by ldh2013 » Tue Jul 05, 2016 7:28 am
DENVER - Less than a week removed from a 51-point coming out party, Terrence Ross was at it again. . Ross had 16 points midway through Fridays game in Denver, connecting on six of his seven field goal attempts, none more memorable than his final bucket of the half. The Raptors guard picked off a pass from Kenneth Faried - one of the Nuggets 26 turnovers - and proceeded to go the length of the floor before throwing down one of the more emphatic one-handed dunks youll ever see directly over the defending Manimal. "I remember I had the ball, (Faried) had sprinted all the way down into the paint," Ross recalled. "So I knew he was kind of at a disadvantage and couldnt jump as high. Im coming full speed (and) he still jumped pretty high but at the same time I had enough room to still finish." The Raptors bench said it all. Jonas Valanciunas had to use most of his seven-foot-four wingspan to hold half his teammates from running on the floor. Ross had gotten their attention. "Man, its got to be a nomination for dunk of the year so far, especially on a guy like that," said All-Star DeMar DeRozan, who was returning from a two-game absence with an ankle injury. "That was big. I damn sure wouldnt have done it." Ross was 11-years-old the last time the Raptors had won in Denver. It was December 30, 2003, over a decade ago. Since then Toronto had dropped nine straight in the Mile High City by an average of 17.8 points per loss. The Raptors snapped that skid on Friday. In fact, it was the third time this season that theyve broken a road losing streak of eight or more games to a specific opponent (winning in Milwaukee for the first time in nine visits and snapping a 10-game slide to the Lakers in Los Angeles). They defeated the Nuggets by double digits and tied a franchise mark for most wins in January with 11. You wouldnt know it after the game. "Well take the W but I was disappointed and I let the players know about it," Dwane Casey said following a 100-90 victory over the depleted Nuggets. "I was disappointed in the close." Toronto led by as many as 25 early in the fourth before the visitors went ice cold. They went six minutes without scoring and didnt register a field goal over the final 7:44 of the game. "You cant come in and feel like youve got the game won with a 20-point lead," said the Raptors coach, infuriated after the victory. "Youve got to continue to execute, continue to be strong with the ball, continue to execute defensively if you want to be serious about winning in this league and until you grow up and do that, youre going to end up on the short end more times than not." "We cant be satisfied with the way we played in the fourth quarter." Times have changed and so too have the expectations. The bar has been raised, evident in Caseys post-game rant. "You have to respect that," said DeRozan, who tallied 14 of his 19 points in the third quarter. "Its not acceptable how we finished that game off with the turnovers. We have to learn to keep leads and close out games." Caseys team was excellent through three quarters, and to begin the fourth. When it was all said and done they were fortunate to be facing an undermanned Nuggets squad, missing leading scorer Ty Lawson, along with Nate Robinson and Andre Miller. Without a true point guard in the lineup, the Nuggets turned the ball over more than any Raptors opponent this season, resulting in 29 Toronto points. Still, Denver out-rebounded the Raptors by nine and bested them 50-38 in the paint. "They kicked our behinds in the paint and that was one of our focuses going into the game," Casey said. "We were soft going to the ball, slow reacting to the ball." In the end, the Raptors opened a five-game trip with a win, got off the schneid in Denver and welcomed DeRozan back to the lineup 24 hours after he was named a first-time All-Star. "Well take the win," Casey said. "Were happy with the win but we cant be satisfied. . The Bulls sent forward Luol Deng to the Cavaliers for Bynum, who was suspended by Cleveland for conduct detrimental to the team on Dec. . Amaro broke the NCAA all-time record for receiving yards in a season for a tight end with 1,352 during his junior campaign, eclipsing the mark of 1,329 set by Rices James Casey in 2008. . The Naismith trophy is awarded yearly by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to the college basketball Player of the Year.(SportsNetwork.com) - The Boston Red Sox eye back-to-back wins and a series victory on Wednesday when they close out a three-game set with the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. You can watch the game live on TSN2 and TSN GO at 7pm et/4pm pt. Boston has struggled on its nine-game road trip, but can close the trek with wins in three of its last four games after a brilliant effort from Brandon Workman in the Red Sox 1-0 win on Tuesday. Workman (1-0) had allowed only a walk to Nelson Cruz before Ryan Flaherty laced a clean single with two out in the bottom of the sixth. It was one of only two hits by Baltimore on the night, with Andrew Miller, Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara finishing off the shutout after Workman stymied the Orioles through 6 2/3 innings. "He was outstanding, especially in light of the two different rain delays," Boston manager John Farrell said of Workman. Bostons pitchers made Mike Napolis third-inning RBI single hold up to give the Red Sox just their second victory in eight games. Chris Tillman (5-3) was saddled with the hard-luck loss after permitting the lone run in six innings of work. "I was really pleased with Chris," Os manager Buck Showalter said. . "Unfortunately they just pitched a little better than we did." Orioles third baseman Manny Machado, suspended five games pending an appeal earlier in the day for throwing his bat onto the field Sunday against Oakland, was in the lineup and went 0-for-4. Heading to the hill for Boston on Wednesday will be righty Rubby De La Rosa, who is 1-1 with a 2.84 ERA. De La Rosa absorbed the loss on Friday in Detroit, as he surrendered four runs in 5 2/3 innings. He had tossed seven scoreless innings in his season debut a week earlier. "I feel almost 100 percent like last time," De La Rosa said. "I just missed more pitches." Baltimore, meanwhile, will turn to lefty Wei-Yin Chen, who is 6-2 with a 4.13 ERA. Chen did not factor in the decision of his teams 4-3 loss on Friday to Oakland, as he allowed two runs and five hits in 6 1/3 frames. Chen beat Boston earlier in the year and is 3-3 lifetime against them with a 5.26 ERA in nine starts. Boston has won five of its nine meetings with the Orioles this season. ' ' '
