming on in the 70th minute and teenager Julian Brandt slotted in for his seventh goal of the campaign five minutes later.

Karim Bellarabi added a third in the last minute to lift Leverkusen to 51 points, two ahead of Hertha Berlin.

Hertha lost 2-1 at Hoffenheim, courtesy of Mark Uth’s 85th minute winner, and have now failed to win any of their last three matches.

VfL Wolfsburg slumped to a 3-2 loss at struggling Werder Bremen and will most likely have to forget about Champions League action next season, stuck in eighth place on 39.

Werder’s crucial win, with Claudio Pizarro scoring their first goal and becoming the club’s all-time top scorer with 102, lifted them to 31 but they remained in the relegation playoff spot.

LONDON — A repeat of the 2014 Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid is still possible after Friday’s semi-final draw.

Real, who won that game 4-1 after extra-time, will play first-time semi-finalist Manchester City, with the first leg in northwest England.

Atletico, who beat holders Barcelona in the last eight, host Bayern Munich in their first leg.

Bayern manager Pep Guardiola misses what would have been a difficult semifinal for him personally against City, the Premier League side he will take charge of next season.

“It’s a great tie against the team that has won the competition the most times,” Txiki Begiristain, Manchester City’s sporting director, told reporters.

“But we have got this far and we want to keep dreaming.

“I think that Madrid are the favourites. They have been in the semifinals 27 times, six in a row. But Paris [St Germain] were also a great team and we were able to knock them out.”

Real, record 10 times champions, are unbeaten in their last eight games against English clubs. Their only previous tie against City came in 2012 when the Spanish side won 3-2 at home before drawing 1-1 in Manchester.

For Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored a hat-trick to win the quarter-final against Vfl Wolfsburg, it will be another return to Manchester, where he spent six years with United before moving to Spain in 2009.

The Madrid manager at that time was Manuel Pellegrini, now in charge at City until Guardiola replaces him.

The Chilean was sacked by Real after only one season but denied that would be any extra motivation.

“More motivation is to be playing in the semi-final of the Champions League, the most important competition in the world for clubs,” he said, adding that City would have preferred to be at home in the second leg.

Game winners

Emilio Butragueno,” Real’s head of public relations, said that in Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne, City had players to win a game on their own.

“It’s their first semi-final and they are anxious to do something big in Europe,” he added.

“We’ll have to be at our best in the two games. Last year also people said we were lucky when we got Juventus and we were knocked out. The two games are going to be very tight.”

Head coach Zinedine Zidane also dismissed talk of a lucky draw.

“I don’t agree that Madrid always get easy draws,” he said. “Roma, City and Wolfsburg are very good teams. It’s a semi-final, it’s going to be a very very difficult game”.

“The only thing that’s positive is that we are playing the second leg at home. But it’s going to be a very difficult tie, a brutal tie.”

The only time Atletico have met Bayern was in the 1974 final, when the German side won 4-0 in a replay after a 1-1 draw.

“A team that eliminates the title holders has to be taken very, very seriously,” said Bayern board member Andreas Jung.

“We face a tough rival,” said the German club’s midfielder Javi Martinez.

Jose Luis Caminero, Atletico’s sporting director and former player, described the tie as “complicated” but promised the Spanish side would “compete to our maximum as we always do”.

City will host Real on April 26 and Atletico face Bayern the following evening.

The final is in Milan on May 28.

BASEL, Switzerland — Sepp Blatter says it was “not acceptable” to be accused at a public event Friday that he stayed silent while likely knowing that senior FIFA officials were corrupt.

“I am not guilty,” the visibly angry former FIFA president later told reporters at the University of Basel in his native Switzerland.

Blatter had been the key speaker in a two-hour debate with a mostly student audience on problems facing world football’s scandal-hit governing body. Two protesters briefly disturbed the event with an anti-FIFA banner, chants and a whistle.

After Blatter again blamed officials in the North and South American football bodies for corruption, the session closed with the claim made by former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo.

Ocampo suggested Blatter had known about bribery which US federal prosecutors revealed last May in a sprawling indictment that rocked FIFA in its presidential election week.

Ocampo also said Blatter likely knew — and said nothing — about misconduct implicating long-time FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, who has denied any wrongdoing. Blatter’s right-hand man since 2007 was fired by FIFA in January, banned for 12 years by the ethics committee and is the subject of criminal proceedings opened last month by Switzerland’s attorney general.

When Ocampo finished the closing remarks, Blatter joined in applause and reached out to shake hands as his critic walked by.

Minutes later backstage, however, Blatter said he was “very unhappy” with the accusation by Ocampo, who is a visiting lecturer at Harvard University.

“It is not acceptable. It is not acceptable,” Blatter told reporters. “I was very surprised at Mr Ocampo invited here for this seminar and then to make such an accusation. Perhaps he is a little bit disappointed because he was the first candidate to be the chair of the ethics committee.”

In 2012, Ocampo was proposed to be FIFA’s first ethics prosecutor by a FIFA advisory group led by Swiss law professor Mark Pieth, who organised Friday’s event.

Ocampo’s appointment was blocked, reportedly due to the influence of then-FIFA senior vice president Julio Grondona of Argentina, who died in 2014 and has since been linked to the bribery conspiracy. Instead, FIFA picked Michael Garcia, the former US attorney for the Southern District of New York.

“I am not responsible morally [for] what the others have done,” said Blatter, also distancing himself from the FIFA ethics judge who resigned this month after being linked to a Panama-based law firm which helped wealthy clients set up offshore clients.

Uruguayan lawyer Juan Pedro Damiani was appointed in 2006 by the Blatter-chaired FIFA executive committee to the ethics panel, and won election in 2013 by FIFA member federations to retain his place.

“Why should I have known it?” Blatter said of allegations that Damiani helped set up offshore accounts for three men, including a former FIFA vice president, indicted by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. “This is again a disappointment. You should not accept such an election.”

Blatter is a target of the widening investigations by American and Swiss federal prosecutors. 

Blatter is currently awaiting a hearing date at the Court of Arbitration for Sport to appeal against his six-year ban.

When the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls set the former record of 72 wins in one season they coined an accompanying phrase: “72-10 don’t mean a thing without the ring”.

The Golden State Warriors are inclined to agree, and as the NBA play-offs open on Saturday they know their historic 73-win regular season will lose their lustre unless they end the campaign with championship jewellery.

Golden State have been compared to those Michael Jordan-led Bulls all season long, with many former greats proclaiming the Warriors could not have stood the test of past eras.

Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, for one, stated that his former Chicago team would sweep the current Warriors team in a mythical series match-up.

Shrugging off such a hypothetical, Golden State, whose coach Steve Kerr played on the 72-win Bulls team, have a chance to put their stamp on the current generation and will begin their title defence against the Houston Rockets on Saturday.

“With Pippen coming out and saying what he said, that’s cool. We respect those guys [on that team],” Golden State forward Draymond Green told reporters. “We’ve got one of them in our locker room.”

The Eastern Conference’s Cleveland Cavaliers would love a return trip to the NBA finals and a rematch with the Warriors but must first steady their bumpy ride.

Cleveland’s LeBron James has been at the centre of the team’s drama beginning when they fired coach David Blatt midway through the season despite leading the Eastern Conference.

The standout trio of James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love have yet to reach the potential imagined when they teamed up last season and James has romanticised about joining forces with opposing All-Stars, bringing into question the Cavs’ chemistry.

Despite that, Cleveland are the heavy favourite to win the East and James, looking to reach a sixth straight NBA final, insists he is intently focused on leading these Cavs.

“It’s a mind switch. I’m going to the gym even more,” James said. “Dialling in even more to focusing on what I need to do for us to be better.”

The Toronto Raptors, powered by an All-Star backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, are the main threat to Cleveland while the third-seeded Miami Heat are an intriguing bunch who were bolstered by the acquisition of sharpshooter Joe Johnson in February.

The health of Miami All-Star Chris Bosh remains a critical mystery, however. He has been sidelined since February due to a recurring blood clot issue and his return remains in question.

Atlanta will attempt to build on last season’s run to the conference final, while the scrappy Boston Celtics will not be a pushover opponent.

In the West, the San Antonio Spurs remain the experienced model of consistency and are ready to chase a sixth championship banner with a reloaded roster.

Veterans LaMarcus Aldridge, David West and Kevin Martin will attempt to mesh their talents with coach Gregg Popovich’s proven game plan.

Oklahoma City are facing their first postseason with new coach Billy Donovan along with the pressures of prevailing in the final year before star Kevin Durant becomes a free agent.

Durant and triple-double machine Russell Westbrook are a battle-tested duo but the clock is ticking on a partnership that has not reached the Finals since 2012.

The Los Angeles Clippers are hoping the return of forward Blake Griffin can ignite their championship hopes.

Griffin missed 45 straight games due to injury and suspension and his return makes the Clippers a dangerous foe.

The spotlight will be on the Warriors as they look to again walk in the footsteps of those old Bulls who inevitably closed the season with “the ring”.