Weve got to get rid of that tag of teams coming in,

Posted in IYH Forums by lavender123456 at 01:20, Jun 27 2014

CONCORD, N.C. - Jamie McMurray started his day at home with his young son, who vowed to spend the day playing in his sand box. Then Carter McMurray asked his dad what he had planned for Saturday. "Im going to race for a million bucks, " McMurray told him. Race for it? Sure. Win it? With his Las Vegas odds at 40-1, McMurray was one of the biggest long shots Saturday night in the Sprint All-Star race. But he pulled off a masterful upset, staging a tense door-to-door battle with Carl Edwards to grab the $1 million prize with his first All-Star victory. McMurray, who led a race-high 31 laps, had never before led a lap in the All-Star race, and his previous best finish in seven appearances in the exhibition was eighth. McMurray was second on the restart for the 10-lap sprint to the checkered flag. Lined up outside of pole-sitter Edwards, McMurray flirted several times for the lead on a frantic lap around Charlotte Motor Speedway. Although he surged slightly ahead several times, and the two cars appeared to touch more than once, McMurray finally cleared Edwards for the lead two laps into the fifth and final segment. "As a kid, that is what you grew up wanting to do, is have a shootout like that and have a possibility to race for 10 laps," McMurray said. "He got a little bit of a jump on me on the restart and I was able to hang on to his quarter panel, and when we kept entering Turn 1 and 3, I was like, It is for a million bucks. If we wreck, its not that big of a deal. "Its so cool to come out on top." Once he cleared Edwards, McMurray easily pulled away for the victory. Edwards, who faded to fifth, immediately watched the replay after the race. "Jamie just did a perfect job on the start. I had him cleared for a minute," Edwards said. "If I would have pulled in front of him in Turn 1, if I would have gone high, I think we would have won that race. But I was just so reluctant to give up the bottom. It was a drag race. My hat is off to him. He earned it." McMurrays first career victory came at Charlotte in 2002 in his second start with Chip Ganassi Racing. He also won in 2010 and goes into the Coca-Cola 600 next Sunday needing a win in that race to have career victories in all three of Charlottes main events. Kevin Harvick finished second, Matt Kenseth was third and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who complained earlier in the race he was driving a dump truck, was fourth. Kurt Busch was 11th after qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day. "Really happy to see Jamie win, its always nice to see good guys win," said Kenseth, a former teammate of McMurrays at Roush Fenway Racing. It seemed to be a popular victory as several drivers made a point to congratulate McMurray in their post-race interviews as the driver took his Chevrolet to Victory Lane. He was met there by team owners Felix Sabates and Chip Ganassi, who flew into North Carolina before the race after Indianapolis 500 qualifying. It was a tough day for Ganassi in Indianapolis, where none of his five cars made it into the Fast 9 qualifying round and Scott Dixon was his fastest driver at 15th. "We obviously didnt have a good day in Indianapolis and youre damn right this turned the day around," said Ganassi, who kissed McMurray as he and Sabates cut the post-race news conference short to head back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Kyle Busch won the first segment, but his night ended early in the second 20-lap segment when he used an aggressive move in a fast attempt to avoid running into the back of older brother, Kurt. "His brother forced his hand," Clint Bowyer said of the accident that nearly collected his car. "Hell, I dont know how I didnt wreck." The Busch brothers were running together when Kurt was too close to the outside wall and Kyle tried to dart into the middle lane to avoid hitting him. Instead, Kyle hit the back of Bowyer as he tried to swing around Bowyer into a third lane. Bowyer clipped him as Busch surged ahead, and it began a spin that sent Busch into the path of Joey Logano. Busch failed to finish the All-Star race for the fifth time in nine years. "I saw Kurt get really bottled up and about get in the wall, so he had to check-up real hard and my shot was in the middle, to go across three lanes and underneath Bowyer," Busch said. "But Bowyer blocked it and when he did, I got into him. Those are the opportunities you have to take in the All-Star." Kasey Kahne went on to win that segment, and the third segment. "I say just leave the car for now, felt pretty good right there," Kahne radioed after the third segment as his crew debated pit strategy. But his night fell apart in the fourth segment when he hit the wall to damage his Chevrolet. "I hit it hard. I blew it bad," he radioed. "Sorry, guys. I cant believe that happened. We had the best car here by far. Great, great car." Kahne wound up 14th. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . The Toronto Raptors have just one game left in a season to forget before an off-season full of question marks. Neither Trianos job as head coach, Bryan Colangelos position as president and GM, nor the immediate continuance of the league itself is a given right now. Cheap NFL Jerseys . "It was nerve-wracking, but we pulled through," said Collaros, who threw four touchdown passes to lead the Toronto Argonauts (8-4) to a 33-27 win over the Calgary Stampeders (9-3) in front of 28,781 fans at McMahon Stadium. http://www.cheapnfljerseybest.com/. Sure, they still miss injured captain Sidney Crosby and other sidelined stars, but Evgeni Malkin is doing his best to pick up the scoring slack. Richard Park scored the go-ahead goal 2:23 into the third period, and Malkin padded the lead with two late tallies to give the suddenly hot Penguins a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday night. Wholesale Jerseys . Following back-to-back wins against the Western Conference-leading Grand Rapids Griffins, the Marlies found themselves over confident against the Syracuse Crunch on Friday and fell 6-3 in American Hockey League play. Cheap Jerseys From China . The pair reclaimed their Canadian ice dance title on Saturday, winning with a score of 180.TORONTO - Winning the game was not important, Dwane Casey repeated leading up to his teams sixth exhibition game Monday. Apparently nobody told the young group of reserves that shared the floor as the Raptors heroics forced two overtime periods before clinching the victory in a game that exceeded three hours in duration. For Casey this game, like the five that proceeded it, was all about finding cohesion amongst his second unit, determining the right combinations as he works to trim down his rotation and seeing what he has in the young players who will make up the end of his bench. On Monday all of that meant playing to win. With 11 seconds remaining, down two coming out of a timeout, Casey considered going for the win; an all or nothing three-point attempt that may have appeased the working media, many of whom grew restless as the rare preseason thriller crawled along. Instead, Landry Fields inbounded to Tyler Hansbrough on the elbow, who faked the pass back to Fields and blew by an unsuspecting Metta World Peace for the two-handed slam to tie the game. "I owed it to the players," Casey said of his decision to force overtime. "Weve got to try to execute down the stretch. It crossed my mind [to go for the three] but it wasnt the right thing to do." "It was good for us to learn," he explained following Torontos 123-120 win over the Knicks. "I know its excruciating for [the media] to have to stay up late and miss [their] deadlines but its good for [the players]." No starter played in the fourth quarter or in either of the extra periods as Casey continued to experiment with his reserves, many of whom have failed to stand out over the first six games. Hansbrough and Terrence Ross, who both figure to be mainstays off the bench this season, came through down the stretch while Quincy Acy, Dwight Buycks and Julyan Stone - who still hasnt made the team but is a safe bet to snag the final roster spot - played like they have something to prove. "The guys fought, scraped [and] got their way back into the game," Casey said. "Its a great experience for those young kids to be able to play in those situations because in the regular season most likely, unless something catastrophic happens, theyre not going to be in the game." "It prepares you for future games," said Ross, who scored a game-high 27 points including a buzzer beating three-pointer that forced double overtime. "If you ever get in that situation you know what to do and what not to do." "You really just get comfortable in that situation," he continued, "because the first time you go out there its always kind of nerve-racking no matter how many times you go over it in practice so just getting that live experience helps." Raining Ross Triples With 4.1 seconds remaining in the first overtime period, Julyan Stone found Ross - the inbounder - coming off a screen. The sophomore rose up, faded away and drilled the game-tying triple at the buzzer. By that point Ross was on fire. The Raptors guard was just one-for-three, all three-point attempts, through seven minutes in the first three quarters. He finished the game seven-for-15, including six-of-13 from long range, in just over 25 minutes. "My teammates kept passing me the ball," he said, "so I knew if they were passing to me I was going to shoot it. They gave me the confidence to keep shooting so thats what I did." At times Ross has been the most impressive player on the floor during the preseason, scoring most of his points in bunches. Other times, specifically early in games, hes gone relatively unnoticed, something Casey has noticed and is working with him to correct. "It took Terrence a little while to get going," the Raptors coach said of Ross, who should be the second units biggest source of offence if he can become more consistent. "Once he got going he was okay but hes got to do that as sooon as he comes in [the game] in that second quarter.dddddddddddd" Shades of Hakeem Once again in the preseason DeMar DeRozan put on a show in the paint, completely dominating smaller defenders in the post and making it look easy. From his trusted up and under move, to a devastating spin that made rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. look silly, to the fake behind the back pass that fooled former defensive player of the year Tyson Chandler en route to an easy lay in, DeRozan continued to turn heads and earn high praise. "I thought his footwork when they had single coverage [on him] was big-time," Casey said of DeRozans work in the post. "He looked like hed been working with Hakeem [Olajuwon] down there." "Its a footwork thing," said DeRozan, who has been studying film of great post-up guards including Kobe Bryant and Andre Miller. "Understanding how a players going to play me and just using my advantages. I know if I get a player in the air either I get the foul or get the lay-up. I just have different options and Im starting to understand that more." DeRozan had 21 points in just under 30 minutes, shooting 8-for-15 from the field, including his first two treys of the preseason. After going a perfect 5-of-5 in the paint Monday, he is now shooting 19-for-25 (76 per cent) in the restricted area, where he has taken 43 per cent of his field goal attempts during the exhibition season. Chemistry on the Wing The league, or at least the Knicks, have noticed the evolution in DeRozans game as hes beginning to see double teams intended to put pressure on him as a ball handler. "I thought his passes out of the double teams were huge," Casey said. "I think Rudy [Gay] got a three off of one of them. So hes got to punish them with the pass as much as his scoring out of the post." DeRozan improved his ball handling and court vision last season and looks to be taking the next step playing alongside another dangerous offensive weapon in Rudy Gay. Gay finished with 19 points on 5-of-10 shooting, also hitting a couple of three-pointers, in just under 26 minutes. Continued Search for Second-Unit Symmetry Again, the group of Ross, Fields, Hansbrough, D.J. Augustin and Austin Daye struggled to begin the second quarter on Monday. That group, which has given up early leads on a couple occasions this fall, gave up a one-point advantage that the starters had earned coming out of the opening frame and allowed the Knicks to rip off 15-6 run before Casey was forced to call a quick timeout and regroup. "I was disappointed in the approach in the second quarter," he admitted. "When you come in the game theres nobody guaranteed minutes. We cant come in soft. Weve got to get rid of that tag of teams coming in, pushing us under the bucket, grabbing offensive rebounds, taking the ball away from us with us being non-physical and I thought in the second quarter we did that." The Raptors, who finished the game with a 57-52 advantage on the boards, were outrebounded by nine in the first half. Augustin and Daye played just seven minutes and gave way to Buycks, Stone and Acy in the second half. An Uneventful Return for Bargnani Andrea Bargnani made his second preseason return to Toronto in a span of 10 days. The former Raptors forward was booed by the sparse crowd during pre-game introductions but the harsh reception was a bit more subdued than it was during his first game back and tailed off as the night went on. Bargnani scored 13 points, five of them from the free-throw line, on 4-of-12 shooting after starting off 1-of-8. Up Next The Raptors will host Memphis at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday. Hear it live on TSN 1050 Radio at 7pm et. With just two exhibition games remaining, Casey has indicated he will begin to tighten the rotation and give his starters more playing time, including minutes in the fourth quarter as they prepare for the start of the regular season. ' ' '