the Air Canada Centre and impersonated one of his

TORONTO - Fresh off of a season-saving win, Raptors guard Greivis Vasquez stood behind a podium on the third level of the Air Canada Centre and impersonated one of his teammates most identifiable moves. As if he had been rehearsing it, Vasquez looked around with a grimacing stare as he clinched two fists and flexed his muscles. What do you think of DeMar DeRozans face after he hits a big shot, he was asked moments earlier. "I love it, he goes like this," he exclaimed without hesitation, busting out his interpretation of what has been dubbed "the DeRozan face". To his credit, it was dead on. DeRozans signature celebration has become a welcomed sight for Vasquez and the rest of the Raptors players. "Its something I can only do in a game after shots or a dunk or something," DeRozan said. "Its just me being intense." After draining an 18-foot fadeaway jumper, his second straight bucket, with just over two minutes left in Tuesdays 100-95 Game 2 win over the Nets, the Raptors all-star guard strutted up the court doing the DeRozan face. "I told him before the game," Vasquez noted. "I said, Youre going to have a great game, I want that face. I get fired up when he starts doing that and he makes that face." "I think you see it in all of us," DeRozan fired back. "Even with Greivis, what he does when he makes a big shot, when he looks up in the air. Im like, ‘whatchu looking at, G? Everyone has their own gestures and we feed off one another when we see somebody else doing that and it just gets us going." Can you do the DeRozan face, Dwane Casey was asked. "I dont know what youre taking about," said the Raptors coach, immediately turning away. So, not everyone was playing along. This was the lighthearted scene following practice on Wednesday afternoon, just two hours before the Raptors shipped off to Brooklyn for Games 3 and 4. Naturally, the conversation turned to the immeasurable chemistry that has held this team together throughout a tumultuous season, the chemistry they feel will work to their advantage as they enter enemy territory this coming weekend. "Its going to be a new frontier," Casey said, preparing his team to face the Nets at Barclays Center with their opening round series tied at a game apiece. "Weve been a good road team in hostile situations, hostile gyms. Our guys have responded." That they have. Their 22 road wins are a franchise record and theyre just one of four teams to knock off the Nets in Brooklyn in 2014. Throughout the season, they have cited their togetherness, a camaraderie on and off the court, as the primary reason for their unexpected success - being a young team - away from home. Both DeRozan and Kyle Lowry referred back to a conversation they shared after Tuesday nights win. Torontos two leading scorers were in full agreement that this is the most harmonious team theyve ever been apart of. "Its just great to have a group of guys who just really get along," Lowry said. "Youd never think a group like that, with so many different personalities, that everyone really just feeds off each other and everyone genuinely likes each other. We really are like a band of brothers. Its cool. Its like, were able to hold each other accountable and we know its not out of spite, its because we want to be better. Its constructive criticism." Chemistry and winning seem to go hand in hand. Youre unlikely to enjoy a sustainable measure of one without the other. Chemistry is a valuable commodity in professional sports, but its fragile and almost impossible to quantify. "Chemistry is a funny thing," Casey admits. "You know it when you got it, but its so easy to lose. Its hard to put your finger on it. I think we have good chemistry, the right pieces, the right guys, the right personalities in the locker room." That togetherness, like defence - Caseys other fixation - tends to travel well. The Raptors have harnessed an us versus the world mentality in the unfamiliar surroundings of the road and will need it more than ever if they hope to take control of this series on foreign soil. The Nets own a record of 22-4 at home since Jan. 1, tops in the NBA over that span. "The reason were here right now in the playoffs is just because we got one of the most healthy locker rooms," Vasquez said. "No egos at all. Everybodys just happy if anybody does well. We care about each other on and off the court and when we go on the road, we get each others back." "The reason we became a good team, [are] on our way to becoming a great team, is just because we care. Chemistry is such a big factor on any team, and we have it. We do have it." Alex Iwobi Arsenal Jersey .com) - Matt Duchene picked up the deciding goal early in the third period and added an assist, as Colorado escaped with a 4-3 victory over Dallas at Pepsi Center. Konstantinos Mavropanos Jersey . They say things like "stress is when you dont know what youre doing" and "I wasnt hired to motivate players, I was hired to coach motivated players." They ring as true now as they did when Mularkey heard them the first time playing tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame coach 25 years ago. http://www.footballarsenalstore.com/Women-Sokratis-Papastathopoulos-Arsenal-Fc-Jersey/ . Patty Mills had 20 points, Tim Duncan had 11 points and 13 rebounds in limited action, and San Antonio rolled to a 110-82 victory over Milwaukee that kept the Bucks winless in the new year. Henrikh Mkhitaryan Jersey . On Thursday theyll learn even more. Despite the cloud of uncertainty that has followed them around from the moment general manager Masai Ujiri was brought in to put his stamp on the franchise, the Raptors have surpassed all pre-season expectations. Sokratis Papastathopoulos Arsenal Jersey . - The Seattle Seahawks have signed nine players to 2014 future contracts, including quarterback B.Baseballs Winter Meetings used to be the highlight of the off season. They still are, to a certain degree, but not nearly what they once were. Last year at Nashville, for instance, things were pretty quiet. You might say what turned out to be the biggest story was Boston signing outfielder/DH Jonny Gomes to a two-year deal worth $10 million. The biggest trade, if you can believe it, was probably Miami dealing former Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar to Tampa Bay for shortstop prospect Derek Dietrich. Alex Anthopoulos has presided over four Winter Meetings and has made just two trades of note over that span. In 2010, he dealt right-hander Shaun Marcum to Milwaukee and in 2011 he shipped pitching prospect Nestor Molina to the Chicago White Sox for reliever, maybe future closer, Sergio Santos. To be fair to Alex, he did most of his heavy lifting last year before the meetings; including that mammoth 12-player deal with the Marlins. If you dig a little deeper over the past four years, some of the biggest moves have backfired on the teams that appeared at the time to be striking gold. In 2010, the Red Sox pulled off a four-player deal with San Diego to get Adrian Gonzalez and then signed Carl Crawford to the largest deal ever given to a position player who had never hit 20 home runs in a season; Crawford leaving Tampa Bay to sign a seven-year, $142 million deal with the Bosox. Less than two years later, on August 25, 2012, Boston packaged Gonzalez and Crawford into an eight-player deal with the Dodgers that in the long run helped change the fortunes of both clubs. In 2011 at Dallas, the Angels stole the show with a couple of major free agent signings, getting Albert Pujols on a 10-year, $240 million deal and left-handed starter C. J Wilson on a five-year pact worth $77.5 million. Pujols had a decent first years with the Angels but then had his second year cut short by a foot injury and only hit 17 homers in 99 games. Some questioned whether he will ever return to the "superstar" form of his St. Louis days; especially when he will be 34 next season. Wilson has pitching pretty well for the Angels, racking up a 30-17 record with a 3.60 ERA, but the Angels havent come close to making the playoffs since these two arrived on the scene. The Halos only compounded their troubles by signing Rangers free agent left fielder Josh Hamilton to a five year, $125 million deal on December 13 of last year. Hamilton only hit .250 with 21 homerrs and 79 runs batted in.dddddddddddd. So in the last four Winter Meetings, there seems to have been more questionable moves than good. In 2009 at Indianapolis, the biggest news might have involved the media. Baseball print and broadcast legend Peter Gammons left ESPN to join MLB.com, the MLB Network and NESN. Oddly enough on the eve of these Winter Meetings in Orlando, ESPN announced Curt Schilling would be moving into the both on Sunday Night Baseball with Dan Shulman and John Kruk; Schilling replacing Orel Hershiser, who is heading for the Dodgers new network. After all that happened last week, including Robby Cano signing with Seattle and Carlos Beltran joining the Yankees, you have to wonder if this is going to be a relatively quiet week in Orlando. For the fans sake, I hope it isnt. I mentioned in my last article that the new executive director of the Players Association, Tony Clark, once hit three homers in a game against the Blue Jays. Well, I researched it a little further. The game was at Rogers Centre on August 28, 2004. Clark had started the game going 0-for-2, and then in the 6th inning he slugged a three-run homer off lefty Ted Lilly. In the 8th inning, he added a solo shot off Jason Frasor and in the 9th another bases empty blast off Kerry Ligtenberg. So Clark wound up going 3-for-5 with five runs batted in, in an 18-6 Yankees blowout win. That, however, wasnt the most unusual aspect of that game. The Blue Jays scored two runs in the bottom of the 8th and actually shaved the Yanks lead to 9-6. Things were getting dicey, so skipper Joe Torre brought in Mariano Rivera with two out in the 8th. Rivera did his job retiring all four men he faced. The Yankees, though, scored nine runs in the top of the 9th to turn it into a laugher. Nevertheless, Rivera got his 45th save in a 12-run victory. I would doubt that ever happened before or since. Its amazing the stuff you can discover on Baseball Almanac. Roy Halladay, whos battled through shoulder issues the last two years, is going to retire. In fact, he is going to call it a career as a Blue Jay. He will sign a one-day contract with the Jays before officially retiring. That would lead you to believe that if Roy makes it to the Hall of Fame one day he will go in as a Blue Jay. Also quite the coincidence that Halladay would retire in the same off-season as his good friend and former Jays teammate Chris Carpenter. The game will miss them both. ' ' '