ver medal after testing positive for a banned stimulant. But

[lw789]

TORONTO -- Rudy Gay launched a long lob to a soaring DeMar DeRozan, who finished with huge one-handed dunk early in the third quarter Wednesday. The Toronto Raptors dropped a 101-89 pre-season decision to the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the highlight-reel connection between the two athletic Raptors was perhaps a promise of more to come for the two whove now had the benefit of some time playing together. "Its going good, I know where his sweet spots are, and vice versa," said DeRozan, who topped Toronto (1-1) with 17 points. "Were just trying to put it together, especially when we need to get a bucket, and be aggressive, and get other teams in the penalty. Thats one thing were trying to do." Gay finished with 11 points. "Were trying to get in the rhythm of the offence, being aggressive, trying to create for others, trying to get that down pat," DeRozan said. New Raptor Tyler Hansbrough had nine points and seven rebounds, while Jonas Valanciunas had nine points and five boards and Kyle Lowry had eight points to go with four assists. Kevin Love led the Timberwolves with 20 points and nine rebounds, while Nikola Pekovic had 12 points and eight boards and J.J. Barea added 12 points. Its a new season under a new general manager in Masai Ujiri, but there is stability in the Raptors starting five that didnt exist at this time last year. All five are returnees compared to a year ago when three of the starting five were newcomers. Added to that, Gay was acquired during the mid-season trade that sent Jose Calderon to Detroit, and had to learn on the job without the benefit of training camp or pre-season. Together, DeRozan and Gay can open up space for each other, and pose a huge threat to opponents defences, who have to decide whos the more important player to focus on. Apart from the alley-oop, Wednesdays game at the Air Canada Centre was typical pre-season, not a pretty performance for either team, featuring mis-timed alley-oops and sloppy turnovers. "Its pre-season," coach Dwane Casey said. "I dont think you can talk to a coach in the NBA now that is where they want to be. We are definitely not where we want to be defensively." Valanciunas said it was a "bad effort on defence tonight." "We still have time and a lot of things to fix and were going to start tomorrow," he said. The Raptors sophomore centre, who was beaten up by the leagues top centres early in his rookie campaign, had some trouble with Minnesotas centre Pekovic on Wednesday. "Hes a really good player, and its not easy to go up against him," Valanciunas said. "Its easier than last year, but I still have to fix a lot of things." The Raptors, who won their pre-season opener 97-89 over the Celtics in Boston on Monday, trailed the Timberwolves 29-22 after a sloppy first quarter. New Raptor Steve Novak drained three three-pointers in the second to help Toronto take a 59-55 lead into the dressing room at halftime. Ronny Turiaf led the TWolves with seven points in a third quarter that saw the visitors regain the lead, up 83-75 with a quarter left. Casey went with mostly newcomers down the stretch as he continues to get a feel for what they have to offer. Toronto next hosts former Raptors No. 1 draft pick Andrea Bargnani and the New York Knicks on Friday. They open the regular season at home against the Celtics on Oct. 30. Notably absent on the night was The Raptor, the teams much-beloved mascot, whos out for the season after rupturing his Achilles tendon. Casey said he called The Raptor after hearing of his injury, which required surgery. "I was disappointed, my daughter cried, she was upset," Casey said. "(The Raptor) is a good man, but hell bounce back, hes in good hands with the physicians. The Raptor will be back." The Raptors will hire a replacement for the man under the costume, whos been with the team since Day 1. Reggie White Steelers Jersey . With the players association in the midst of meetings in Las Vegas, a vote will be held on Friday to decide the CFLPAs presidency and other executive positions. Joe Greene Steelers Jersey . Nick Young scored 17 points for Los Angeles, which lost five of its last seven before trouncing the Pelicans, who beat them handily last week in New Orleans. Jodie Meeks and Xavier Henry scored 15 points apiece for the Lakers, who led by 20 points in the first half before coasting to their 12th win in their last 13 regular-season meetings with New Orleans. http://www.shoptheofficialsteelers.com/ ... rs-Jersey/. Bradwell was scheduled to become a free agent Tuesday. Born and raised in Toronto, Bradwell is entering his sixth CFL season, with all six played for his hometown Argonauts. Brice McCain Steelers Jersey . The move is retroactive to Aug. 1. Hosmer was originally hit on the hand in the first inning of a July 20 loss to Boston. He has played most of the time since, but missed a few contests due to the injury, then departed Thursdays win over the Twins and had tests that revealed the fracture. Jack Butler Steelers Jersey . This was one of them. Omar Infante homered and tied a career high with six RBIs to carry the Kansas City Royals over the Baltimore Orioles 9-3 on Sunday.LONDON -- The IOC is using an improved steroid test to reanalyze frozen doping samples from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and may use the same method to conduct retests from the 2008 Beijing Games. The tests can detect steroid use going further back than ever before and in lower concentrations, IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Its a natural development of the methodology," he said, adding that the test increases the chances of catching drug cheats who went undetected at the time. The International Olympic Committee announced in March that it would retest Turin samples, just as it rechecked samples from the 2004 and 2008 Summer Games in Athens and Beijing -- catching 10 dopers retroactively. The IOC stores Olympic samples for eight years to allow for retesting if new methods become available. The Turin retesting involves a wider detection window, possibly going back as much as six months or more after steroids were taken. "The IOC is currently retesting some of the samples collected during the Olympic Winter Games in Turin in 2006 and we can confirm that we are using the new long-term metabolites method to detect anabolic steroids," the IOC said in a statement. The method will also be used in the drug-testing program at Februarys Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. According to a weekend report by German broadcaster ARD, doping labs in Cologne and Moscow using then new method have detected hundreds of positive cases in recent months. The report said the substances included oral turinabol, a steroid widely used in the former East Germany, and stanozolol, the drug which led to Ben Johnsons disqualification at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Ljungqvist said he had no independent information on the contents of the ARD report, suggesting the cases may have involved "very old samples" tested for research purposes. "Its nothing that we have initiated," he said. Meanwhile, Ljungqvist said the IOC expects to have the results of the Turin tests by the end of the year. The tests are looking for steroids, new generations of the blood-booster EPO and growth hormone, he told the AP in a telephone interview. Urine and blood samples from Turin are stored at the doping laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland. The exact number of retests is not known, but Ljungqvist said the IOC had identified "a couple of hundred" samples for possible reanalysis. Endurance events such as cross-country skiing are considered the most open to doping abuse. The IOC wants to wrap up the testing process, including any sanctions, before the Sochi Games, which begin Feb. 7. In 2010, the IOC reanalyzed some Turin samplees for insulin and blood-booster CERA but all came back negative.dddddddddddd. The IOC decided a few months ago to test more samples before the eight-year deadline runs out in February 2014. Only one positive case was recorded during the Turin Games -- Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was stripped of a silver medal after testing positive for a banned stimulant. But Turin was hit by a major doping scandal when Italian police -- acting on a tip-off from the IOC -- raided the lodgings of the Austrian cross-country and biathlon team, seizing blood-doping equipment. While no Austrian athletes tested positive at the time, four later received life bans from the IOC. Last year, the IOC retested samples from the Athens Olympics and caught five athletes who were retroactively stripped of medals for using steroids, including mens shot put winner Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine. Previously, retests of samples from Beijing for CERA led to five positive cases -- with Bahrain runner Rashid Ramzi stripped of gold in the 1,500 metres. Ljungqvist said more Beijing samples could now be retested using the improved steroid test. While the samples that have already been retested no longer exist, many others remain. "We can go back to Beijing before 2016," Ljungqvist said. "We may do that. We havent decided yet. We will do it as the eight-year time approaches." Under newly approved global rules, the statute of limitations in doping cases will be increased to 10 years starting in 2015. On a separate issue, Ljungqvist said he was confident the Russian lab assigned to test doping samples in Sochi will be ready for the games, despite a threat of sanctions from the World Anti-Doping Agency. On Sunday, WADA gave the lab until Dec. 1 to start reforms to improve the reliability of its results, or face a six-month suspension. The Moscow lab is due to set up a "satellite" facility in Sochi for the Olympics. "We interpret the WADA decision as if we will have the Moscow lab available," Ljungqvist said. "We take that for granted. They (the Russians) will of course fulfil the requirements established in the decision to make sure they have the proper procedures in place. We are feeling pretty confident." If the lab fails to come up to scratch, the Sochi samples would have to be sent to another lab outside Russia for testing, posing logistical and financial issues. "Of course, we have to have a Plan B, but the Plan B is not attractive," Ljungqvist said. "That would be to send samples out of Russia. We have to find a lab which wishes to do that and Im not sure what labs may wish to do that. Its quite risky with transport and all that." China Jerseys ' ' '