trailing by only one in the dying moments of a deciding

TORONTO - Kyle Lowry laid flat in the centre of the key, hands on his head as he stared straight up at the top of the Air Canada Centre, likely seeing nothing at all, having just missed the biggest shot of his eight-year career. Although, technically it was not a shot. With their season on the line, the ball was in Lowrys hands, deservedly so. The clock showed 6.2 seconds as the Raptors inbounded, trailing by only one in the dying moments of a deciding Game 7. Jason Kidd and his Nets team had little doubt the ball would find Lowry. The star point guard caught the pass, with Deron Williams draped all over him, and went straight toward the rim as Kevin Garnett came over to trap. Lowry split the two defenders and floated a shot up at the basket just as Paul Pierce entered the fray in time to block it. As the buzzer sounded, putting an end to Torontos magical season, Lowry - the teams heart and soul - fell to the court. What was going through his head? "Whats not?" he shot back. DeMar DeRozan was the first one to come over. Crouching over the sprawled out Lowry, DeRozan offered up some words of encouragement. "He said, If anyone is taking that shot, Im living and dying with you taking it and trying to get that shot off," Lowry recounted after the Raptors heartbreaking 104-103 Game 7 loss. "It was one of those things, a brotherly moment." DeRozan helped the point guard up and the Raptors two best players walked off the court - Lowry with his jersey over his face - to a rousing ovation from their appreciative fans. "It was big time," Amir Johnson said of the scene. "Just them showing their appreciation, how well we did this season and how hard we worked. So it was a sad moment but bittersweet, I guess." The Raptors couldnt hide their disappointment after falling just short of advancing to the Conference Semifinals Sunday afternoon, it was written all over their faces, but they have no reason to hang their heads. The sellout ACC crowd stood and chanted in salute of their team, the game - however frustrating - served as a good reminder of why. With five minutes left, the Raptors appeared dead in the water. Frustrated and coming undone in the moment, down 10, their season was on life support but, like hes done so many times before, Dr. Lowry refused to let them die. Lowry scored 13 of his game-high 28 points in the final quarter and the Raptors came storming back. That resiliency has been their most admirable quality all year. They had led the NBA in fourth-quarter scoring differential, earning 11 comeback wins, eight more than the season prior. "Were going to fight until our last breath," said DeRozan after scoring 18 points, playing with the flu, as Casey revealed following the game. "Were going to leave it out there, every single thing we have there on the court." "We battled," added Johnson, who recorded his first playoff double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out early in the fourth quarter. "I would go to war with these guys any day and they showed a lot of pride and a lot of heart tonight. We just ran out of time." Lowry and his unwavering resolve have a lot to do with the teams late-game tenacity and so, with their season in the balance, they had no qualms with letting him decide their fate. "That young man did everything he could to get to the basket," Casey said of Lowry on the final possession. It was what they had drew up, Lowry going to the rim, though it was a slight variation of what was intended, with poor spacing that ultimately led to the blocked shot. "He tried to will his way to get that extra point." One point separated the teams Sunday and after 11 meetings - in the regular season and playoffs - Toronto and Brooklyn each scored 1,070 points. The series was as close as they come. "We were right there," Casey pointed out, and if a few calls from another highly critiqued officiating crew went their way they may have pulled it out. But in the end, the Nets were the better team Sunday and that was the case, more often than not, throughout the series. Joe Johnson - the best player on either side over the seven-game span - proved un-guardable again, scoring half of his 26 points in the fourth quarter, while the Raptors youth and inexperience continued to rear its head. Although Terrence Ross turned in his best game of the series, securing the steal that made Torontos final possession possible, the bar had been set low. Fellow sophomore Jonas Valanciunas scored just three points to go along with five rebounds in one of the quietest outings of his brief career. As a team, the Raptors wanted to go further, they believed they were ready and came just one play short of proving it. Even after the loss, with their season now over, the progress theyve made does not go to waste. Three of their starters had never appeared in a playoff game. Only four players on their roster had ever experienced a Game 7, no one has emerged victorious from one. This experience is invaluable and can only serve them well, both individually and as a collective, going forward. "Im proud of our guys," Casey said. "Nobody gave them a snowballs chance in you know where to be here. They competed all year. This group has a lot of stuff in front of them, a lot of basketball in front of them. The organization is in a great spot." "This playoff run is nothing but positive for these young men and anyone that thinks any different doesnt know basketball." Stitched Patriots Jerseys .Y. -- Cory Schneider has to make the most of his opportunities to guard the New Jersey Devils net to earn more playing time. New England Patriots Shirts . Lawries batting helmet hit an umpire during his ninth-inning outburst in the Jays 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday. The 22-year-old threw his helmet to the ground and it bounced up and hit home plate umpire Bill Miller on the right hip after Lawrie was called out on strikes for the second out. https://www.patriotsjerseysale.com/ . - The Oakland Athletics say they are stopping negotiations to extend their lease at the Coliseum. Patriots Jerseys China . Yahoo! Sports columnist Marc Spears says that the Boogie Smooth album may have been an elaborate April Fools prank. Cheap Patriots Jerseys . Vinci also beat Dulgheru last week in Bucharest en route to her first WTA final in a year. Vinci next faces sixth-seeded Kurumi Nara of Japan, who beat Czech qualifier Katerina Siniakova 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-2. No. WINNIPEG -- It may have taken a couple of games, but Tyler Seguin is showing dangerous chemistry with Jamie Benn. The pair lit up the ice Friday night, combining for three goals and four assists in the Dallas Stars 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets. "I think we get better every day," said Seguin, who had two goals and two assists. "Were becoming good friends off the ice and I think thats only going to translate good things on the ice." The addition of centre Rich Peverly also clicked as he assisted on Seguins first goal. Seguin, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2010 NHL entry draft, came into Friday nights game with only one assist this season in the two games Dallas had played. But the team was well rested after their last home game Saturday and Seguin seemed to respond. Alex Chiasson also scored for Dallas (2-1-0). Blake Wheeler scored Winnipegs only goal. The Jets (2-3-0) have lost three in a row after starting the season 2-0. The Stars havent made the playoffs since 2008, and are hoping to change their fortunes under new coach Lindy Ruff. Theyre looking for some of the magic that got them to the playoffs every season but one in their first 14. They won the Stanley Cup at the end of the 1998-99 season. Benn, named team captain last month, was drafted by the Stars in 2007 and was signed early this year to a five-year $26.25 million contract "Through training camp, pre-season, I feel like every day with practices were getting to know one another and we bring two different games to the table," said Seguin. "It was our first game with Rich Peverly and I thought we jelled pretty well together," added Benn. "We tried to get some shots early and were fortunate enough to get a couple of goals and just kept rolling from there." The Jets did two things theyve been trying to do all season, win the faceoff battle and not get outshot, but still came up short. They won 40 of 64 faceoffs and outshot the Stars 44-31. But playing back-to-back games, they started slower and let Dallas grab a 3-0 lead by the end of the first period. "Were five games in and its still very early and we know what we have in this room," said Jets forward Evander Kane. "I dont think were panicking. Its just frustrating. . . We got a lot of shots at the net tonight but we werent able to get the quality scoring chances." They put oon some of their best pressure in the third period, where Wheeler scored his power-play goal, also his first goal of the season.dddddddddddd "We can play like that. We just wait till its 4-0," said Kane. Coach Claude Noel said mistakes in the first period ended up in the net. "We cant make those kind of mistakes and expect that our goaltendings going to save us like it has in the previous games," he said. "We should have been smarter and we should have been better in those areas." But there were positives as he juggled lines through the game. "We just played with a lot more vim and vigour if you will. If we had a game like last night again tonight that would really be a big concern of mine because we really were empty last night. We had no emotion in the game." In the first period, Winnipeg finally won the faceoff contest 15-9, a weak spot in their game recently, but were outshot 15-11 and made costly positional errors. The Jets had their best chance to score on a four-minute power play just over five minutes in, when Valeri Nichushkins stick sent Dustin Byfuglien to the Jets dressing room briefly for a cut to his face. But they lost the last minute of the power-play opportunity when Byfugliens partner Toby Enstrom was sent off for hooking. The Stars made good on their minute with an extra man when Seguin set up Chiasson, who stuffed one under Ondrej Pavelecs pads and Seguin slapped in a drop pass from Rich Peverly a few minutes later. Benn finished the scoring in the first by tucking Brendon Dillons rebound behind Pavelecs back at 16:35. Seguin opened the scoring in the second to make it 4-0 when he slapped one into the net from the right faceoff circle, after both Winnipeg and Dallas had failed to connect on power-play chances. Dallas netminder Dan Ellis took late in the second period after starter Kari Lehtonen left with an injury. Wheeler finally beat Ellis at the 5:35 mark of the third when he slipped in a rebound from Byfugliens slapshot on a power play. Despite the time off getting his cut attended to, Byfuglien played a team high 24:41 minutes. Notes: Friday nights game was the fifth in a row where the Jets have scored a power-play goal, including a five-on-three Thursday night in St. Paul. They failed to score on a five-on-three last season and had the worst power-play percentage in the NHL. ' ' '