NEW ORLEANS -- Andre Drummond grabbed everything in sight, even that MVP trophy that came apart. Drummond had 30 points and a Rising Stars Challenge-record 25 rebounds, leading Team Hill to a 142-136 victory over Team Webber on Friday night. Coach Nate McMillan said general manager Grant Hill talked to his team before the game about performing like Denvers Kenneth Faried, who had 40 points and 10 rebounds while winning MVP honours last year. The message got through to Drummond, who grabbed 14 offensive rebounds. "Drummond had in his mind that he was going to go out and play the game hard," said McMillan, an assistant to Indiana coach Frank Vogel. "Every rebound that came off the board, he wanted. A few of them he took from his teammates, but I liked his aggressiveness." Besides an impressive tally of dunks and rebounds, Drummond even managed to make his free throws. A 41 per cent shooter during the regular season, the Detroit forward went 6 for 8, including a pair with 29 seconds left after chasing down Bradley Beals missed free throw to give his team a five-point lead. He eventually got to hoist the MVP trophy, though not before it fell to the court when a representative from game sponsor BBVA tried to hand it to him. It comes in two pieces, a star on top of the base, and the presenter was apparently unaware when he grabbed it by the top. "It happened last year, too, so I wasnt expecting anything less," Drummond said. "Usually a slip-up happens every year with the trophy. So I wasnt too shocked about that." Clevelands Dion Waiters had 31 points, mostly coming during a 1-on-1 duel with New Yorks Tim Hardaway Jr. in the second half. Beal finished with 21 for Team Hill, picked by former NBA star Hill. Hardaway scored 36 points and made seven 3-pointers for fellow former Michigan star Chris Webbers squad. Philadelphia rookie Michael Carter-Williams had 17 points, nine assists and six rebounds. Portlands Damian Lillard had 13 points, five rebounds and five assists in the victory, making him 1 for 1 during the busiest All-Star weekend ever. Last seasons NBA Rookie of the Year will take part in five events, three more on All-Star Saturday and the All-Star game on Sunday. All-Stars such as Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard and Kyrie Irving watched the game, with Irving leaping to his feet at one point after watching Waiters, his Cavaliers teammate, try to take over the game with about 8 minutes to play. Waiters had two baskets and then two 3-pointers, one of them when he stepped back after faking a move to the basket that made Hardaway lose his balance. Hardaway answered back with two 3-pointers of his own as the crowd roared. "We were just trying to do a great job of just getting the fans involved," Hardaway said. "It was kind of dead in there and we just wanted to just start something, a little 1-on-1 battle here and there, and it was great." Waiters then clinched the duel when he knocked the ball free for a rare defensive highlight in the game, nailing his second straight 3-pointer to give team Hill the lead for good at 126-124 with 2:44 left. Drummond followed with a dunk for a four-point advantage, and Team Webber could never catch up. The game that began as a matchup of top rookies and later turned into rookies against second-year players now mixes the rosters. Thats probably a good thing, since this years crop of kids is so underwhelming. Only two of the top 10 picks in the 2013 draft, which has been hindered by injuries, were invited to this game, No. 2 Oladipo and No. 9 Trey Burke. Players were picked to play on Team Hill and Team Webber, which they wore under their numbers on the back of their jerseys. Drummond 16 points and 10 rebounds in his first 10 minutes and shot 12 of 21 for the game. . There are surprises among the Vezina candidates, but most of the others are standard top-tier performers, even if the two Hart Trophy runners-ups have never been quite as good as they have been through the first half of the season. . Instead, Nonis and Kessel were sorting through the fallout of a wild melee with the Buffalo Sabres, one that saw Kessel suspended for the duration of the pre-season.
https://www.cheapclippersonline.com/130 ... ppers.html. So what happens? Stevenson lands a huge left to Dawsons temple only 76 seconds into the opening round and walks away with the championship belt. "I said Id knock him out," said Stevenson (21-1). . Indeed, must be among the greatest challenges in all of sports. The pressure he applies, from set to set, game to game, point to point, shot to shot. . -- Fresh off their surprising run in the playoffs, the Portland Trail Blazers have signed head coach Terry Stotts to a multi-year contract extension.Monique Lamoureux, Brianna Decker and Amanda Kessel all scored within 55 seconds in the first period as the United States romped to a 9-0 victory over Switzerland on Monday to all-but clinch a spot in the Olympic womens hockey semifinals. It was the quickest three-goal sequence in Olympic history, with the latter two coming just eight seconds apart. Kessel, Lamoureux and Kendall Coyne all scored twice for the Americans, and Molly Schaus made 10 saves in her Sochi debut. With a 2-0 winning record, the U.S. is in position for a spot in the medal round regardless of what happens on Wednesday in the game against Canada, the marquee matchup of the round-robin. Canada was scheduled to play Finland on Monday night in its last tuneup before the North American grudge match. Switzerland lost for the second time and likely is headed for a spot in the quarterfinals against one of the top two teams in the bottom-tier. Hilary Knight and Alex Carpenter also scored for the United States, which led 5-0 after onee period and outshot the Swiss 53-10.dddddddddddd Florence Schelling, who played at Northeastern, made 42 saves for Switzerland against Schaus, of Boston College, on the morning of the Beanpot finals where their schools will play for the mens hockey bragging rights of Boston. The biggest mismatch so far in the womens hockey round-robin was scoreless for half a period before Lamoureaux gave the Americans the lead and Decker added one 47 seconds later. Kessel got the puck off the ensuing faceoff, skated into the zone on the left side, passed the puck to herself off the boards to get around a defender and then cut in front of the net, where she beat Schelling. Lamoreaux made it 6-0 in the second period. In the third period, Coyne had a shot that convinced the goal judge to turn on the red light, but play continued until Kessel put the puck in the net a few minutes later. After video review, Coynes goal was verified and the time was put back on the clock, negating Kessels apparent score. ' ' '
