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TORONTO -- In the span of a minute Friday, Terrence Ross scored on an alley-oop, a three-pointer and a massive running dunk, taking off from near the top of the key. The 22-year-old started his second game in place of the departed Rudy Gay, and made the most of it, scoring 24 points -- including a key three in the dying minutes -- to lift the revamped Toronto Raptors to a 108-100 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday. "The main thing is staying focused so I can play at this level, Im really trying to just know my job, know my role and just make sure we have the chemistry going and keep winning," Ross said afterward. DeMar DeRozan poured in a game-high 27 points for Toronto (8-13) on what was a good night to be a Raptors swingman. "Talk about bouncy athletes," said Sixers coach Brett Brown. "You go with Ross and DeRozan, you take the athleticism plus they can come off screens and shoot like they do. Theyre hard guards, theyre really difficult people to defend. Those two guys had fantastic games throughout." Amir Johnson had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Jonas Valanciunas finished with 12 points to go with 13 boards, and Kyle Lowry doled out a season-high 11 assists and added six points. Tony Wroten topped the Sixers (7-17) with 23 points. Evan Turner had 21 points, while Thaddeus Young finished with 18. The game marked the first action for Raptors newcomers Greivis Vasquez, Patrick Patterson and John Salmons since they were acquired in Mondays trade that sent Gay, plus Aaron Gray and Quincy Acy to Sacramento. Vasquez scored 12 points, while Patterson had five points and five boards and showed flashes of nice interior defence. "Theyre learning the system, learning to play with each other," said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. "Learning where guys want the ball is huge. I thought they were a little tight playing tonight for the first time which is understandable, but I like what I saw. I think theyre going to mix in quite well." The Raptors almost coughed up an early 15-point lead several times during the game against their Atlantic Division rivals, but took an 83-76 lead into the fourth quarter in front of a crowd of 17,133 at Air Canada Centre. Johnson and Vasquez drained consecutive three-pointers to put Toronto up by 14 with just over seven minutes to go and the Raptors looked poised for an easy victory. But the Sixers battled back and a three by Turner with 2:10 to go pulled them within 100-96. A couple of nice passes on the Raptors next possession found Ross open in the corner, and he drained a three to give Toronto some breathing room, the basket pulling him to within two points of his career high. "That stopped the flow a little bit," Casey said. "His big three in the corner was huge." Casey said the challenge for Ross is to maintain a high level of play -- easier said than done for a young player. "Hes got to stay hungry, stay driven, stay consistent," the coach said. "Hes a talented young man but hes fighting consistency." DeRozan is doing his part to help Ross. "Youve seen it, Terrence definitely works hard," DeRozan said. "Every time we practise against each other in practice, I always go at him just to try to give him a lesson, give him the extra confidence when hes out there on the court." Lowry, meanwhile, played amid rumours he wasnt long for Toronto, with the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets believed to be the frontrunners to acquire the Raptors starting point guard. Lowry spoke candidly about the rumours after Friday mornings shootaround. "You see it every day, you see it whenever they update it and everyone talks about it," Lowry told reporters. "We joke about it a little bit, we make it more of a lighter type thing, dont make it a heavy hearted thing, make it a joke. "Hey, man, you still here? Make it a little bit lighter on the players in that situation." Lowry, whos in the final year of a contract that will pay him about US$6.2 million this year, admitted the speculation weighed on him. "Nobody can say it doesnt but at the same time, you have to know that this is a business, you have to know the situation that youre in, the situation that youre going to be in," he said. "You cant let it affect you too much because you still have to go out there and do a job and try to win for the team that youre playing for." Starting in place of the departed Gay, Ross scored 12 first-quarter points including a three that put the Raptors up by 11 less than three minutes into the game. Toronto closed out the quarter up 36-21. The three new Raptors started the second and the chemistry clearly wasnt there, as the Sixers opened the quarter with a 10-0 run. A pair of Wroten free throws pulled the visitors even with three-and-a-half minutes left in the half. The Raptors made just six field goals in the quarter, but held on to lead 56-48 at halftime. The Sixers chipped away at Torontos lead and pulled to within 76-74 with 1:35 to go. But Lowry grabbed a rebound and found a sprinting DeRozan with a court-long pass for a layup. The play seemed to inject some life into a sagging home team. On the Raptors final possession, Lowry grabbed his own rebound for a nice tip shot at the buzzer that gave Toronto an 83-76 lead heading into the fourth. NOTES: Chuck Hayes, also acquired from Sacramento in the trade, didnt dress as he was required to undergo baseline cardiac testing. . .The Raptors are in Chicago to face the Bulls on Saturday, then return home to host the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday. Air Max 95 Scontate Uomo . New York (16-9-8) took over first place in the Eastern Conference and has the best record in the league with one game remaining. Houstons five-game unbeaten streak was snapped, and the Dynamo (13-11-9) are sixth in the East with one game remaining. Scarpe Online Outlet . Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves to backstop the Penguins to a 2-1 victory over the Flames, handing Calgary its team record sixth consecutive home regulation loss. https://www.scontatescarpeoutlet.it/nike...tlet-c3266.html. Gustafsson controlled the first round after getting top position on a throw, and came out much more forcefully in the second, buckling Manuwa with a Muay Thai knee, and finishing him off with strikes on the ground. Air Max 720 Outlet Italia .C. -- Theyll remember the OT from the first Syracuse-Duke game -- and the Ts that decided Round 2. Air Max 95 Outlet . The Rangers announced after Thursdays 4-2 loss to the New York Yankees that they would purchase Williams contract from Triple-A Round Rock. The 32-year-old Williams was released by Houston earlier this month after going 1-4 with a 6.PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Kenny Stills ran all alone down the sideline, ball tucked under his arm, and the New Orleans Saints very much in charge.Suddenly a mess at home, the Saints found themselves on the road. Stills 69-yard catch-and-run in the third quarter served as the exclamation point of a 35-32 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday that finally had the Saints looking like a first-place team on the field, not just in the standings.Drew Brees passed for five touchdowns for the ninth time in his career. Stills hauled in five catches for 162 yards and his game-breaking score for New Orleans (5-7), which ended a three-game losing streak by dominating the ever erratic Steelers (7-5).Offensively, defensive and on special teams, we can play with the best teams in the league, running back Mark Ingram said. As long as we dont hurt ourselves, we can win football games.Certainly looked like it as Ingram finished with 122 yards rushing and the lacklustre New Orleans defence forced a pair of Ben Roethlisberger interceptions that Brees turned into touchdowns the other way. While the Saints werent perfect — allowing a pair of late Pittsburgh scores to make the final closer than the reality — they looked the part of a contender while winning for the first time in a month.One of the leaders of a division that has served as a punchline of late, New Orleans scored a blow for the NFC South by pushing Pittsburgh around.Winning is everything to this team, linebacker Junior Galette said. As long as Ive been here, we never lost three games in a row, especially at home, so this was a big win today. We entered this game professionally and went out there and did the job.And Pittsburgh continued to spin in place. Roethlisberger passed for 435 yards and two touchdowns to Antonio Brown but also tossed the two costly interceptions. LeVeon Bell piled up 254 total yards — 159 receiving and another 95 rushing — but the Steelers didnt exactly come out of their bye week with any sort of sizzle. Three of Pittsburghs five losses have come against teams at least three games under .500.Its got to stop, defensive end Cam Heyward said. Everybody. Top to bottom. Weve got to stop doing this.dddddddddddd Were shooting ourselves in the foot and weve got too many good guys, too many good players to not win these games.For whatever reason, the Steelers are not winning them, and time is running out.Some other things we learned with a month to go in the regular season.NO GRAHAM, NO PROBLEM: New Orleans tight end Jimmy Graham spent four quarters as the most talented decoy on the field. It hardly mattered. With the Steelers focusing much of their attention on stopping one of the NFLs top targets, Brees went to work. His five touchdown passes went to Stills, Marques Colston, Erik Lorig, Ben Watson and Nick Toon.I dont care if I get zero catches, 10 catches or 20, as long as we win, Graham said.SO LONG TO DA BEARD? Pittsburgh defensive end Brett Keisel left in the third quarter with a torn triceps and didnt return. The 36-year-old Keisels locker was already clear by the time the media entered after the game. His season, if not his career, appears to be in jeopardy.It almost makes you want to cry when you lose a guy like that because hes a leader and so instrumental to what we do here, safety Mike Mitchell said.HANDS OFF: Roethlisberger hit just 32 of 58 passes but refused to place blame on a bum right hand. The quarterback shook the hand several times after slamming it into the helmet of New Orleans linebacker Curtis Lofton in the first quarter.It was just one of those days that the balls were coming out high, he said.FIGHT NIGHT: New Orleans coach Sean Payton and defensive co-ordinator Rob Ryan exchanged words in the third quarter when the Saints were forced to call timeout because they had 12 players on the field. Despite reports of dissention between Payton and Ryan, Payton said there are no issues between the two.I love what hes doing, Payton said.LOOKING AHEAD: Even though Pittsburgh trails Cincinnati by 1.5 games the Steelers are in control of their fate. Pittsburgh plays the Bengals twice over the final month, including a meeting next Sunday in Cincinnati. The Saints host Carolina next Sunday. New Orleans beat the Panthers 28-10 on Oct. 30.___AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL ' ' '