t commitment and passion and thats the way he approached the movie," Karz said. "He rehearsed, he ran his lines, he wo

Posted in IYH Forums by lavender123456 at 00:59, Jun 20 2014

NEW YORK -- The Brooklyn Nets are so good at home now that even the Houston Rockets cant beat them. The Nets clinched a playoff berth by beating the Rockets at home for the first time in 11 years, getting 32 points from Joe Johnson in a 105-96 victory on Tuesday night. Shaun Livingston added 17 points for the Nets, who extended their home winning streak to 14 games, longest in their NBA history and tops in the league this season. They finished 18-12 overall against the Western Conference. "Weve just been playing and trying to protect home court. They came in here and we try to send them on their way with a loss, and thats for everybody," Livingston said. "It just happens to be weve been playing good basketball against the West." The Nets ended a 14-game skid against Houston with their first victory in the series since March 13, 2006. The Nets hadnt defeated the Rockets at home since March 31, 2003, when they were still playing in East Rutherford, N.J. The Nets also pulled within 1 1/2 games of Toronto and Chicago for the No. 3 seed in the East and home-court advantage in the first round, quite a change for a team that was so bad during its 10-21 start that Johnson had trouble envisioning where it is right now. "Honestly, I couldnt even see it," he said. "I kept saying to myself eventually this is going to turn around, things are going to turn for us. Eventually it did starting the new year. We were a different team, our mindset was different and the way we played was different." James Harden scored 26 points for Houston, which lost its second straight following a five-game winning streak. Still without Dwight Howard because of a sore left ankle, the Rockets shot just 38 per cent from the field. "We just missed some shots, missed some opportunities," Harden said of the Rockets, also without starters Patrick Beverley and Terrence Jones. "We let them get too comfortable early in the game. They got it going and it was tough." Harden was 16 of 16 from the free-throw line. Omer Asik had 12 points and a career-high 23 rebounds while starting for Howard, while Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons each added 16 points. The Nets held the NBAs second-highest scoring team 11 points below its average and improved to 30-12 overall since Jan. 1. They havent lost at Barclays Center in more than two months and make just a short trip Wednesday to visit the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. "We know these games, even if you say they dont mean more, they mean a lot more, I think, just because of the rivalry thats been formed," Nets guard Deron Williams said. Brooklyn had six players score in double figures in its third win in a row overall. It was once again without starting centre Kevin Garnett because of back spasms, as it was all March while going 12-4, as well as key reserves Andrei Kirilenko (sprained left ankle) and Marcus Thornton (back). The Nets shot 59 per cent in the first quarter, getting 11 points from Johnson in taking a 29-24 lead. Houston moved ahead for the first time midway through the second, but Brooklyn put together an 11-0 spurt late in the half and took a 54-51 edge into the break. The Nets opened their largest lead when Johnsons 3-pointer made it 78-67 with 4:03 left in the third, but the Rockets were back within one before Johnson nailed another 3 with 45 seconds remaining to send Brooklyn to the fourth with an 83-79 advantage. Brooklyn put it away midway through the fourth, re-opening an 11-point lead on a questionable goaltending call that gave a basket to rookie Jorge Gutierrez and earned Rockets coach Kevin McHale a technical foul for arguing. McHale was more frustrated with Houstons lack of ball movement. "I dont know how (long) you have to play with somebody to throw the ball to the open man," he said. "What, youve got to know him personally?" NOTES: McHale said Howard had received another shot in the ankle, saying there was mostly soft tissue inflammation that hopefully would calm down. The All-Star centre has missed five of the last seven games. ... Brooklyns Jason Kidd was the Eastern Conference coach of the month for March, joining Chicagos Tom Thibodeau as the only coaches to win two monthly awards in their rookie seasons. Kidd won for the first time for January. wholesale jerseys . LOUIS -- Back in December, Kansas was scuffling along at 7-3 and simply making the NCAA tournament would have been considered an achievement. cheap jerseys . Star striker Jermain Defoe has yet to touch down and fellow marquee signings Michael Bradley and Gilberto have been hampered by injury. http://www.wholesalejerseyfreeshipping.us/.C. - Family was the prevailing theme as NASCAR inducted its third, and most diverse, class into the Hall of Fame. wholesale nfl jerseys . He compensated with determination. Paul shook off the injury and the teams early sluggishness to score 18 points and extend the Los Angeles Clippers winning streak to 10 with a 96-87 victory over the Utah Jazz on Friday night. cheap nfl jerseys . Delmas, 21, played in two games with the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs in 2010-11, posting a 1-0-1 record, 1.OKLAHOMA CITY -- Kevin Durant wasnt sure at first that he wanted to be a movie star and a basketball star. It took some peer pressure and some encouragement from his mother, but now Durant is bringing Hollywood to Oklahoma City for a few days. The two-time NBA scoring champion filmed scenes from the upcoming movie "Thunderstruck" Tuesday at the teams home arena, including the pivotal sequence when his basketball skills are magically switched with a clumsy teenager to throw the Thunders playoff hopes into question. "Thats not my style, man. Doing a movie? Im a low key guy, and thats something I didnt want to get into," Durant said. Durant plays himself in the movie. Nickelodeon star Taylor Gray misses a halfcourt shot so badly that it hits Oklahoma Citys mascot, Rumble, in the arena tunnel and he tracks down the ball at the same time as Durant. He says he wishes he could play as well as Durant, and the Thunder superstar says he wishes he could help. The wish magically gets granted, with the downside being that Durant suddenly has the skills of a kid who couldnt make his own high school basketball team. "It was pretty cool. Im going to be nervous about how people view the movie and how they think my performance was," Durant said. "I really dont care now. I did it, it was fun, I enjoyed myself, I made some friends along the way, so I think it was a success." Durant follows in the footsteps of Michael Jordans "Space Jam" and Shaquille ONeals "Kazaam," leaving his acting performance to be evaluated by movie critics or the general public, for better or worse. "I really didnt know what nailed it was. People told me I did a good job but they could just be blowing smoke," Durant said. "I didnt know what was going on. People said I did good, so I guess Ill take their word." Brandon T. Jackson, a veteran of "Tropic Thunder" and "Big Mommas House," gave Durants acting skills a thumbs up and joked that his biggest challenge was that his "neck hurts from saying my lines to him." "Some basketball players are not good actors. Hes really good. Lets just say it bluntly," said Jackson, who plays Durants agent in the movie "Hes really good, for it to be his first movie. I remember my first movie, I was shaky and scared and just saying lines that werent even on the page -- which turned out to be funny llater on.dddddddddddd" Durants real-life agent, Eric Goodwin, found the script and presented the idea to producer Mike Karz and director John Whitesell. Karz did some exploring and was impressed with Durants personality and how he handled himself in interviews in front of the camera. "Certainly, weve seen it work both ways in the history of movies. But with Kevin, we just had a feeling. ... Clearly, he seems like just a fantastic guy. And when we met him, we were correct. He is a great guy," Karz said. "And his persona, his true life persona, reflects itself in the movie because he does play himself -- hes very sweet, compassionate guy and in the movie he has this magical thing that happens to him which makes his life worse initially and ultimately it all works out in the end." Karz said producers even decided to include Durant in additional scenes after he handled it well in the early days of shooting. The Warner Bros. crews spent about three weeks in Louisiana in September, completing about 80 per cent of the movie, and plan to finish up the filming with Wednesday nights game against New Orleans. "He is a world-class athlete, one of the best in the world, and when he does something he does it with 100 per cent commitment and passion and thats the way he approached the movie," Karz said. "He rehearsed, he ran his lines, he worked with the other actors and he just approached it like it was a big game and did the best he could." The film is expected to come out later this year, possibly as early as April. It also stars Jim Belushi and William Ragsdale. "Ive done commercials before but that was just like a commercial on steroids, as you would say," Durant said. "It was so much time put into one scene. We would go over it three or four times. It was just a lot of work. I see what those guys go through over there acting. "It was different, it was cool, it was fun but it was one of those things that I would pass on doing the next time." Durant said the initial filming session included days when he was on set from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. and scenes were repeated 20 times or more. That the filming took place during the NBA lockout helped, but he said hes not sure if hes willing to devote that much time to doing another film. He may just stick to 30-second commercials instead. "Im done," he said. "Im just playing basketball." ' ' '