PHILADELPHIA -- Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan spent an off night in town at Villanova watching the best basketball team in the Philly area dominate in another victory.
J.A. Happ Jersey . A night later, Lowry and DeRozan ditched the courtside seats to team up and keep Philadelphia the worst team in the NBA.DeRozan scored 31 points and Lowry added 20 to help the Toronto Raptors win their fourth straight game, 123-114 over the 76ers on Wednesday night.DeRozan continued to make the 30-point mark a routine part of his game and scored 31 points through the first three quarters. DeRozan posterized Jahlil Okafor with a dunk over the Sixers big man and easily rolled to his second straight 30-point game. He scored 30 points on Monday against Milwaukee and came in averaging a robust 27.9 points per game.Its just experience. My work ethic, DeRozan said. I just try and be better every single year.Hes having his best one yet.Lowry helped blow the game open in his Philadelphia homecoming. Lowry made a 3-pointer in the fourth that stretched the lead to 99-80 and earned some applause for the All-Star raised in the area.DeRozan and Lowry helped squash the Sixers modest two-game winning streak. Long one of the NBAs worst teams, the Sixers havent won three straight games since they took four in a row from Dec. 29, 2013-Jan. 4, 2014.Robert Covington led the Sixers with 26 points and Okafor had 17.The Sixers had won two straight on the road and seemed like they could win a rare game at home when they opened with a strong first 17 minutes. Lowry brought the Sixers crashing back to reality.Lowry buried two quick 3-pointers that brought the Raptors within two and scored on a driving layup that tied the game at 45-all. The Raptors turned a three-point deficit to open the second quarter into a 60-54 halftime lead. The Sixers went on a mini-run late in the fourth and got within five points with 30 seconds left. They could have used another 30 minutes to top the Atlantic Division-leading Raptors.The Raptors have won 10 of 11 games and are 11 games over .500 for the first time this season.Lowry dedicated the win to his mother on her birthday .I got as many points as her age, he said, laughing.TIP-INSRaptors: Lowry and DeRozan attended No. 1 Villanovas game on Tuesday night. Lowry, a Philly native who played at Villanova, wore a Just a Kid From North Philly sweatshirt at shootaround. Hes a pain in the butt sometimes, but hes our pain in the butt, Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. Casey said Lowry reminded him of former Seattle great Gary Payton.76ers: Okafor started at center and Joel Embiid at power forward for the first time this season. They played the first 6 minutes of the first quarter together. Embiid and Okafor are natural centers. Coach Brett Brown decided the time was right to pair them and see what they could do together in the frontcourt. Its my job to grow our program, grow our guys, and see what we actually have, Brown said. We have really yet to see Jahlil and Joel together in any significant timeframe. Tonight, its available. So Im going to do it. Embiid twisted his left ankle in warmups and sat out a stretch in the first half with a bloody nose and scored nine points.I was just standing, I wasnt moving, I was just standing on the perimeter, Embiid said. I wasnt active on defense.DID YOU SEE THAT!?Embiids lone block in the first half came when he charged at DeMarre Carroll and used his outstretched right hand to swat the ball away.DeRozan had the dunk of the night when he split defenders down the lane and stuffed one over Okafor.SHOE FITSNo. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons ditched the walking boot and sat in sneakers on the Sixers bench for the first time this season. Simmons has not played this season because of a broken bone in his right foot suffered during training camp. Simmons shot free throws in practice this week. The Sixers say there is no timetable for his return.UP NEXTRaptors: Host Atlanta on Friday.76ers: Host the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday.
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http://www.cheapbluejaysjerseyschina.com/kevin-pillar-jersey/ . -- Most satisfying to Russ Smith about No. Tony Clark heads a union that has spent its entire history opposing salary caps, but he told ESPN.com on Friday that he doesnt believe baseballs players union abandoned that principle when it agreed to a hard cap on international signings in the sports new collective bargaining agreement.This does not change the philosophy of this organization as it relates to caps, Clark, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association said Friday during a wide-ranging interview on the day the new labor deal was announced.So how did baseball emerge from these negotiations with a system in which all 30 teams will work with a strict total signing pool of about $5 million a year per club, a pool that teams are not permitted to exceed for any reason? It turns out that the disparity between the dollars being spent on foreign-born players versus American-born amateur players had a lot to do with it.Just five months ago, a 17-year-old Cuban pitcher, Adrian Morejon, signed a contract with the San Diego Padres that guaranteed him $11 million. Meanwhile, less than two weeks earlier, the top pick in the June draft of American players, 18-year-old outfielder Mickey Moniak, signed with the Philadelphia Phillies for a little more than half that amount, at $6.1 million.The year before, the Boston Red Sox handed out a $31.5 million signing bonus to 19-year-old Cuban infielder Yoan Moncada. To put that in perspective, under the new rules, the international signing pools for an entire division wont add up to $31.5 million.It is unlikely that a signing that high will happen again, Clark said, pausing before adding, Nor can it happen on the domestic side. Nor has it happened on the domestic side.Clark said the union found itself in a difficult position as negotiators for the owners pressed for an international draft. Players involved in the negotiations were staunchly opposed to an international draft. So the union was faced with challenges in trying to settle for an alternative system that worked for both sides and for countries around the world.Those challenges took into account geography, history, culture, politics and the disparity between the dollars that foreign-born players were signing for as opposed to those of amateur American-born players, he said. So the players wound up settling on a system they believed balanced as many of those factors as possible.We spent a lot of time with players going through this one, Clark said. And where we landed, we believe, protects all of those pieces.Clark discussed a number of other issues raised by the labor agreement that was agreed to Wednesday night. Among those issues:Draft-pick compensation: Although teams will no longer have to surrender a first-round draft pick if they sign a premium free agent who has rejected a qualifying offer, clubs signing those players still will lose at least one pick in the later rounds. Asked about reports that the owners offered to completely eliminate qualifying offers and draft-pick compensation, Clark said a proposal was made to do that, but the tradeoff that owners asked for in return was not a place we were willing to go.The luxury tax: Clark disagreed with agents who have criticized the Competitive Balance Tax (aka luxury tax) in the new agreement as the equivalent of a soft salary cap. In addition to the maximum 50 percent tax rate, which had already been levvied on teams that exceed the tax threshold multiple times, this agreement adds an extra surtax as high as 45 percent on clubs that go over by more than $40 million.
Troy Tulowitzki Jersey. Agents also have said they believe the thresholds should have been higher, given the explosion of revenues in baseball over the past five years. However, Clark defended the new thresholds, saying they not only increase by larger margins than they did in the last labor deal, but they also go up annually, as opposed to one increase over the life of the previous agreement. The [tax] was put in place, he said, and was supposed to act as a drag on the highest end of the payroll structure. Thats what it was put in place to do. Thats what it is still designed to do.Unhappy agents: Asked about complaints by agents that they didnt feel included in the negotiating process, Clark said at first: I dont know who they are. He then maintained the union connected with a number of agents all along the bargaining cycle. He conceded there may be some who werent as much a part of the process as others, but the truth is, we spent a lot of time communicating with a number of those in the agent community, in an effort to appreciate the issues in a number of areas and applying that input to decisions that we looked to make.Roster size: Despite widespread reports that roster size would increase from 25 players per team to 26, along with reductions in the 40-man September rosters, Clark said so much time was needed to resolve the major economic issues that roster size had to be put on the back burner. However, the two sides have the freedom to address this point at a later date, and I anticipate continuing to have that dialogue moving forward, he said.Pace of play: Surprisingly, Clark said the two sides never discussed during the labor talks pitch clocks or other changes to speed up the pace of play. But that issue can also be negotiated in a different time and place, and I anticipate there being dialogue in the coming months.The schedule: The sides also never talked about shortening the season from 162 games, but they did agree to add four extra off days, to institute rules requiring earlier start times on getaway days for teams with long flights and to have all teams hire a chef and registered dietitian to improve clubhouse nutrition. These were a top priority for players in the negotiations. And Clark described those changes as important for players and important to the game.Negotiating amid outside noise: In his first go-round as the unions lead negotiator, Clark said he was aware of noise, criticism and stories suggesting that if negotiations ended in a lockout, it was a result of the unions slow pace. So you know that its always there, he said. You know there are always going to be concerns and misunderstandings and misrepresentations, and positions taken that may be different than the ones that are professed to be taken, at any one time along the process. And thats why you focus in on what you can control. ... But as long as you maintain a high level of integrity with respect to the foundational pieces, youre able to navigate those challenges -- and eventually land in a place that is a focus from start to finish, which is a fair and equitable deal.
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