James Quizon

The Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks had their winning streaks snapped in their last game. Both squads hope their trip to London will bring them back to the win column.

The first four days of the 2014 Australian Open mostly features matches that are rather one-sided. In Day 5 or the third round of competition in both the men’s and women’s sides, expect more matches to be a lot closer— meaning, less straight sets victories--- as the seeded players or those who are playing with confidence at least, finally face-off in the hard court.

The San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks were preseason favourites to reach the Super Bowl this season. On Sunday, only one will get to prove that top billing.

The AFC Conference Championship this Sunday appears more than a Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning showdown.

The other half who made the second round play Thurday, January 16 with elite players Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Roger Federer all playing. While all three are pegged to win their matches—as heavy favourites, as expected, there are a couple of other marquee match-ups worth watching (and betting on):

The 21-year-old Australian did apologize to crowd just before he quit against Nadal. However, with a checkered past of supposed tanking, everyone has the right to question his toughness or commitment to the game.

It’s a tale of two stories with regards to the quarterbacks match-up in the NFL conference championships. Experience for the Brady-Manning head-to-head and youth for the Kaepernick-Wilson heads-up.

The Miami Heat look to avoid a rare three-game. Bad news for the Washington Wizards, which seems to be a better team on the road than at home as they host the LeBron James and company on Wednesday night.

The Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers are both aiming for fourth straight win in a row. Only one of them will get it as the teams meet on Wednesday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Move over Tim Tebow, LeBron James just stole the internet.

In just two days, seven seeded players got the boot from the 2014 Australian Open in the women’s singles competition.

12th seed Tommy Haas and 13th seed John Isner were trailing their respective opponents in the first round of the 2014 Australian Open and both were forced to leave with an injury and retire as they became the first two seeded casualties of the men’s side of the tournament in Melbourne.

Day 2 of the 2014 Australian Open continues on Tuesday. By the evening session, all players, men and women, would have made their debut already—either advancing to the next round or getting eliminated—including Russia’s Maria Sharapova who will be taking on Bethanie Mattek-Sands from the United States of America.

While the Oklahoma City Thunder is missing their star point guard, the Memphis Grizzlies court general is playing like an NBA All-Star in recent games. The Thunder, still without Russell Westbrook, will visit Memphis with Mike Conley who has a career-high stretch in the last three games.

Most top seeds have already played—and have survived-- their first round match or are playing as of press time. Two others, Juan Del Potro of Argentina and Andy Murray of Great Britain will be making their 2014 Australian debut Tuesday afternoon against separate opponents who wants to serve the improbable opening round upset.

The Iowa State Cyclones and their high-powered offense will test the visiting Kansas Jayhawks which has found their defense in recent outings.

With a titantic match-up in the first round of the 2014 Australian Open looming, it pays off to look back at history and dredge what upsets happened in recent memory.

Surprisingly, the New York Knicks are surging in 2014. Conversely, without their star point guard, the Phoenix Suns are struggling as of late. The Eric Bledsoe-less Suns will visit the Carmelo Anthony-led Knicks on Monday night in a battle between teams going in opposite directions.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic faces Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko to open his campaign as second seed in the tournament Down Under. In the distaff side, world No. 1 and top seed Serena Williams of the United States of America takes on Ashleigh Barty from Australia.

Minnesota franchise player Kevin Love sounded off on some of his teammates after a disappointing loss to the Phoenix Suns. The Minnesota Timberwolves had a six-point lead with roughly two minutes to go in the game, but the Suns unleashed a 7-to-nothing run to end the game to steal the 103-102 victory.

The San Francisco 49ers are aiming for their third straight appearance in the NFC championship game. They'd have to hurdle a challenge in the form of the Carolina Panthers, which are one of the hottest and peaking teams entering the postseason.

Unexpectedly, the sport’s two best players, LeBron James of the Miami Heat and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, are the leading vote-getters after the third update of the NBA All-Star Balloting 2014 which will decide the starters for the 63rd NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans set on Feb 16, 2014.

Underdog by eight points in most sportsbooks, the New Orleans Saints need all the confidence they can get when they face the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Divisional Playoffs in the second week of the NFL postseason.

The Indianapolis Colts are on a high after their 45-to-44 upset win over the Kansas City Chiefs in the wildcard round. They rallied from 28 points down but still pulled off the win, the second biggest comeback in playoff history.

Center Andrew Bynum has multiple suitors while shooting guard J.R. Smith has apparently drawing near-zero interest from around the league.

Expectedly, the Heat are great on both ends of the floor. They score 104.9 points per game (5th in the NBA) and hold down opponents to just 97.9 PPG (7th). That’s bad news for the Knicks which can only muster 94.9 points per outing this season—or 6th worst overall in the entire league.

Cooper Cronk underwent a shoulder surgery and is expected to miss the Melbourne Storm's NRL trials and is questionable when round one begins.

Ben Mowen, Wallabies team captain, will be out of the line-up for Australia in the 2015 World Cup in a move that's seen as a big blow for the Australian Rugby Union.

The father of former NBA player Vlade Divac has died in a car crash. The 77-year-old Milenko Divac was with 72-year-old Radmila Divac, Vlade’s mother when the accident happened near Cacak in Serbia.