The Toronto Raptors announced on Tuesday that they had picked up the the fourth-year team options on the rookie contracts of bot

The Toronto Raptors announced on Tuesday that they had picked up the the fourth-year team options on the rookie contracts of both centre Jonas Valanciunas and guard/forward Terrence Ross. Sebastian Lletget USA Jersey . Both players are now under contract for the 2015-16 season. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. The 22-year-old Valanciunas is fresh off of representing Lithuania at the FIBA World Cup in Spain last month. Drafted fifth overall in the 2011 NBA Draft, Valanciunas has averaged 10.3 points and 7.6 rebounds in his two seasons in Toronto. Ross, 23, was the eighth-overall draft pick in the 2012 NBA Draft out of Washington. Ross averaged 10.9 points and 3.1 rebounds last season, including tying the franchise mark for points in one game with a 51-point performance last January against the Los Angeles Clippers. Ross won the 2013 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. The Raptors had until October 31 to make a decision on the options. The team opens the 2014-15 season on Wednesday, October 29 when they host the Atlanta Hawks. Erik Palmer-Brown USA Jersey . The Raptors second-year forward has been one of the primary beneficiaries of the early-season trade, breaking out and becoming a vital part of his teams success on both ends of the floor. Around the league, teams are starting to take notice and feature Ross more predominately in their pre-game scouting reports but its not just the opposition that hes impressing. Walker Zimmerman Jersey .Y. -- As if the worst start in franchise history isnt bad enough, Buffalo Sabres President Ted Black braced his teams win-starved fans for potentially more tough times. http://www.soccerusateamonline.com/Cristian-Roldan-America-Jersey/ . Louis Cardinals are one of Major League Baseballs model franchises.NEW YORK -- Accustomed to clawing back from deficits, the comeback Los Angeles Kings now must figure out how to play with a series lead. Despite not leading for a single second in this Stanley Cup final, Los Angeles has a two games to none lead on the New York Rangers. Thats not something players are proud of, but somehow it has worked. You can listen to Game 3 on TSN Radio at 8pm et/5pm pt and watch the post-game news conferences on TSN.ca and TSN GO. "We find ourselves in the same situation reguritating the same mumbo jumbo every time," winger Justin Williams said. "Were in a results-oriented league, and the results are were up 2-0. I dont care how we got here." The Kings have gotten to Monday nights Game 3 by winning four times in these playoffs after falling behind by at least two goals. One more would tie the record set by the 1987 Philadelphia Flyers. Adept, if not comfortable, at coming from behind, the bigger question for the Kings is how theyll handle what on paper is a comfortable lead over the Rangers through two games but based on the play is far from it. They already saw their 2-0 series lead over the Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division turn into a 3-2 deficit, and theyre hopeful that history wont repeat itself. "Momentum is a big part of playoff hockey and once a team has it, its important to try to switch the tide in your favour as quick as possible," forward Dwight King said. "The longer you let that go, like in the Anaheim series, they get a little more confident and feeling good about their game. When youre playing a team thats got that going for them, its a little tougher to defend." The Rangers sound like a confident group because theyve gone stride for stride with the seasoned Kings and could believe theyre a couple of bounces away from being up 2-0. Coach Alain Vigneault has been satisfied with his teams play save for one period, and his players are attempting to focus more on the positives on the ice than the deficit in the series. "I think we played two good games over there," forward Mats Zuccarello said after landing in White Plains, N.Y. "I think we played the best hockey." Maybe the Kings havent played their best hockey, and certainly they havent at the start of games. Theyre the first team in NHL history to win three straight playoff games after trailing by two goals, having also done it in Game 7 of the Western Conference final against the Chicago Blackhawks. Williams said he can tell a lot about teammates from studying their faces in trying times. "You can read a lot (about) what someones thinking by just looking at their face," he said. "Between the second and third (Saturday) night I looked around and I didnt see anyone scared. I saw a prepared team that knew what they had to do." Thats thanks in large part to being here before. From Williams to captain Dustin Brown, defenceman Drew Doughty, centre Anze Kopitar and goaltender Jonathan Quick down the roster, this core group has experience going deep in the playoffs. The Kings also now have a resume full of multi-goal comebacks, which hasnt necessarily made digging out of holes easier but provided perhaps some muscle memory when playing from behind. "I feel together as a team weve been through almost all of them you can imagine, and weve pulled through," Williams said. "So when were down, do we feel comfortable? No, we dont feel comfortable. But we feel like were able to come back. And belief is a very underrated attribute, and we have that going on within our team right now." Experience from the 2012 Cup run could serve Los Angeles well right about now. That Kings team went up at least two games to none in every series on the way to the franchises first championship. In these playoffs, they havent been as much of a buzz saw. They fell behind 33-0 to the San Jose Sharks in the first round before pulling off the improbable series comeback and needed seven games against the Ducks and Blackhawks, too. Jonathan Lewis Jersey. What the Kings havent had in the same vein as their 2012 domination theyve made up for with resilience. Coach Darryl Sutter sees experience as the root of that. "Weve played a lot of hockey in May and June over the past three seasons," Sutter said. "For us, youre never not of the belief that you cant come back or youre not going to win." The Rangers, who came back from being down 3-1 to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Metropolitan Division final, share that same belief. Vigneault was short and to the point on what he thought New York needed to do to get back into this series: win Game 3 at Madison Square Garden. "We need to hold serve," Vigneault said in White Plains. "Were back in our building. Weve played some good hockey. We might feel that we deserve a better outcome than what we have right now, which is trailing by two games. But it doesnt matter. At the end of the day we got to take care of business tomorrow, and thats what were going to do." If anyone understands the mental approach of coming back, its the Kings, who havent led for over 228 straight minutes dating back to the conference final. And while the Kings are quick to point to results, they cant believe theyve broken the Rangers spirit already. "We should know that more than anybody, that its tough to put a team down," Williams said. "Especially when youre playing for the Stanley Cup, its going to be hard to put a team down. But we need to try to step a little bit more on the throat tomorrow." Stepping on the Rangers throat might as well be code for dont fall behind by two goals again. Marian Gaborik, whom the Rangers traded at the 2013 deadline, knows more than anyone on the Kings just how the Garden can sound and feel if things get hairy for the visiting team. "To look around the building itself, it has some sort of energy that you want to be in there and just play," Gaborik said. Sutter, who has been coming to the Garden for 30 years, knows it looks different now following renovations but that the fans still have the same moxie. "They love their team and they hate the other team," he said. "Thats what you like. You like going into buildings that are like that. Theyre loud, they say they hate you, all those things, its good." Plenty of hatred has already built up between the Kings and Rangers already after two physically gruelling games. Fatigue could be a factor as well, as the teams flew back from Southern California on Sunday and did not take the ice for practice. But the Kings are used to this. They made similar trips against the New Jersey Devils in the final two years ago before ultimately lifting the Cup back home in Game 6. Theyre two victories away from doing it again. And while this group is similar to the 2012 one, Williams said he gets a similar feel to the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes Cup-champion team he was on about never being out of games. That kind of belief can go a long way, no matter the score in a game or the situation in a series. "Now we feel that anythings possible out there," Williams said. "You get down two goals, it doesnt matter. You get down three, I dont care. Were going to keep pushing, and the term 60 minutes-plus certainly applies to anyone who wants to beat us." NOTES -- Sutter did not provide an update on Jeff Carter, who left Game 2 briefly after taking a hip check from Ryan McDonagh but finished with 24:01 of ice time. The Kings coach said he wouldnt talk about injuries because he didnt have to. ... Vigneault similarly had nothing new to say about Rangers backup goalie Cam Talbot, who has been unavailable in the Cup final with an undisclosed injury. ' ' '