INDIANAPOLIS -- The hard part for the Indiana Pacers isnt over. It takes time to climb out of a slump. "Once youre not playing well and you finally get a win, the hardest part is maintaining that consistency," Paul George said. "You have to understand that its going to be different every night, but you got to find a way to build off the first win." George had 27 points and 13 rebounds, David West scored 15 points and the Indiana Pacers snapped a three-game skid with a 101-94 win over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night. George hit a 3-pointer from 35-feet to give the Pacers a 94-90 lead with 3:19 remaining and Indiana never trailed the rest of the way. Josh Smith scored 15 of his 24 points in the first quarter and finished with five rebounds, and Greg Monroe added 16 points for the Pistons, who have lost four of their last five games. Brandon Jennings hit a 3 to get Detroit within 94-93 before George scored, forced a turnover and West hit a jumper to give the Pacers a 98-93 lead with 1:35 left to play. "We were locked in really early in this game," George said. "They made a late push when we were up a good eight points, they made a pretty good push. But I felt our guys were locked in throughout this whole game." Georges two free throws with 8:54 left in the third gave Indiana a 58-50 lead. The Pistons bounced back with a 9-0 run and Rodney Stuckey hit a 3-pointer to give Detroit a 74-73 lead with 13 seconds left in the third. The Pacers gave fans mixed signals. At times Indianas sluggish play showed signs of a team that continues to struggle with chemistry, shooting and turnovers. The Pistons scored 17 points off 10 Indiana turnovers. At other times the Pacers looked like the same old team fans were used to before the All-Star break. Bankers Life Fieldhouse was abnormally silent when the Pistons went on an 8-0 run midway through the first quarter and took a 23-14 lead after Monroe scored with 4:19 left in the opening quarter. Then the Pacers showed signs of life. They went on a 12-2 spurt to close out the first. George scored to give the Pacers a 28-27 lead with 20 seconds left in the first. Evan Turner dunked and West scored to give the Pacers a 35-32 lead with 8:03 remaining in the second quarter. "We had good pace, we threw it up the floor, we attacked," Pistons interim coach John Loyer said. "I cant fault the way our guys played. They competed their butts off against the best team in the East." The Pistons went on an 8-0 run to take 40-35 lead with 5:13 left in the second quarter. Stephenson then sparked a 10-0 surge with a one-handed dunk and George closed it out with a 3 to give the Pacers a 45-40 advantage with 3:20 left in the half. Georges free throw with 31 seconds left in the second gave the Pacers a 50-46 lead at halftime. The Pistons handed Indiana its first home loss of the season, 101-96 back on Dec. 16 -- one of the few positives for Detroit this season. The Pacers won twice in Detroit, including a 112-104 overtime win on March 15. Indiana hopes Wednesdays win over the Pistons is the start to getting back to playing at the level they were. "You get a win, but you have to string a couple together," Pacers centre Roy Hibbert said. "Winning is hard work. We have to see if we can keep it going." It wont be easy. The Pacers play three of their next four games on the road. They go to Toronto on Friday and will host Atlanta on Sunday before going on the road to Milwaukee and Miami next week. They host Oklahoma City on April 13 in Indianas final home game before the playoffs. NOTES: Detroit G Chauncey Billups was out after left knee surgery. ... Pistons G Josh Harrellson was out with a knee injury, C Andrew Bynum was out with a sore right knee and G C.J. Watson was out with a right hamstring straight. ... Hibbert left the game with 1:21 left in the first quarter after he hit the back of his head falling to the ground on a Flagrant 1 foul called on Charlie Villanueva. Team officials said Hibbert has questionable with a sore neck, but he started the second half. . The Pistons shot 44 per cent in the first quarter and led by as many as nine points, but went 23 of 68 (33.8 per cent) in the final three quarters. . At quarterback, all agree that Andy Dalton has been a wonderful surprise, but to truly progress he has to play his best in the playoffs. The two losses in the wildcard rounds keep the evaluation on Dalton open -- just like it did for Peyton Manning many years ago and Matt Ryan until last year. . The three Calgary natives will compete after the sport was skipped by the Vancouver Games in 2010 but later included on the program for Sochi, Russia. The fight to include womens ski jumping prior to Vancouver went to the courts only to have the Supreme Court of Canada rule against the athletes appeal in 2009.
http://www.cheapcoltsjerseyssale.com/?t ... ersey-sale. Now the Minnesota Vikings have set their sights on soccer. . – Team Canadas Brooke Henderson carded a 4-under 67 at Craigowan Golf and Country Club to jump into the lead at the Canadian Womens Amateur Championship on Wednesday. . The 12th-ranked Haas served well throughout the match at the Ibirapuera arena, allowing only one break point to the 152nd-ranked Italian. Both players held serve until the first-set tiebreak, when Haas stepped up his game to easily clinch the set.MESA, Ariz. -- No matter what the record says, Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein insists he sees progress as he begins his third season in charge. It hasnt shown at the major league level. "The people that we have in place in this organization -- the coaches, scouts -- I believe are impact, and I believe in the processes that we have in place," Epstein said Thursday. "It takes time to turn our organization around. It takes time to build impact talent and to build requisite depth. But its happening. People in those meetings, the people in this organization, really believe that were on the verge of something special. And we understand that were perceived otherwise, and thats our fault because weve been a last-place club the last couple years. Were not protesting. We need to earn our way into a position where were championship contenders on an annual basis, and we feel like that is certainly moving in the right direction." It hasnt been an easy process, and while success might be on the horizon, it doesnt appear to be at hand. Pitchers and catchers reported on Thursday, and for the Cubs, it doesnt look like much will be different this season. They were relatively quiet in the off-season, although they did hire manager Rick Renteria to replace the fired Dale Sveum and made a run at star Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, but mostly it looks like they are in for more rough times at the major league level as they wait for their top prospects to develop in the minors. Their most recent winning season was when they went 83-78 under Lou Piniella in 2009. With four straight sub-.500 seasons, theyve matched their longest streak since 1984 to 1988. And another losing season would put them on their longest run since they finished below .500 six years in a row from 1978 to 1983. For now, the Cubs continue to sell hope, a promise that better days are coming. They tout their minor league system, and while renovations to Wrigley Field remain on hold, they can point to new facilities in the Dominican Republic along with a spring training home that just opened. As for the Cubs record, it cant get much worse. Theyve dropped 91 or more games each of the past three years and are coming off a two-year run under Sveum that produceed a 127-197 record.dddddddddddd Theyre hoping Renteria will provide the right atmosphere for young major league players such as shortstop Starlin Castro and first baseman Anthony Rizzo as well as top prospects Javier Baez, Jorge Soler, Albert Almora and Kris Bryant. They believe they have three solid starters in Travis Wood, Jeff Samardzija and Edwin Jackson, although Jackson struggled last season and Samardzija is a potential trade chip after he was unable to reach a long-term agreement and took a one-year deal. Jake Arrieta, a candidate to start, might not be ready for the beginning of the season because of tightness in his right shoulder. General manager Jed Hoyer revealed Thursday that Arrieta, acquired from Baltimore last July, experienced some tightness this winter and is being brought along slowly. Hoyer announced Arrietas injury after confirming the Cubs agreed to one-year contracts with starting pitchers Jason Hammel and James McDonald. Both could be candidates to be traded before the deadline if they succeed, considering thats exactly what the Cubs did with Paul Maholm and Scott Feldman the past two seasons. "We know we have some numbers now," Hoyer said. They also have hope that better days are coming. "Theres a real dichotomy between how the organization is perceived from the outside and how we look at it internally and the morale that we have internally," Epstein said. NOTES: Renteria tabbed newcomer Jose Veras as the closer. ... Hoyer basically dismissed the idea of moving Castro to another position even though he and the White Soxs Alexei Ramirez led major league shortstops with 22 errors last season and Baez is in the pipeline. "Castros our shortstop," Hoyer said. "We have all the confidence in the world that hell remain our shortstop and hell keep working hard and keep improving. And he knows theres (room) to improve there." ... Hoyer said reliever Kyuji Fujikawa will soon start throwing off the mound. Hes coming off Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right elbow. ... Epstein said the Cubs will look to draft pitchers going forward, although not necessarily with their first pick. ' ' '
