NBA fans enjoyed their first weekend of action but the early games haven’t quite gone to plan for the big guns with Miami, Chicago and Oklahoma City all falling to shock losses. The Heat has been the biggest surprise. Having downed the Bulls in their season opener, they have since fallen to consecutive losses to Philadelphia and Brooklyn for a 1-2 start to the year. The Bulls have also struggled. They crept home by a point against the Knicks thanks to a Derrick Rose buzzer beater but fell to the 76ers in their next outing to also sit at 1-2. Oklahoma began the season with a win at Utah but were then thrashed 100-81 by Minnesota, while San Antonio was another surprise loser in Portland.
Although it is still very early days, the most impressive performers so far have been Indiana and Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference and Houston in the Western Conference with perfect 3-0 records.
There were upsets in the NFL too with Miami shocking the Bengals – Cameron Wake sacking Andy Dalton in overtime for a safety to secure a desperately needed 22-20 win. New Orleans slipped to 6-2 after losing to the New York Jets 26-20, but it was business as usual for Kansas City as they made it nine wins from nine starts with a 10-point win over the Bills.
In the English Premier League, Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the table to five points with an impressive 2-0 win over fellow title aspirants Liverpool at the Emirates. Goals to Santo Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey proved the difference. Their plight was aided by London rival Chelsea’s shock 2-0 loss at Newcastle. The Gunners now sit on 25 competition points with Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham all on 20 points following Spur’s 0-0 draw at Everton.
In the Formula 1, Sebastian Vettel extended his winning run to seven in a row with another comfortable win in Abu Dhabi. Vettel took the lead at the first corner after starting behind Red Bull teammate Mark Webber and didn’t look back to make it 11 wins in 2013. Webber finished second to pass 1,000 career championship points with Nico Rosberg third.
In other sports, Australia lost both the cricket to India and the Rugby Union Test against England, Novak Djokovic prevailed at the Paris Masters with a straight sets win over David Ferrer in the final, while the Rugby League World Cup saw some fascinating contests between the minnows with the United States destined for the quarter finals after shocking Wales overnight.
