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Geregistreerd op: 11 Apr 2017
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| ATLANTA - With an ice pack wrapped around his injured lower back, a frustrated Jonas Valanciunas spoke to the media having just watched his teams second straight loss from the visitors locker room, unable to influence the final result. Red Auerbach Jersey . After missing 20 games as a rookie a year ago, Valanciunas - like the Raptors as a whole - has been fortunate to be in good health this season. As he spoke about it, the Raptors sophomore centre scanned the room for wood to knock on. "It is disappointing because we lost today so thats the worst part of the day," said Valanciunas, who left Tuesdays game with a lower-back sprain in the third quarter, missing the rest of Torontos 118-113 overtime defeat at the hands of the Hawks. "Everyone wants to win and do something to help us win but I couldnt do anything sitting back here." With Valanciunas unavailable and Patrick Patterson missing his sixth straight game with an elbow injury, the Raptors found themselves as far outside their comfort zone as theyve been in months. Dwane Casey was forced to mix and match several different combinations of Amir Johnson, Chuck Hayes, Steve Novak and Tyler Hansbrough in the frontcourt while cycling through various unorthodox lineups to spark an underperforming second unit. All the while, Atlanta - winners of five straight after losing 14 of 15 - did them no favours. Following Sundays loss to the Suns, Casey was confident his team would not have to face the level of speed and quickness they saw that afternoon. Two days later, Jeff Teague had something to say about that. "He lived in the paint tonight," Kyle Lowry said of Teague, who matched his career-high with 34 points, hitting 11 of his 18 shots, all but six of them taken in the paint. "He got layups and free throws. You have a quick guy like that its hard for the bigs to try and help me and its hard for me to try to figure out where hes going. We tried to change our coverage a little and it worked but he lived in the paint too much tonight." "Its my fault," Lowry said, taking responsibility for his counterpart. But it wasnt, not entirely. "Its a speed league," he acknowledged. Its not the Raptors strength but theres too many up-tempo teams, too many quick players to allow it to be such a glaring weakness. Like Phoenix on the weekend, the Hawks burnt Toronto with speed, playing at a pace that the Raptors could not catch up with, especially with two key defensive players out of the lineup. Toronto tried blitzing Teague, they tried trapping him and switching and pick and rolls. More often than not the Hawks point guard blew by the coverage. He ran an effective two-man game with all-star Paul Millsap - who recorded his first career triple-double - and found open shooters. The Hawks hit 11 three-pointers, their seventh straight game with 10 or more. "We were trying to take away their threes," said DeMar DeRozan, who had 29 points to go along with 10 rebounds and six assists. "We did a good job to start out the game but we got out of place, missed some rotations and they started knocking down threes. They got confident with it and they kept knocking them down." "They make you change your coverages a little bit with the way they space the floor," added Lowry after a 20-point, nine-assist night. "But we had a decent chance to win that game." Late-game execution failed the Raptors - now 1-5 in overtime this season - once again. They turned the ball over eight times in the fourth quarter and overtime, also committing 16 fouls and giving up seven offensive rebounds. "I just thought we were casual with the basketball," said Casey, his team dropping back-to-back games for the first time since the West Coast trip in early February. "[We] had a lot of opportunities to attack and were casual and soft with our passes and they took advantage of it." The Raptors got off to a strong start, holding Atlanta to 17 points on 25 per cent shooting, including 2-for-9 from long distance in the first quarter. The momentum turned immediately as the second quarter began and the Raptors depleted bench came into the game. Without Patterson, Torontos second unit - outscored 59-11 on Sunday and 20-11 in the first half Tuesday - lacks spacing and movement on the offensive end and foot speed defensively. Then, late in the third quarter, the Raptors lost Valanciunas. The seven-footer felt his back tighten up as he turned to set a screen. "I stopped and hyperextended my back," he said. "I cant tell much about it. I just felt pain and that was it." Valanciunas, who hasnt dealt with back issues in the past, wanted to continue playing but the teams medical staff pulled him prior to the fourth quarter. For the third straight game the sophomore centre got off to a hot start, scoring 11 points and grabbing four boards in the opening frame. "I thought he had something good going, a match inside," Casey said. "He was attacking the rim, attacking the basket, he was giving us some rim protection and rebounding." Valanciunas will be re-evaluated in New Orleans ahead of Wednesdays game against the Pelicans. Kevin Mchale Jersey . But luckily for the Canadian squad, one goal was all it needed. Winnipegs Sophie Schmidt scored the winner off a Diana Matheson corner kick to seal Canadas third-place spot in the Torneio Internacional de Futebol Feminino in Brazil on Sunday. Gerald Green Jersey . Kamloops, B.C., the host city of this years Tim Hortons Brier, is where he won his first Canadian mens curling crown in 1996. http://www.officialcelticsproauthentic.com/Authentic-Marcus-Thornton-Celtics-Jersey/ . The 33-year-old Spaniard, who held the lead since the second round, turned in a solid final round that featured six birdies and two bogeys to finish on 22-under 266. The victory is Garcias first this year with his last win coming at the Johor Open, an Asian Tour event in Malaysia last December.LOS ANGELES -- Trevor Lewis scored his fourth goal of the post-season, Jonathan Quick made 21 saves, and the Los Angeles Kings forced a seventh game in the Freeway Faceoff series with a 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 on Wednesday night. Jake Muzzin scored an early goal for the Kings, who ended their three-game skid with another sturdy defensive effort at home. Los Angeles improved to 6-1 in post-season elimination games over the last two seasons while beating Ducks goalie John Gibson for the first time in his six-game NHL career. Kyle Palmieri scored and Gibson stopped 21 shots for the top-seeded Ducks, who missed the chance to clinch their first trip to the Western Conference finals since 2007. Game 7 is Friday night at Honda Center. The Southern California rivals scintillating first post-season meeting is the NHLs only second-round series still going. The winner faces the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, who will have at least four days off before the conference finals open. The Kings again proved their post-season credentials are unassailable after winning a Stanley Cup title in 2012 and returning to the conference finals last year. Responding to Anaheims three straight wins with calm, intelligent defence, Los Angeles forced its second seven-game series of this post-season after rallying from an 0-3 deficit in the first round to stun San Jose. Four days after Gibson made his NHL playoff debut at Staples Center by shutting out the Kings to even the series, the 20-year-old goalie had a rougher time in his third game in the Ducks net. Lewis scored on an eminently stoppable shot, the puck trickling between Gibsons pads in the second period. Quick finally outplayed his young rival, and the Kings forced Game 7 despite getting just one goal from Jeff Carter and none from Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Dustin Brown, Justin Williams, Slava Voynov or Jarret Stoll in the series. Larry Bird Jersey. The Kings came out for their fifth elimination game of the spring with the same fire they possessed in their first four, setting the pace and outhitting the Ducks early. Los Angeles took the lead midway through the first period when Kopitar slid a pass through the slot to Muzzin, who hit a mostly open net for the defencemans third goal of the post-season, his first in 11 games. Kopitar got his seventh assist of the post-season and extended his overall NHL playoff scoring lead, while Marian Gaborik scored his 13th point in 11 games with the other assist. Gaborik nearly scored his sixth goal of the series later in the period, but the puck hopped over his stick after Gibson ventured far from his net and banked a clearing attempt off teammate Ryan Getzlafs leg. Lewis doubled the Kings lead with an innocent-looking wrist shot that sneaked between Gibsons legs for his first bad goal of the post-season. Lewis, a grinding forward, scored just six times in the entire regular season. The Ducks scored 1:38 later. Nick Bonino jumped on Tanner Pearsons turnover and got it to Palmieri, who wrapped it around Quicks net for his first playoff goal since Anaheims first-round opener. Anaheim had two power plays in the third period, but the unit that scored five goals in the previous four games couldnt connect. NOTES: F Kyle Clifford returned to the Kings lineup after a one-game benching, replacing Jordan Nolan. ... The Kings improved to 5-0 in the post-season when leading after two periods. ... Kopitar has points in 12 of the Kings 13 playoff games, but hasnt scored a goal in this series. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' ' |
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