Marktplatz » sive as winning within the Oilers organization for yea

CHICAGO -- After another dominating performance, nothing could wipe the smile from Joakim Noahs face. Noah had 21 points and 16 rebounds, Carlos Boozer added 15 points and 13 boards, and the Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers 103-78 on Saturday night. "I havent felt healthy like this in a long time. My feet dont hurt, my bodys feeling good," Noah said. "I put in a lot of work in the summertime. The third day of camp I got hurt (strained groin). It was an unfortunate setback, but now Im feeling like its all coming together." Noah extended his streak of double-digit rebound games to 12, the longest stretch of his career. The duos powerful performance was awfully similar to the teams last meeting at the United Center, when Noah posted a triple-double and combined with Boozer for 44 points and 33 rebounds on Feb. 28, 2013. "You cant play any better than (Noah is) playing right now, in every aspect of the game," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "The defence has been there all season, the rebounding off the charts, but the playmaking, the quick decisions, the multiple effort . it sets the tone for the team." Chicago (19-20) has won seven of nine games in 2014. The Bulls led by as many as 36, their largest lead this season. D.J. Augustin scored nine points and dished out seven assists in the pivotal second quarter, in which Chicago extended its lead from five to 20. He finished with 19 points and eight assists. Only three 76ers scored in double digits, Thaddeus Young leading the way with 12 points. James Anderson had 11 points and seven rebounds for Philadelphia (13-27), which has dropped six of seven. Augustin brought the fans to their feet two minutes into the second when he threaded a cross-court bounce pass to Jimmy Butler, who finished strong with a thunderous slam. Augustin later fed Noah on a two-handed dunk in transition to cap the dominating quarter. Noah and Augustin combined to make eight of 10 shots in the second period, outscoring Philadelphia 17-12. Augustin has been a spark since the Bulls signed him on Dec. 13. The 26-year-old is averaging 11.5 points with Chicago and has led the team in assists 11 times. The Bulls are 11-8 with Augustin on the roster, and 7-2 in 2014 -- their only two losses coming to the Washington Wizards within the last six days. "Im just going out there, playing freely, doing whatever Coach needs me to do, whatever my teammates need me to do," Augustin said. "Basically, just trying to get them the ball, trying to get them open. At the same time, Coach wanted me to look (to score) for myself." The 76ers missed all 11 3-point attempts in the first half and committed 17 total turnovers. Philadelphia shot 35.1 per cent from the floor (10.5 per cent from 3-point range) and has turned the ball over 64 times in its last three games. "(The Bulls) play really good defence," 76ers coach Brett Brown said. "In general we struggled finding ways to play freely, to get out in the open court, and the physicality of the game wore us down." The Bulls have won nine of their last 10 regular-season games against the 76ers, who rallied from 20 points down on Nov. 2 to halt a five-game skid against Chicago in a 107-104 victory in Philadelphia. There would be no comeback this time. Spencer Hawes, who averaged 19 points and 13 rebounds in his last two games against Chicago, was largely ineffective. The 7-foot-1 centre had nine points and six rebounds. Michael Carter-Williams scored 10 points and dished out five assists. He had 26 and 11 in the November meeting. "Thats how it goes," Hawes said. "You go through stretches like that, and who knows, the next two or three games maybe we come out and cant miss. Its a long season." Philadelphia guard Tony Wroten sprained his right ankle in the second quarter when he stepped on Nazr Mohammeds foot awkwardly, staying on the ground for a couple minutes. He limped off the court gingerly with the help of his teammates and did not return. Brown couldnt give a timetable after the game, but said "it looked bad." Notes: The Bulls agreed to trade point guard Marquis Teague to the Brooklyn Nets for F Tornike Shengelia, a person with knowledge of the deal said Saturday. Teague was dressed but did not play. "Marquis is a good, young player. Hes had some good moments," Thibodeau said. "Hes had some moments that he can obviously do better, but thats to be expected. When you come into this league as young as he is, thats what youre going to get. Hes much further along today than he was when he was first drafted." ... Philadelphia F/C Lavoy Allen (left knee) scored six points in 15 minutes, playing for the first time since Jan. 7. He had missed four games. Reggie Lewis Celtics Jersey .ca. Kerry, In the first period of Saturdays Montreal-Ottawa game, Brendan Gallagher is called for goaltender interference. Craig Anderson is outside the blue paint trying to make the save. Kevin Mchale Celtics Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. http://www.authenticcelticsproshop.com/Jaylen-Brown-Jersey/ . Torres tells Spanish daily AS "in football you never know where you will be inside one month. Im going to work hard, thats all you can do with this last part of the season so important. Dennis Johnson Celtics Jersey . Coverage on TSN is underway now while action resumes on TSN2 at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. TSN GO also offers TSN subscribers bonus online coverage, with live streams of all four venues. Larry Bird Celtics Jersey . In five games last month, Billings led all scorers with 11 goals, 27 assists and 38 points as the Rock posted a 2-3 record.The below table contains a group of five first-line centres in the National Hockey League, with their Corsi% On (percentage of 5-on-5 shot attempts with the player in question on the ice) and Corsi% Off (percentage of 5-on-5 shot attempts with the player in question off of the ice). I’ve omitted names in an effort to temporarily mitigate bias. First-Line Centres Centre (2014-15) Corsi% On Corsi% Off Player A 55.3% 46.6% Player B 53.8% 50.7% Player C 58.5% 48.9% Player D 56.0% 47.7% Player E 53.4% 48.7% I think we can comfortably agree that these five players share two things in common: one, their respective teams are in control when they’re on the ice, and two, there is depreciable performance when they come off of the ice. It’s important to note, though, that the Corsi% Off for each of these centres isn’t terrible – it’s actually at or around what we would expect for a weighted performance of lines two, three, and four based on prior work done at HockeyGraphs The point isn’t that these players are likely great at their craft. It’s that these players likely play on teams with at least fairly competent depth, perhaps enough to compete for a playoff spot. Let’s work this exercise one more time. We’ll focus on the same five centres but, this time, grab their Corsi% On and Corsi% Off for the years 2011-2014. First-Line Centres - On and Off Ice Corsi% Centre (2011-14) Corsi% On Corsi% Off Player A 57.7% 49.0% Player B 50.2% 47.9% Player C 54.7% 47.7% Player D 56.5% 50.6% Player E 47.2% 44.3% for Player A through Player D, we see more of the same – a range from very good to elite possession numbers via Corsi% On, and mostly average possession numbers based on line expectations via Corsi% Off. Player E, however, is substantially different. He was getting caved in by the opposition, and his team was just appalling with him on the bench. Players A through D, in order: Henrik Sedin, Nicklas Backstrom, Sidney Crosby, and Joe Thornton. As you might have expected. Player E? Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Though there’s been a lot of handwringing about another possible disappointing season in Edmonton, I think there’s something to be said about measurable improvement. I know Oilers fans – and probably the front office and coaching staff, too – dream of this team making a magical jump from draft lottery quality to legitimate playoff contender overnight. Unfortunately, progress ofteen takes time.dddddddddddd That’s especially true if you’re trying to build a team that can hang its hat on puck possession, and not riding the wave of variance to a fluky post-season berth. And make no mistake, Edmonton has improved at 5-on-5. Part of it is because Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and his linemates seem to be finally taking the next step, entering their playing primes as a group. Part of it is because Edmonton has done an excellent job at repairing some galaxy-sized holes in the lineup away from the top-line, enough that this team is no longer pulling dreadful 44% control with their top players off of the ice. Let’s touch on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins first. We know he’s still towing positive RelativeCorsi% from the numbers above. Additionally, he – with assistance from Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle, certainly – is on the verge of hitting a Corsi% he’s only seen a couple of times previously in his career. The graph to the left is a 15-game rolling average, which will let us capture his recent 2014-2015 uptick. While Nugent-Hopkins and the Edmonton top-line are starting to decisively control play, it’s not exactly uncharted territory – we have seen stretches, albeit brief ones, of that top-line clicking in the past. What’s made Edmonton respectable, again, is that the second, third, and fourth line are starting to pull their weight a bit, something that’s been as elusive as winning within the Oilers organization for years now. We can use the same 15-game Corsi% rolling average for the Oilers over all of the games Nugent-Hopkins has played, but specifically exclude all of the shifts in which Nugent-Hopkins was on the ice. How does Edmonton look now compared to years past? Just like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the Oilers second, third, and fourth-lines have seen brief stints of respectability before. But, compare the first graph to the second graph, and you’ll notice that this team’s never really had both groups going at the same time. When Nugent-Hopkins was struggling early in his career, the rest of the Oilers group was doing OK. When Nugent-Hopkins had a great run during the lockout-shortened year, the rest of the Oilers lines couldn’t get out of their own way. Can Edmonton sustain this sort of success? Right now, the team sits at 48.5% Score-Adjusted Fenwick% through sixteen games – ranking 21st in the NHL. It’s only a start, but let’s remember the Edmonton teams of past, and their league-wide ranking by Score-Adjusted Fenwick%: 28th, 26th, 30th, 29th, 26th, 29th, and 28th. Improvement is a relative term. Edmonton’s doing it. In the event that they can fix the goaltending that’s really been the source of their pain for most of this season, the Oilers could be a team trending up in the standings. ' ' '