The Detroit Pistons staved off elimination with a hot streak over the past two weeks.
They officially fell out of the Eastern Conference playoff race on Wednesday night when they lost to the even hotter Philadelphia 76ers 115-108. The Sixers stretched their winning streak to 12 games.
Detroit had won seven of its last eight games but couldn’t erase a midseason collapse that saw it drop from eight games above .500 to nine games below that mark. The Pistons (37-41) have now missed the playoffs in eight of the last nine seasons.
They’ll host the lottery-bound Dallas Mavericks on Friday [url=http://www.pantherscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-ryan-kalil-jersey]Ryan Kalil Jersey[/url] , scrounging for reasons to stay focused.
“We still have four games to go,” Pistons forward Anthony Tolliver said. “We can claw and scratch and hopefully get to that .500 mark. Just something to play for.”
The Pistons have failed to make the playoffs in three of the four seasons with Stan Van Gundy as head coach and president of basketball operations.
“It’s tough, just because you work all season and to now be eliminated, it hurts,” forward Henry Ellenson said. “We had different goals coming into the year. We have four games left and we’ve just got to finish out strong.”
It’s uncertain how much their biggest star will play in those games. Power forward Blake Griffin has missed the last three games with a bone bruise in his right ankle. Van Gundy says Griffin will play if he’s healthy, even though the games are meaningless.
The Mavericks (24-55) will be without their future Hall of Famer. Dirk Nowitzki underwent a surgical procedure on his left ankle Thursday morning and will miss the remaining games. Before the Mavs’ 105-100 loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, he had appeared in all but one of the team’s previous 78 games.
Nowitzki reportedly decided to have the surgical debridement in order to accelerate the rehab process and play for one more season.
Star rookie Dennis Smith Jr. (left knee soreness) and Harrison Barnes (rest) were also among seven players who didn’t suit up at Orlando.
Guard J.J. Barea strained his left oblique during the game and will be shut down for the final three games.
“There’s nothing wrong,” Barea told Mavs.com. “I’m just making sure it won’t get worse. I don’t want to finish the season with it messed up. I had a good season.”
Coach Rick Carlisle has been juggling rotations on a game-by-game basis, often featuring end-of-the-bench types and players who spent a good portion of the season in the G League. Rookie guard Kyle Collinsworth played a career-high 35 minutes against the Magic and had 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
“I just try to play how I play, get in the lane, get my floaters up, be aggressive, find shooters [url=http://www.pantherscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-daeshon-hall-jersey]Daeshon Hall Jersey[/url] , pick up full court and create some sort of leverage for us,” Collinsworth told Mavs.com. “When I come in, no matter if it’s four minutes or however many minutes I played tonight, I play how I play. With extended minutes, you should have a little better stat line.”
Dallas manhandled Detroit in the first meeting on Dec. 20. Barnes scored 25 points and the Mavs accumulated 43 second-quarter points in a 110-93 victory.
Hal Steinbrenner says his New York Yankees may need a starting pitching upgrade if they’re going to reach their first World Series since 2009.
Steinbrenner, the Yankees managing general partner, said Wednesday the club will explore the trade market for an arm, especially considering the recent loss of left-hander Jordan Montgomery, who had season-ending Tommy John surgery on June 7.
The Yankees entered Wednesday with the best record in baseball, narrowly ahead of AL East rival Boston. The club has space to acquire an impact player and still remain under the $197 million luxury-tax threshold, a goal the team has stated several times.
”Clearly starting pitching was always a concern,” Steinbrenner said, speaking to a small group of reporters at an owners’ meeting. ”It’s definitely one of the areas we’re going to be looking at.
”Purposely left a decent amount of money for just this,” he added. ”If we decide to go get a pitcher and if a pitcher’s available [url=http://www.brownscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-e.j.-gaines-jersey]E.J. Gaines Jersey[/url] , I think we definitely have the flexibility that would allow me to do just that.”
Cole Hamels, Chris Archer and Madison Bumgarner are among the biggest names that could potentially be available at the deadline, but they would likely cost one or more of New York’s blue-chip prospects. Steinbrenner wants to be cautious about moving high-ceiling youngsters to beef up the rotation.
”It depends what the asks are. I mean, I love the young guys,” he said. ”Our fans love the young guys, and I think it’s obvious to all of us. They’ve made a heck of an impact, and to see Gleyber (Torres) and (Miguel) Andujar and others, you know, right off the heels of (Aaron) Judge and (Gary) Sanchez and (Luis) Severino, I mean it’s pretty amazing.”
The team does have internal options, and Steinbrenner said he’s willing to stick by some young, untested pitchers if needed. Jonathan Loaisiga will make his major league debut Friday, rookie Domingo German has held his own in six starts, and prospects Justus Sheffield [url=http://www.cowboyscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-mike-white-jersey]Mike White Jersey[/url] , Chance Adams and Erik Swanson could get looks later this year, too.
”We’ve got some options for August, September, but again, we’re going to look at anything that comes across our desk,” Steinbrenner said.
OFF AND RUNNING
Steinbrenner praised first-year manager Aaron Boone, pleased with his performance thus far despite the rookie manager having no professional coaching experience prior to the season.
”Everything we could ask for. Calm, cool, collected,” Steinbrenner said. ”Players have a lot of respect for him. He’s been great in the clubhouse and he’s been great with his coaching staff, and the coaches he’s brought in have been good so I mean it’s as advertised.”
NO WORRIES
Giancarlo Stanton has been good, but not great, in his first year with the Yankees. He entered Wednesday batting .240 with 14 homers, 34 RBIs and a .797 OPS – compared to a 1.007 OPS when he won the NL MVP Award last season. Steinbrenner believes New York’s marquee offseason acquisition will crank up his production soon [url=http://www.bengalscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-cordy-glenn-jersey]Cordy Glenn Jersey[/url] , though.
”He’s had ups and downs, but when he gets hot, he’ll carry a team,” Steinbrenner said. ”We’ve all seen that and it will happen. Work ethic is great. Worked his way right into the clubhouse in a great way, teammates like him, so he’s going to be great.”
NOT-SO-FRIENDLY SKIES
New York has had eight games either postponed or suspended by poor weather already this season. If that wasn’t enough of an inconvenience, they’ve also encountered their share of travel snafus- which included having to spend a night at Dulles International Airport in mid-May due to weather and a problem with the plane.
As an experienced pilot himself, Steinbrenner understands that air travel can be an inexact science.
”We all fly commercial and even small jets, even my plane has problems from time to time and I fly a dinky little propeller plane,” he said. ”So you start to get into these airliners, I mean they’re complex from the avionics to the life support systems to the engines to the hydraulics. They’re just complicated machines. … It’s obviously air transportation, very reliable and very safe. But it’s very safe and very reliable because they don’t take a plane up if it’s not close to a hundred percent, right?”
They officially fell out of the Eastern Conference playoff race on Wednesday night when they lost to the even hotter Philadelphia 76ers 115-108. The Sixers stretched their winning streak to 12 games.
Detroit had won seven of its last eight games but couldn’t erase a midseason collapse that saw it drop from eight games above .500 to nine games below that mark. The Pistons (37-41) have now missed the playoffs in eight of the last nine seasons.
They’ll host the lottery-bound Dallas Mavericks on Friday [url=http://www.pantherscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-ryan-kalil-jersey]Ryan Kalil Jersey[/url] , scrounging for reasons to stay focused.
“We still have four games to go,” Pistons forward Anthony Tolliver said. “We can claw and scratch and hopefully get to that .500 mark. Just something to play for.”
The Pistons have failed to make the playoffs in three of the four seasons with Stan Van Gundy as head coach and president of basketball operations.
“It’s tough, just because you work all season and to now be eliminated, it hurts,” forward Henry Ellenson said. “We had different goals coming into the year. We have four games left and we’ve just got to finish out strong.”
It’s uncertain how much their biggest star will play in those games. Power forward Blake Griffin has missed the last three games with a bone bruise in his right ankle. Van Gundy says Griffin will play if he’s healthy, even though the games are meaningless.
The Mavericks (24-55) will be without their future Hall of Famer. Dirk Nowitzki underwent a surgical procedure on his left ankle Thursday morning and will miss the remaining games. Before the Mavs’ 105-100 loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, he had appeared in all but one of the team’s previous 78 games.
Nowitzki reportedly decided to have the surgical debridement in order to accelerate the rehab process and play for one more season.
Star rookie Dennis Smith Jr. (left knee soreness) and Harrison Barnes (rest) were also among seven players who didn’t suit up at Orlando.
Guard J.J. Barea strained his left oblique during the game and will be shut down for the final three games.
“There’s nothing wrong,” Barea told Mavs.com. “I’m just making sure it won’t get worse. I don’t want to finish the season with it messed up. I had a good season.”
Coach Rick Carlisle has been juggling rotations on a game-by-game basis, often featuring end-of-the-bench types and players who spent a good portion of the season in the G League. Rookie guard Kyle Collinsworth played a career-high 35 minutes against the Magic and had 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
“I just try to play how I play, get in the lane, get my floaters up, be aggressive, find shooters [url=http://www.pantherscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-daeshon-hall-jersey]Daeshon Hall Jersey[/url] , pick up full court and create some sort of leverage for us,” Collinsworth told Mavs.com. “When I come in, no matter if it’s four minutes or however many minutes I played tonight, I play how I play. With extended minutes, you should have a little better stat line.”
Dallas manhandled Detroit in the first meeting on Dec. 20. Barnes scored 25 points and the Mavs accumulated 43 second-quarter points in a 110-93 victory.
Hal Steinbrenner says his New York Yankees may need a starting pitching upgrade if they’re going to reach their first World Series since 2009.
Steinbrenner, the Yankees managing general partner, said Wednesday the club will explore the trade market for an arm, especially considering the recent loss of left-hander Jordan Montgomery, who had season-ending Tommy John surgery on June 7.
The Yankees entered Wednesday with the best record in baseball, narrowly ahead of AL East rival Boston. The club has space to acquire an impact player and still remain under the $197 million luxury-tax threshold, a goal the team has stated several times.
”Clearly starting pitching was always a concern,” Steinbrenner said, speaking to a small group of reporters at an owners’ meeting. ”It’s definitely one of the areas we’re going to be looking at.
”Purposely left a decent amount of money for just this,” he added. ”If we decide to go get a pitcher and if a pitcher’s available [url=http://www.brownscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-e.j.-gaines-jersey]E.J. Gaines Jersey[/url] , I think we definitely have the flexibility that would allow me to do just that.”
Cole Hamels, Chris Archer and Madison Bumgarner are among the biggest names that could potentially be available at the deadline, but they would likely cost one or more of New York’s blue-chip prospects. Steinbrenner wants to be cautious about moving high-ceiling youngsters to beef up the rotation.
”It depends what the asks are. I mean, I love the young guys,” he said. ”Our fans love the young guys, and I think it’s obvious to all of us. They’ve made a heck of an impact, and to see Gleyber (Torres) and (Miguel) Andujar and others, you know, right off the heels of (Aaron) Judge and (Gary) Sanchez and (Luis) Severino, I mean it’s pretty amazing.”
The team does have internal options, and Steinbrenner said he’s willing to stick by some young, untested pitchers if needed. Jonathan Loaisiga will make his major league debut Friday, rookie Domingo German has held his own in six starts, and prospects Justus Sheffield [url=http://www.cowboyscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-mike-white-jersey]Mike White Jersey[/url] , Chance Adams and Erik Swanson could get looks later this year, too.
”We’ve got some options for August, September, but again, we’re going to look at anything that comes across our desk,” Steinbrenner said.
OFF AND RUNNING
Steinbrenner praised first-year manager Aaron Boone, pleased with his performance thus far despite the rookie manager having no professional coaching experience prior to the season.
”Everything we could ask for. Calm, cool, collected,” Steinbrenner said. ”Players have a lot of respect for him. He’s been great in the clubhouse and he’s been great with his coaching staff, and the coaches he’s brought in have been good so I mean it’s as advertised.”
NO WORRIES
Giancarlo Stanton has been good, but not great, in his first year with the Yankees. He entered Wednesday batting .240 with 14 homers, 34 RBIs and a .797 OPS – compared to a 1.007 OPS when he won the NL MVP Award last season. Steinbrenner believes New York’s marquee offseason acquisition will crank up his production soon [url=http://www.bengalscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-cordy-glenn-jersey]Cordy Glenn Jersey[/url] , though.
”He’s had ups and downs, but when he gets hot, he’ll carry a team,” Steinbrenner said. ”We’ve all seen that and it will happen. Work ethic is great. Worked his way right into the clubhouse in a great way, teammates like him, so he’s going to be great.”
NOT-SO-FRIENDLY SKIES
New York has had eight games either postponed or suspended by poor weather already this season. If that wasn’t enough of an inconvenience, they’ve also encountered their share of travel snafus- which included having to spend a night at Dulles International Airport in mid-May due to weather and a problem with the plane.
As an experienced pilot himself, Steinbrenner understands that air travel can be an inexact science.
”We all fly commercial and even small jets, even my plane has problems from time to time and I fly a dinky little propeller plane,” he said. ”So you start to get into these airliners, I mean they’re complex from the avionics to the life support systems to the engines to the hydraulics. They’re just complicated machines. … It’s obviously air transportation, very reliable and very safe. But it’s very safe and very reliable because they don’t take a plane up if it’s not close to a hundred percent, right?”
—
[url=http://www.basketballofficialauthentic.com/nba-jerseys/portland-trail-blazers/anfernee-simons-jersey]Anfernee Simons Jersey[/url] ,