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TORONTO - On the eve of the All-Star starters announcement, just before the leagues coaches begin to fill out their ballots for the reserves, DeMar DeRozan made his case a little bit more compelling. http://www.airforce1sale.nl/air-huarache-bestellen...-roze.h tml . A career performance, just when his team needed it most, may be enough to sway a vote or two and send the Raptors fifth-year guard to New Orleans. "Oh man, hes definitely been playing well, All-Star level," said Amir Johnson, shortly after watching his teammate go off for a career-high 40 points in the Raptors come-from-behind win, 93-85 over the Mavericks on Wednesday. "Hes a big reason why weve been so successful." Coming into the game, the Raptors had dropped three of four, all to losing teams missing their best player. The 25-win Mavericks were a different animal, though they too were without leading scorer Dirk Nowitzki, and after 12 minutes this had disaster written all over it. "I thought it was going to be a blow out," Dwane Casey admitted, his team down by 19 going into the second quarter, trailing by as many as 21 in the first. DeRozan kept his team afloat in the first half. He scored 12 of their 15 first-quarter points, accounting for four of their five field goals. He was playing well, having the sort of outing that winds up forcing its way into the bottom of a somber game story, a footnote at the end of another horrific defeat. Then he took his game, and most importantly his team, to another level, a ridiculous level. "He got in the flow of the game," Casey said of DeRozan, who scored 15 points in the third quarter, then another nine in the fourth, missing just two shots in the second half. "He was running the pick-and-roll, they started blitzing him, he did a good job of finding [his teammates] and then the ball found him back and that was good. It was a growth on his part from being double teamed but being patient enough to get the ball back and be able to score." The Raptors guard was remarkable coming out of the break, knocking down off balance jumpers, getting to the rim at will but most importantly, he was efficient and he got to the free throw line. DeRozan needed just 22 shots to become the seventh player in franchise history to record 40 points, connecting on nine of 14 attempts from the stripe and knocking down his only three-pointer. He matched his previous career-high - 37, set three times - with a nifty spin and reverse layup, solidifying a new personal best on the subsequent free throw with 3:38 remaining. For him, the accomplishment was gravy. Despite his recent fourth-quarter struggles, DeRozan came through for his team in the clutch. That three-point play broke the tie and gave the Raptors a lead they would go on to hold for the duration of the night. "This loss would have hurt," DeRozan said. "We didnt want to lose three in a row. I just told myself, just try to do as much as I can to win, try to pull this one off and keep my team in it." DeRozan was saddled with more of the offensive burden on Wednesday, as fellow All-Star candidate Kyle Lowry battled a stomach flu that had the Raptors point guard running to the locker room, back and forth throughout the evening. Lowry scored just three points, misfiring on all 10 of his field goal attempts in 35 hard-fought minutes. "Once I [saw] Kyle go back [to the locker room] and he came back, he had his head down and holding his stomach, I could tell he wasnt feeling too well," DeRozan said. "He didnt stop playing," Casey said, crediting Lowry. "He dove on the floor, got his hands on loose balls, he affected the game without scoring." Casey continues to contact his fellow coaches, campaigning for both guards to get the nod and represent the Raptors as reserves in next months All-Star game, set to take place in New Orleans on Feb. 16. The starters for both East and West teams will be announced live on TNT on Thursday and the reserves, to be voted in by the coaches, will be revealed a week later, also on TNT. With representatives from Miami and Indiana expected to monopolize the Eastern Conference roster, its unlikely Toronto will have more than one All-Star. Of the two, DeRozans bid has been gaining some traction, according to league sources. Entering Wednesdays games, DeRozan ranked 12th in the NBA in scoring, fifth in the East and has tallied 20 or more points in nine of 12 contests during the month of January. Returning to Toronto for the second time since last seasons trade, Jose Calderon - beloved Raptors alum - was genuinely proud of Lowry and long-time teammate DeRozan. "Theyre just playing better, they just have that confidence and theyre playing at a very high level every game," Calderon said of the Raptors backcourt duo prior to Wednesdays game. "I really enjoy watching them and its great. Hopefully they get that call and they can be in New Orleans. Its always great to see your [former] teammates being successful and Im really happy for them." Like his first return, as a member of the Pistons last year, Calderon was greeted by a standing ovation during pre-game introductions at the Air Canada Centre. Another former Raptor, Vince Carter, received a mixed reception, which was verging on positive for the first time since his messy divorce with the franchise nearly nine years ago. Thanks to another admirable performance from the Raptors bench, who helped turn things around in the second quarter, and some late-game heroics from the slumping Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas, DeRozans career night was not wasted. Greivis Vasquez scored a season-high 17 to go along with seven assists, also picking up the slack for the flu-ridden Lowry. Meanwhile, Casey entrusted both Johnson and Valanciunas with crucial fourth-quarter playing time despite subpar starts, the frontcourt duo combining for 10 points in that final period. The Raptors 21-point comeback victory was their largest of the year, besting last months win in Dallas, where they overcame a 19-point deficit. Toronto sweeps the season series with the Mavs for the second time in franchise history and first since 1996-97, wrapping up the first half of the campaign with a winning record. "Were ahead of schedule," Casey said, assessing his teams progress 41 games in. "Were winning some games in our building and were happy with that." "But were still not a finished product. [We] have a lot of work to do." Air Force 1 Low Dames . Rafael Marquez, Andres Guardado and Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez scored in a 10-minute span in the second half, dooming a talented Croatia side to elimination from the group stage. http://www.airforce1sale.nl/all-rood-air-force-one...oenen.h tml . With long-term injuries to Braydon Coburn and Andrew MacDonald, and call-ups from Lehigh Valley a stop-gap measure, team general manager Ron Hextall sprang for some experience on the blue line. DALLAS -- Brandan Wrights season debut just happened to come on a night when Dirk Nowitzki was home sick. The trade-off worked out just fine for Dallas. Wright led the Mavericks with 19 points, Jose Calderon got the offence going early and finished with 18, and Dallas shrugged off the absence of Nowitzki and coach Rick Carlisle to beat the Milwaukee Bucks 106-93 Saturday night. Nowitzki and Carlisle missed the game with an undisclosed illness. Carlisle has been fighting an upper respiratory problem since before a four-game road trip that started last week. Wright, who missed the first 23 games with a shoulder injury, scored seven straight points in a 19-5 run that put Dallas in control, 43-26, early in the second quarter. "Im going to be aggressive either way it goes," said Wright, who was 9 of 10 from the floor and added six rebounds in 19 minutes. "If Dirk plays or Monta (Ellis) plays or none of those guys play, Ive got to play the same way. Ive got to play hard." John Henson had 18 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Bucks, who fell behind by 34 late in the third quarter before rallying in the fourth to make the final score respectable. O.J. Mayo, who played despite the recent death of his grandmother, had four points on 1-of-6 shooting in his first game in Dallas against his former team since signing with the Bucks as a free agent last summer. "We came in here and laid an egg," Milwaukee coach Larry Drew said. "We didnt play well. We had very low energy, which was disappointing." Nowitzki and Carlisle missed the shootaround earlier Saturday and werent at American Airlines Center for the game. The Mavericks dont play again until Wednesday, so they should have plenty of time to recover. Even without their star and their coach, the Mavericks were never in much trouble with assistant Monte Mathis in charge. Dallas didnt even need much from Ellis, the teams leading scorer. He had seven points and five assists and essentially deferred to Calderon, who had 16 points at halftime on 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range. "Very important, especially with Monta kind of feeling things out and not getting some of the opportunities that he typically has, its good for another guy to sstep up and be aggressive," Mathis said. http://www.airforce1sale.nl/air-force-1-lunar/nike...blauw.h tml. The biggest decision for Mathis was whether to bring back any other starters after the Bucks went on a 13-0 run in the fourth quarter and eventually got within 13 in the final 2 minutes. Mathis did reinsert DeJuan Blair after Wright had returned, and the Mavericks kept the lead in double digits. "One or two more baskets," Mathis said of how tempting it was to go with Ellis and Calderon again. "We didnt want to get them in there. We wanted our other guys to finish it out." Shawn Marion had 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Mavericks. Vince Carter had 15 points and a game-high nine assists. Brandon Knight scored 16 for Milwaukee, but only four after the first quarter. "We came out flat," Henson said of the Bucks, who lost by a point to Chicago at home a night earlier and have played five sets of back-to-back games in their last 10. "The combination of these games and the travel, I think we kind of hit that wall." Wright grabbed two quick rebounds after coming in midway through the first quarter and finished the first half with 11 points and five rebounds in 10 minutes. The highlight for Wright was a putback dunk for a 79-51 lead in the third. Just 3 minutes later, Blair gave the Mavericks their biggest lead at 90-56 on a jumper. Blair had 11 points and nine rebounds. Samuel Dalembert, signed in the off-season to be the starting centre for the Mavericks, was the only Dallas player who didnt get off the bench. For Dalembert, it was something of a replay of his one season with Milwaukee, when he went through a long midseason stretch without playing and got into just one of the last 11 games. NOTES: Bucks G Carlos Delfino had surgery on his right foot performed by Dr. Donato Villani in Argentina. There is no timetable for the 31-year-olds return. ... Carlisle missed a game for the first time since the franchises only championship season of 2010-11. He missed a Dec. 27 victory at Oklahoma City a day after having arthroscopic knee surgery. Assistant Dwane Casey, now the head coach in Toronto, filled in then. ... Bucks G Gary Neal left late in the second quarter with plantar fasciitis and didnt return. Cheap China Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China China NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China ' ' ' Cheap Jerseys China
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