Grüße und Vorstellung » ment that Roger Goodel

TORONTO — The clinching number for the Toronto Raptors is one.

They need to win one of their remaining four games to clinch first place in the Eastern Conference. In the unlikely event of that not happening Mark Stone Jersey , one loss by the second-place Boston Celtics, who also have four games left, would also wrap up the East.

Toronto could get the job done by defeating the Indiana Pacers on Friday night at the Air Canada Centre.

The Raptors (56-22) defeated the undermanned Celtics 96-78 on Wednesday night at the ACC to move three games ahead of Boston in the conference.

Meanwhile, the Pacers (47-32) defeated the Golden State Warriors 126-106 at home Thursday night, led by 28 points from Bojan Bogdanovic. They have won six of seven — including two wins over the Warriors without Steph Curry — and are fifth in the Eastern Conference, two games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers and 1 1/2 games behind the Philadelphia 76ers.

“I thought it was a big test tonight,” Indiana coach Nate McMillan said. “I really was looking forward to playing them with their roster tonight, just to see where we were. That’s a really good team. I thought our guys responded well to the challenge.”

Despite being on the verge of clinching home-court advantage in the playoffs, Raptors coach Dwane Casey was trying to keep it in perspective. The victory over Boston followed a loss in Cleveland on Tuesday night.

“We’re not excited, we know we got some other games to go, some other things to get better at; we’re looking at big picture,” Casey said after the game Wednesday. “One game, we still have some things to get better at. I liked our defense, I thought our defensive focus was there, our attention to detail Tim Heed Jersey , guys were where they were supposed to be, a few hiccups but a big improvement over (Tuesday) night.

“Again, it’s about competition, it’s about competing at a high level. With a big picture in mind, not just trying to win that one game we’re trying to do something special.”

Toronto guard DeMar DeRozan, who scored 16 points Wednesday, said the games leading into the playoffs are important.

“What do we have, four games left? Every single one is extremely important because once next weekend starts you know, it’s literally win or go home,” DeRozan said. “It’s no ‘my bads’ or I get the next one, so these four games are critical and us playing extremely hard and having a rhythm and understanding, our confidence has to be at an all-time high going into next week.”

With the victory over the Celtics, the Raptors matched their franchise best for overall wins in a season (56) and wins at home (32).

Toronto holds a 2-1 advantage over the Pacers this season, including a 106-99 victory at Indianapolis on March 15 in the most recent meeting.

DeRozan scored 16 of his 24 points in the second half against Indiana in that game.

The Pacers hold a head-to-head tiebreaker over the 76ers (2-1 this year) and Cavaliers (3-1). Both teams have relatively easy schedules remaining, however Tyler Seguin Jersey , so that might not become a factor. The Cavaliers and 76ers do play each other before the season ends.

Indiana has endured a difficult schedule that included visits to Golden State, Sacramento, Los Angeles (against the Clippers) and Denver.

The Pacers will be facing the Raptors on the second half of back-to-back games.

“It’s going to get us bull-tough and battle tested,” Indiana forward Thaddeus Young said. “It’s definitely prepping us for the task at hand, which is going to the playoffs. We’ve been doing a good job of handing it, going out there and staying focused and locked in. This road trip has been tough. … I don’t know who made the schedule, but this is crazy.”

The Pacers have lost eight games in a row at Toronto.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll wanted to be talking about football matters – Seattle’s recommitment to the run game, the addition of two new coordinators, almost anything to do with what happens between the lines.

Instead, the league’s oldest coach has spent the past few days processing and discussing the league’s new mandate that players on the field stand for the national anthem. Carroll, his players and those around the NFL are now trying to figure out how to tackle the polarizing topic in the locker room.

”We’re going to have to deal with that,” Carroll said. ”I was kind of liking the way it was going and so now it’s kind of taken out of the control from the coach and the players and the locker room to a certain extent, so we’re going to have to deal with that. In time, we’ll figure it out.”

Players from Seattle, Buffalo Andrew Ladd Jersey , Denver and New Orleans were among those grappling with how to move forward following the league’s announcement Wednesday of a new national anthem policy, which will fine teams if players on the field are not standing for the anthem. Players wishing to continue demonstrations like the kneeling movement sparked by Colin Kaepernick to protest social injustice will be allowed to remain in the locker room during the anthem.

Seattle’s Doug Baldwin had the most striking comments, directed at both the league and President Donald Trump after his remarks to ”Fox & Friends” on Thursday saying ”maybe you shouldn’t be in the country” if you don’t stand for the anthem.

”He’s an idiot. Plain and simple,” Baldwin said. ”I respect the man because he’s a human being first and foremost, but he’s just being divisive, which is not surprising. It is what it is. But for him to say anybody who doesn’t follow his viewpoints or his constituents viewpoints should be kicked out of the country is not very empathetic. It’s not very American like, actually, to me. It’s not very patriotic. It’s not what this country was founded upon. It’s kind of ironic to me the President of the United States is contradicting what our country is really built on.”

Even normally reserved Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson agreed with the sentiment that the owners’ decision was a message to players to essentially be quiet.

”Pretty much. I think that’s part of it. It seems that way,” Wilson said. ”But I think a policy right or wrong is not going to fix our problems.”

The new policy allows teams to adopt their own workplace rules, which many players interpreted as a backhanded way of subjecting them to fines, suspensions or loss of jobs should they carry on with the protests.

Players are also frustrated the league didn’t consult with the players’ association before announcing the policy.

”I mean, they weren’t ever going to engage us anyway. When you really think about it, why would we have a say-so?” Denver linebacker Brandon Marshall said. ”I think they should have, right, but I guess they don’t look at us like that http://www.officialsabres.com/authentic-adidas-jack-eichel-jersey , to have a say-so or input in this policy.”

Others around the league didn’t see the policy as a potential issue.

”I’m really not too worried about it. I would expect that everybody’s gonna be out there with their hand over their heart, showing respect to the flag and to the country,” New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees said.

But teammate Demario Davis had mixed emotions about the policy. His father served in the military, but he also understands why players have been protesting.

”I just think that when you love something – you care about it – you want to work to get it right. I love my children. When they do wrong things, I’m going to let them know they’re doing wrong things. I’m not just going to sweep it under the rug because I love them,” Davis said.

”I think that’s the difference between patriotism and nationalism. Nationalism is loving your country just to love it, you know, even when it’s right or wrong, you’re going to take the side of your country. Patriotism is loving it enough to sacrifice for it, but also to call it (out) when it’s wrong.

”The people who are speaking up for the people who are hurting have a deep love and devotion for our country. That’s kind of gotten misconstrued at times. But it’s important for people to understand that.”

The decision by the owners was an attempt to quell a firestorm by moving protests away from the public eye and potentially lure back disgruntled fans. But in the process they may have disgruntled their employees and rekindled what appeared to be an issue that was dying down.

”With this policy, with the inflammatory statement that Roger Goodell put out (Wednesday) again you opened the door for response and again to my point earlier, I think they missed it on that one,” Baldwin said.

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AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Stapleton and AP Sports Writer Brett Martel contributed to this report.

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