Pirate Galaxy » ole situation." There has been speculat

RIO DE JANEIRO -- It had the sound, from an omen perspective, of the flat-out wrong address. A booking gone bad.Housing all those famous faces from the NBA on a luxury cruise liner called The Silver Cloud?At the Olympics?You were moved to question the wisdom of that choice once or twice in the early stages Sunday, when stubborn Serbia managed to hang with mighty Team USA for a quarter at Carioca Arena 1. You couldnt help but think: Imagine the storms and ridicule that would greet the Americans if they only managed to bring silver home from these Rio Games.And then Kevin Durant, turning ruthless in the last game well see him play before he starts his new under-the-microscope life with the increasingly villainous Golden State Warriors, staged a hostile international takeover to make you laugh at yourself for wasting any brain cells on the idea.There would be no storms, or lasting fears of silver, on this afternoon. The Americans ultimately rolled in a 96-66 rout, with Durant erupting for 24 of his 30 points by halftime -- 15 of them in the second quarter -- to turn an edgy 19-15 game after a period into a 23-point laugher at the break.Five mostly d-e-e-p 3s from Durant in the first half, with a couple of memorable dunks thrown in, put KD on a path to match his 30 points from the gold-medal game in London 2012, essentially clinched a record third gold medal for teammate Carmelo Anthony before the second half and ensured that Mike Krzyzewski would bid farewell to the international game with a 76-game winning streak to take back to Duke.Best of all, Durant made the Americans final hours on Brazilian soil their most comfortable of the whole trip.What followed after the break was a predictable in-game party for the Americans, with Durant eventually serving as head cheerleader at the end thanks to a lead that stretched as high as 41 points, all of which banished the memories of those nervy three single-digit victories in their first seven games here.We were pissed going into the locker room, Durant said the other day, reflecting on Serbias near upset of the tournaments overwhelming favorites in group play on Aug. 12. Not because we wanted to blow every team out. Just because we didnt play well at all.But now Im just like, Hey, man, if we lose this game, we lose it. If we win it, then great, we move on. That helps me. It may not help other players, but it helps me. Ive just embraced who I am as a basketball player.He truly couldnt have looked more comfortable in his last act on the Rio stage. A summer that began with U.S. players loathing the Molten brown-and-white ball used in international play and struggling to adjust to the slightly shorter 3-point line came to a close with Durant routinely squaring up from far beyond NBA range and hitting triple after triple.This one changed completely once Krzyzewski put reserves Paul George, Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler and DeMarcus Cousins around Durant. The Serbs couldnt cope with their length and athleticism and pressure on the ball, then watched helplessly as Durant sailed in for a slam and a 45-25 cushion when multiple defenders rushed out to try to crowd him on the perimeter.Making 3s was the Serbs only realistic shot of hanging in?, but they were hounded into fatal 4-for-24 shooting from deep. Any remaining hope was snuffed out by Team USAs crushing 54-33 edge on the boards.As Durant said after the Yanks semifinal win over Spain: Weve got two lineups -- guys who can just score and we got energy lineups -- and we mix them together pretty well.Team Energy doomed the runners-up this time, with Cousins (11 of his 13 points in the first half) causing plenty of trouble himself while his Serbian boss -- Sacramento Kings general manager Vlade Divac -- watched helplessly himself from the stands.Anthony was scoreless in the first half and managed just seven points in the finale, but it never mattered. The rout was on and allowed Team USA to fly home Sunday night with a passable average victory margin of 22.5 for the tournament after its struggles in pool play.We never said we was gonna run through everybody, Anthony told ESPN earlier in the tournament. We never said that we was gonna win every game by 30 or 40. The games that we do, we do. The games that we dont, we dont.Serbia, truth be told, was surely fearful that it would fall in the do category of routs, since many international teams quietly subscribe to the theory that, in tournaments such as these, youre only going to get one real shot to beat the Americans. No matter who they bring.Its why there were certifiable murmurs that Australia, after such a great start in Group A, was legitimately weighing the prospect of playing its NBAers limited minutes in the second half of its Aug. 10 encounter with Team USA, believing that it might be better to save its supposed best for a potential rematch in the medal round.Turns out that the Aussies never got that second chance after getting unexpectedly smoked by Serbia in the semis, while the Serbs went on to validate the one-shot-only theory by steadily fading away once Durant got hot, turning this into a virtual rerun of the 2014 FIBA World Cup final in Spain that Team USA won by 37.How will this incarnation of the U.S. national team be remembered? Too soon to say.Yet it was clear on the U.S. bench at the end, amid a hearty round of hugs for Anthony once the expected medal shade of gold began to sink in, that Krzyzewski was as fond of this group as any of the squads that preceded it.Its been the ultimate honor of my life in coaching, Coach K said this week, and Ive coached for 41 years.Wholesale Vapormax 95 . The 17-year-old native of Marystown, N.L., pulled out of Skate Canada International last month in Saint John, N.B., with the same problem. Nike Air VaporMax Flyknit Black Anthracite .com) - The Calgary Flames aim to bounce back from their first regulation home loss of the campaign on Friday night when they host a Detroit Red Wings club that they swept in three meetings a season ago. http://www.clearancevapormax.com/nike-air-vapormax-plus-black-gold-clearance.html . Third-seeded Murray had the easiest path to victory on New Years Eve, barely breaking a sweat during his 6-0, 6-0 win over 2,129th-ranked Qatari wildcard recipient Mousa Shanan Zayed. Vapormax 95 Clearance .ca! Hi Kerry, Heres an interesting one. I know its common knowledge that all players are responsible for their sticks. We witnessed that when Zack Kassian hit Edmontons Sam Gagner in the face after a missed check. Wholesale Vapormax Flyknit . "Theyve both been real good," said Babcock. "Havent changed our minds." A decision has seemingly been made - Sundays Group B-deciding tilt against Finland ahead - but it could not have been an easy one. Price opened the tournament with a sturdy 19-save performance against the Norwegians, yielding just one goal. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Alex Cobb favours pitchers having the option of wearing protective headgear on the mound. Cobb returned to Tropicana Field on Monday, nine days after being struck in the right ear by a ball hit by Kansas Citys Eric Hosmer and nearly seven weeks after Torontos J.A. Happ also was hit in the head by a batted ball while pitching there. Sitting on a platform in the auxiliary clubhouse in which Happ also answered questions about the scary incident that knocked him out of a game in early May, Cobb -- who is making progress in his recovery, spoke to the media for the first time since being carted off the field and taken to a hospital on June 15. Cobb, like Happ, was released from Bayfront Medical Center less than 24 hours later. "I remember deciding what pitch to throw. ... I remember seeing the ball come back," said Cobb, who is out indefinitely with a concussion. "Might have caught a glance of the ball and subconsciously turned my head, thankfully." The injury renewed debate about what can be done to protect pitchers from batted balls. "Even after J.A. Happ went through this, we were asked pretty heavily about this topic. I came right out and thought there should be something for us to have the option to do," Cobb said. "I dont want it to turn into something where every pitcher on the mound has to wear something. Thats everybodys personal choice," Cobb added. "Its one where you want to have a little say-so that if this incident happened again you were able to do everything you could to protect yourself, your future, your family." Cobb, who remained conscious the whole time, said he has experienced nausea, severe headaches that have begun to subside, as well as symptoms of vertigo. Still, he is beginning to feel better each day. "Im having my days," the 25-year-old Cobb said. "Today has been the best day by far." Cobb said he visited the doctor Monday and was told he is healing quicker than expected. There is still no timetable for him to return to the mound. "Thats something you just have to let play out," Rays manager Joe Maddon said before Tampa Bay opened a three-game series against the Blue Jays, who are still without Happ.dddddddddddd "I dont like to apply finish lines to items that I really have no clue (about). I dont think anybody does," Maddon said. "Even if you talk to doctors, Im sure theyre not sure how long its going to take. ... So just let it play out. "Hell let us know when hes ready for that next moment, and well take it from there." After initially being reluctant to watch a replay of the line drive, Cobb said he watched it later that night or the following morning. He said he initially thought the injury wasnt that serious, and wanted to get up and walk off the field. It wasnt until after the ambulance ride to the hospital, where he later overheard a nurse talking about, "how she couldnt believe this is happening again within a month" that he began to think about Happ. "When it happened I didnt think it was too big of a deal. ... It didnt sink in for a while," Cobb said. "Once I got the CATSCAN going and they told me there was no bleeding inside the brain, from there I was kind of at ease with the whole situation." There has been speculation that Cobb, who is 6-2 with a 3.01 ERA in 13 starts this year, might not pitch again this season. He said that isnt true. "Ill be ready to go as soon as my body tells me Im 100 per cent," he said. "But mentally, theres no doubt in my mind Ill be fine. Its just another challenge." He conceded, though, that it is difficult to imagine what it will be like when he does finally get back on a mound and faces hitters. "I dont think thats something you can say until you actually go through it," Cobb said. "Id love to sit up here and tell you no, that once I get out there Ill have the mindset that it happened once, its probably a pretty good chance its not going to happen to me again. "But Im not going to lie. Ive had some nightmares about how bad it could have been. Its obviously in the back of my mind, but Id like to think I could pitch through it." ' ' '