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Rangers Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender
OAKLAND, Calif. Nike Air Max 270 Flyknit Cheap . - Steve Kerr knew he had a lot of expectations on him after taking over a Golden State Warriors team that Mark Jackson led to a 51-win season and back-to-back playoff appearances.In less than two months, Kerr has built on his predecessors success and eclipsed every rookie coach that came before him.Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry shook off slow starts to finish with a flurry, and the Warriors extended their franchise-best winning streak to 14 games by beating the Houston Rockets 105-93 on Wednesday night.Golden State improved its NBA-leading record to 19-2 and helped Kerr carve out a slice of history. Kerr became the first rookie coach to win 19 of his first 21 games.It means Im the luckiest coach in NBA history, Kerr said. Because I inherited a team that was already really good.And apparently made them even better.Thompson scored 21 points and Curry added 20 points, seven assists and seven rebounds to power an 11-0 run in the final minutes and turn a tight game into another comfortable win. About the only thing Kerr said he could complain about was the postgame meal, and he even laughed that off.You just want to pile up wins in the West, Kerr said. Keep putting some numbers in the win column because theres 61 games left.James Harden played through back pain to finish with 34 points and eight rebounds for the Rockets, who had won four straight and seven of eight despite centre Dwight Howard being sidelined.Howard (strained right knee) and Warriors big man Andrew Bogut (right knee tendinitis) both sat out with injuries, and the smaller lineups worked in Golden States favour in the end.The Warriors outscored Houston 32-17 in the fourth quarter.Theyre a good team and they broke us down a little bit, Harden said. We got too spread out on defence.The teams traded baskets for most of the game, and anytime one side began to pull away, the other followed with another spectacular play — until Golden States final push.Harden hit a tying 3-pointer with 4:45 remaining, and the Warriors answered in dramatic fashion: Draymond Green roared down the lane for a soaring dunk, Harrison Barnes started a three-point play with a driving layup over Harden and Thompson blocked Patrick Beverly from behind and finished a finger-roll layup on the other end.But the Warriors still werent done.After the Rockets called timeout, Green came up with a steal and passed ahead to Curry for a layup. The Warriors got another stop and Thompson hit two free throws to give Golden State a 100-89 lead.You lose probably one of the top centres in the league (without Bogut), so we tried to make up for that by being quick and scrappy, said Barnes, who finished with 20 points and seven rebounds.Trevor Ariza and Donatas Motiejunas each scored 18 for the Rockets. Golden State outshot Houston 49.4 to 41.6 per cent, and each team had 15 turnovers.They attacked us off the dribble and we didnt handle that very well, Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. They got some open stuff, and when they went small, it bothered us.TIP-INSRockets: Howard has missed 10 straight games. He hopes to return Saturday at home against Denver. ... Francisco Garcia (strained right calf/Achilles), Isaiah Canaan (sprained left ankle), Terrence Jones (nerve inflammation in left leg) and Kostas Papanikolaou (strained right knee) also sat out.Warriors: Al Cervi had the previous best start for a coach, winning 18 of his first 20 games with the Syracuse Nationals in the 1949-50 season. ... Kerr said he doesnt expect Bogut to miss additional time with tendinitis. ... David Lee, who has played in just one game because of a strained left hamstring, is scheduled to practice Thursday and will travel with the team on its upcoming trip.RODMANS RANTDennis Rodman made headlines the past couple days when he said Kerr, his former teammate with the Chicago Bulls, is basically just sitting on the bench while his players and assistants do most of the work. Asked about Rodmans comments, Kerr joked: Well, thats actually pretty accurate.NEXT UPRockets: At Sacramento on Thursday.Warriors: At Dallas on Saturday. Nike Air Max 270 React Bauhaus Cheap . He even addressed his group of relievers Sunday morning. Dustin McGowan made those worries a nonfactor, at least for a day. McGowan pitched three-hit ball for seven innings, Colby Rasmus hit a grand slam and Melky Cabrera added a two-run homer as the Blue Jays beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-2. Air Max 270 White Cheap .That is precisely what they got Sunday.The Ravens trailed at halftime and never built a comfortable lead against lowly Jacksonville, yet did just enough to squeeze out a 20-12 win to stay in the thick of the AFC playoff race.NEW YORK – On this day, at least, it was the King and not the Kings standing at the very top of the castle. Henrik Lundqvist did all he could to keep the Cup from seeing the light of day on Wednesday night, stopping nearly every piece of rubber flung his way in a do-or-die tilt for the Rangers at MSG. Vowing to raise the level of his performance just a day earlier, Lundqvist did that and more, turning aside 40 of 41 shots in a 2-1 Game 4 win. “It was pretty self-explanatory out there,” said Dan Girardi. “He was the King tonight for us, making huge saves when he had to.” Girardis unfortunate broken stick catapulted the Kings to their only goal on Lundqvist, a breakaway marker from Dustin Brown midway through the middle period. It was from that point on that the 32-year-old simply took over, preserving the Rangers one-goal lead amidst an avalanche of incredible pressure from an L.A. squad intent on capturing the Cup for the second time in three years. New York was outshot 15-1 in the final period and an unimaginable 26-3 over the final 31-plus minutes of regulation, completely dominated by the Cup-hungry Kings. Lundqvist turned every shot aside though, rising to every challenge his rivals could muster. “Goaltender was real good,” said head coach Alain Vigneault with a smile, asked how the Rangers managed to preserve a 2-0 lead after failing to do so in Games 1 and 2. “He had to make some huge saves in the second and the third. He got and we got a few bounces. You need those. Maybe the luck is changing a little bit.” Believing the breaks had been against them in the opening three games, the Rangers saw that luck turn in their favour in remarkable fashion on this night. On not one, but two occasions did a puck sneak through the pads of Lundqvist and land squarely on the goal-line, kept at bay by morsels of snow before a Ranger could calmly swat it away – first Anton Stralman midway through the first frame and later Derek Stepan in the dying moments of regulation. “Dont fool yourself either,” said Stepan. “Hank stood on his head. He made some big saves at big times for us. Those are the big plays we need at certain moments to keep the momentum or shift the momentum. Nike Air Max 270 React Hyper Jade. Hank stood tall and hes a big part of why were going back to L.A.” Lundqvist and the Rangers are now 11-2 in their last 13 games when facing elimination, the King entering the night with a .957 save percentage in such situations. “When everything is on the line, you just have to challenge yourself the right way, I guess, as a team and personally,” said Lundqvist, who allowed 11 goals in the first three games against the Kings. “You have to go out there and leave everything out there and be extremely focused. One mistake and the season is over. Youre definitely aware of that. When you go out to these types of games where you know everything can be over after this period or after the next two periods.” Despite relentless waves of pressure over the final period and a half the Kings believed they could do more to disrupt the Rangers Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender. “I think we can do a better job getting to him,” said Anze Kopitar, one of only three Kings without a shot on goal. “I think [there were] a couple of times where we didnt make it tough on him. The pucks were sitting there. But the pucks hes gonna see, hes gonna stop. Thats just how it is.” Despite owning the back half of Wednesdays game, L.A. is now forced to make the long flight back west in hopes of procuring the Cup on home ice. It was two years earlier in the 2012 Final that they raced out to a 3-0 series lead only to drop Games 4 and 5 to the Devils before finally emerging with the first Cup in franchise history at Staples Center in Game 6. “Were going back home, thats where we won it last time, hopefully we can do the same thing again,” said Drew Doughty. The Rangers, meanwhile, were searching for just one win, viewing Game 4 as a best-of-one they had no choice but to capture. Rallying from a 3-1 deficit in the second round against the Penguins, their focus now shifts to bringing the series back to the Garden for Game 6 and hopefully beyond. “Well, we went into this game with the approach that we wanted to win at home in front of our fans,” said Lundqvist. “That was our approach. We got that accomplished. Now were looking for the next game.” ' ' '
- Created: Nov 4 '19
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