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dished out eight assists for the Tar Heels (6-2),
TORONTO - By the end of Thursdays three hour-and 32-minute, triple-overtime marathon, the longest game in franchise history, the Toronto Raptors had run out of gas while nearly running out of active bodies. Terrell Bonds Jersey . Two of the Raptors starters, along with their sixth man, had fouled out after gutting out a couple of extra periods playing hurt. One starter was absent, having left for the locker room earlier in the game with an injury and another was mired in one of the worst games in his professional career. "I feel like if we would have had everybody in the game, we probably would have come up with the win," said Amir Johnson, who - playing on a couple of sore ankles - picked up his sixth foul late in the first overtime, as his team went on to fall 132-129 to the Washington Wizards at home. Patrick Patterson was whistled for his sixth minutes earlier, while Kyle Lowry - hobbling on an ankle he tweaked going in for a potential game-winning drive at the end of regulation - fouled out two minutes before the night came to a merciful end. Terrence Ross, who scored a team-high 11 points in the first half, did not return for the second after he, too, suffered an ankle injury. As a team, the Raptors, until very late in the fourth, were outworked in a game that seemed to mean more to the visiting Wizards, losers of three straight to Toronto this season, than it did to the home team. Overall, Washington grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, registered 80 points in the paint, bested the Raptors 21-6 in second-chance points and held a 10-point edge in fast break scoring. Still, the Raptors were right there with a chance to steal a victory they probably didnt deserve at the end of regulation and as the clock expired to close the first OT period. "I like the way we battled," said coach Dwane Casey, "even through the foul trouble and also with injuries." "Coach told us before the game its going to be a playoff-atmosphere game," said DeMar DeRozan, the lone starter on the floor when the Wizards finally began to pull away in the third OT. "Thats what it was. We fought to the end, we just couldnt get no stops in overtime." DeRozan led the Raptors with 34 points in 57 minutes. Lowry logged 54 minutes, 13 in extra time, despite coming down awkwardly on his ankle after just missing the go-ahead layup ahead of the fourth-quarter buzzer. Again, the ball was in the hands of the Raptors point guard in a similar situation five minutes later when the trailing John Wall blocked his runner in the lane. "He stayed in the game, but he turned his ankle real bad on that play," Casey said. "I thought Kyle still battled on defence and I thought he was huge for us." How was his ankle feeling after the game? "Its great," Lowry said with a smirk on his face, withholding - not surprisingly - any pain from the hoard of media. "A game like this, the bumps and bruises hurt a little bit more," said Johnson, who had 16 points and nine rebounds in 42 minutes, "especially when you come up short and there were so many times we could have ended the game and won the game. It was a tough loss." “We wanted to win the game," Lowry added after just missing out on a triple-double with 18 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds. "At the end of the day, we go out there and try to win every single night. We dont try to just go out there and compete and say, ‘Oh, we gave it our best shot. We go out there and try to win every single game." Three-point shooting kept Toronto in striking distance as the Raptors knocked down 12 of their 30 attempts from long range, including four from Greivis Vasquez, who stepped up in Rosss stead. Vasquez recorded a season-high 26 points to go along with eight assists in 38 minutes off the bench, his most productive game since coming over in the December trade from Sacramento. With the win, the fifth-place Wizards avoided the season-series sweep with Toronto and pulled within two games of the Raptors for the third seed in the East. Although it was a long night for everyone involved - Casey ended up using all 13 players available to him - it couldnt have ended soon enough for Jonas Valanciunas, who had a game to forget. Once Patterson and Johnson fouled out in OT, Casey reluctantly went back to Valanciunas, though he had been sitting on the bench since late in the third quarter. Understandably, the 21-year-old was out of rhythm and lacking in the confidence department. It showed. The sophomore had difficulty keeping up with Marcin Gortat - who scored a career-best 31 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, seven of them offensive - and negated one of his own teams buckets on an offensive goaltending call. Casey rotated in the likes of Tyler Hansbrough and Chuck Hayes, Steve Novak and Landry Fields - the three had not played more than a few seconds until OT - when it became apparent the Raptors starting centre was causing more harm than good. Although Casey wouldnt point the finger at the young seven-footer, given the length of time he spent on the bench before re-entering, "it wasnt fair to Jonas," he said, Valanciunas was far more critical of himself after the loss. "I feel really sad," he said with his head down. "Weve got to learn from [our] mistakes. I feel really bad right now. I could do a much better job than what I did. Im going to watch the film, learn from it to not repeat it next game." Luckily, the Raptors will have a couple of days off to rest, recuperate and regroup before hosting the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, their only game in the next seven days. "We just go over the mistakes we made on film [and] clean them up," Johnson said. "It just makes you realize how much talent we have on this team, what we can do." "[Were] going to go over film, rest our bodies [and] come back strong." Orlando Brown Jr. Jersey . The injury could land Machado on the 15-day disabled list, but its not as serious as it looked on Monday night, when the third baseman crumpled in a heap at the plate after taking an awkward swing in a game against the New York Yankees. Charles Scarff Jersey .com) - The Buffalo Bills will return to the friendly confines of Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday when they welcome the upstart Cleveland Browns to town.Chapel Hill, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - Brice Johnson posted a monster double- double of 19 points and a career-best 17 rebounds as 12th-ranked North Carolina trounced East Carolina 108-64. J.P. Tokoto also scored 19 points and dished out eight assists for the Tar Heels (6-2), who bounced back from Wednesdays home loss to Iowa. North Carolina shot 60 percent from the floor Sunday after being held to a 27.9 percent by the Hawkeyes. Kennedy Meeks finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double- double of the season. Terry Whisnant led East Carolina (4-5) with 15 points and B.J. Tyson scored 13 but made only 2-of-13 field goals. The Pirates, who were 4--for-25 from 3-point range, have dropped consecutive games for the first time this season. Chris Moore Jersey. The Tar Heels were down four early, but a Tokoto three-point play gave the home team a 19-12 lead. North Carolina later went on a 10-0 run to go up 34-18 and carried a 48-29 advantage into halftime. There was no threat of a comeback by East Carolina, which shot 24.3 percent in the second half. Game Notes North Carolina had a 51-29 rebounding edge and outscored East Carolina 72-32 in the paint ... The Pirates registered only five assists on 23 made field goals ... The Tar Heels have won all four meetings between the two teams. Wholeslae Jerseys NFL Jerseys Cheap Wholesale NBA Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys Cheap MLB Jerseys Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Cheap College Jerseys Cheap Football Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Baseball Jerseys ' ' '
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