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. 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. . Fans holding laudatory signs started showing up at Yankee Stadium when the gates opened at 4 p.m. Monday, an hour early in order to give them a chance to watch the New York captain take batting practice. .com) - Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James will sit out Thursdays game against the Oklahoma City Thunder with left knee soreness.
http://www.cheapairmaxchinawholesale.co ... utlet.html. -- Billy Andrade hasnt played much competitive golf over the past four years. . What they did need, the Devils got from Patrik Elias. Elias scored a power-play goal 40 seconds into overtime to give the New Jersey Devils a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars. ." Argos general manager Jim Barker uttered those words during an interview with TSN 1050 radio just prior to the CFLs annual free agent frenzy.The Oklahoma City Thunder will try to make it a competitive series against the San Antonio Spurs Sunday night when Game 3 of the Western Conference finals shifts to Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Thunder badly need a lift and they may get one in the return of Serge Ibaka. Ibaka, who missed the first two games and was expected to miss the entire postseason with a calf strain, improved significantly and will return. Watch the game on TSN starting at 8:30pm et/5:30pm pt. "The abundance of blood and therefore swelling in Serges calf has reduced substantially and unexpectedly, allowing a level of movement and stability not thought possible after the initial diagnosis," OKC general manager Sam Presti said in a release earlier on Sunday before Ibakas return was confirmed. "With this new information, and in an effort to keep his status current, we are now listing him as day-to-day with the understanding that there is a possibility for him to play in this series." "Im waiting what the doctor going to tell me and how my body going to feel," Ibaka said after Saturdays practice, acknowledging pain is more of a concern than further injury. Oklahoma City desperately needs him. The Spurs marched to a 2-0 series lead and have done so in convincing fashion. San Antonio has won the two games by an average of 26 points, thanks in large part to Wednesdays 112-77 drubbing in Game 2. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili made history on Wednesday night and led the Spurs to another win. San Antonios Big 3 combined for 47 points and the trio passed Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Cooper as the all-time winningest trio in NBA playoff history, winning their 111th postseason game together. Parker scored a game-high 22 points, Duncan went for 14 with 12 rebounds and Ginobili added 11 points off the bench in the blowout, as the Spurs leave the comfy confines of AT&T Center for Oklahoma City. In league history, 94 percent of teams to open a seven-game set 2-0 have gone on to advance. The Spurs sadly know all about the six percent. San Antonio held this exxact margin in the 2012 Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City, only to lose the next four and watch the Thunder lose to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.dddddddddddd "We know what were walking into," Duncan said. "Theyre so much better at home. Theyre going to have a lot of days to let it all fester." Duncan also racked up just under 29 minutes, passing Abdul-Jabbar for second most playoff minutes in league history in the process. Duncan is just 27 minutes back of Kobe Bryants all-time mark of 8,641 and barring injury will pass him later in this series. Danny Green made 7-of-10 from 3-point range for the Spurs, who won Mondays Game 1, 122-105. He finished with 21 and Boris Diaw was the other San Antonio player in double figures with 11. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook didnt do nearly enough to make up for Ibakas absence. The MVP and his electric point guard netted just 15 points apiece on 16 and 24 shots, respectively. The other three OKC starters only scored four points between them. "Were disappointed in our performance. We have to make a few adjustments and come back better," Thunder head coach Scott Brooks said. "We will continue to figure things out as a group like we always have done and come back Sunday and play a much better basketball game." The Thunder led 26-24 after the first quarter but were outscored 88-51 the rest of the way. The poor play has led to some blowups on the floor for OKC. At the end of the first half, when the game started getting out of hand for the Thunder, prior to a timeout, Westbrook and Durant got into a heated exchange. "I was just getting on Kevin about some stuff and he got on me right back," explained Westbrook. "And thats what teammates do. Thats what leaders do. We get on each other, we come back and we talk about it, and then we come out like nothing ever happened." The two have combined to shoot 35-for-80 from the field in the first two games. Westbrook has taken 10 more shots than the league MVP. Game 4 will be Tuesday night in Oklahoma City. ' ' '
