Regeln » r years. He has also served as defensive coordin

TORONTO - With six weeks remaining before his teams likely return to the playoffs, Dwane Casey is hoping to manufacture some late-season rest for the Raptors two leading scorers. Although DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry have shown no sign of wearing down, each logging more playing time than they have previously in their careers, Casey would like to keep them as fresh as possible for the stretch run, something that may be easier said than done. Sitting 9 1/2 games ahead of ninth-place Detroit in the Eastern Conference standings, Toronto - the Easts third seed - is poised to make its first postseason appearance in six years. With that comes another rarity for the franchise, playing meaningful games in March and April. The challenge for Casey and the Raptors coaching staff will be in managing the rotation, loosening it enough to give the guards a breathier - together or separately - without sacrificing important games. "Thats the hard thing," Casey acknowledged following Wednesdays practice. "Weve got to buy them a few minutes here and there but every possession - not only every game, every quarter [but] every possession - is meaningful." "When you start looking at scoring, we hit a drought the other night against Golden State right before the fourth quarter but we were just trying to buy minutes for those guys off the floor. Its a catch-22." DeRozan is fourth in the league, averaging just over 38 minutes per game, behind only Carmelo Anthony, James Harden and Kevin Durant while Lowry is 14th, logging roughly 36 a night. Amongst NBA duos, only Houstons pair of Harden and Chandler Parsons as well as Golden States Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson play more. In February, DeRozan played over 40 minutes a night, with Lowry nearly hitting 38. Since the early-December trade, Casey has been rolling out a strict nine-man rotation, using primarily Greivis Vasquez and John Salmons to spell Lowry, DeRozan and Terrence Ross. Getting reliable contribution from his reserves and piecing together the right combinations will be essential for the Raptors coach to expand the rotation enough to buy his backcourt duo more downtime on the bench. One player hed like to see more of, who could help in taking the burden off Lowry and DeRozan, is newcomer Nando De Colo. The versatile guard has played just eight minutes since being acquired from the Spurs in a deadline day trade two weeks ago. Although Casey has had trouble pinpointing where exactly De Colo fits in his lineup, he anticipates using the 26-year-old as a secondary ball handler, likely at the two or three position. "Weve got to make sure we have the right combinations on the court, that way we dont sacrifice scoring, but he knows how to play, he has a feel for the game," Casey said of De Colo. "You cant really put your finger on his position or what he is, a two, a three or a point [guard], but hes a basketball player. He just knows how to play." The Raptors got back to work Wednesday after taking a couple days off to satisfy a league mandate. "I thought we had decent focus," Casey said, "the usual first day back to school-type start, but I thought once guys got into it we ramped the intensity a little bit. "There was no resistance as far as the drills were concerned whatsoever, so I could sense they were anxious to get back. As a coach you dont want to lose that rhythm, thats the biggest fear. I didnt sense any of that today." While Jonas Valanciunas used the time off to get away from the game, spending the day ice fishing on Lake Simcoe (he returned home empty handed, without a fish), Terrence Ross took advantage of a rare mid-season opportunity for rest. Ross has been nursing a sprained left ankle, keeping him out of Sundays win over Golden State, but was able to practice in full Wednesday. "It happened at the best time," said Ross, who expects to be in uniform when the Raptors host Sacramento on Friday. "I got a few days off to stay off it and rest. Im feeling back to normal. Ive still got to do treatment on it but right now it feels good." Adidas Springblade China .Y. -- Scott Chandler is returning to Buffalo, where he spent the past three seasons establishing himself as the Bills top pass-catching tight end. Yeezy Boost 350 Wholesale . Horford is out 3-to-4 months with a torn pectoral muscle for the Hawks, who have won two straight and five of six games. Atlanta improved to 2-0 on the residency with Saturdays 93-91 triumph over Minnesota, as Ivan Johnson scored his teams final four points, including the game-winning free throw with 4. http://www.nmdsneakerssale.com/nmd-shoes-r1-deals.html .One day after winning her record 63rd World Cup race, Vonn posted to her Facebook account Tuesday that she was happy Woods surprised her by coming to the race, and that she felt terrible that his tooth got knocked out. Cheap Adidas Nmd Xr1 . Ashton scored a hat trick -- giving him 13 goals in 16 AHL games this season -- to power the Toronto Marlies to a 5-2 victory over the visiting Lake Erie Monsters in AHL action on Sunday. Cheap Adidas Nmd Womens . -- Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu will be the Dodgers starting pitchers in their two-game season-opening series in Australia against the Arizona Diamondbacks.Pittsburgh, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - The Pittsburgh Steelers promoted Keith Butler to defensive coordinator on Tuesday. Butler served as the teams linebackers coach the past 12 years and replaces legendary defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, who resigned on Jan. 10. Its the dream of a lifetime, said Butler on Tuesday. There are only 32 of these jobs on this Earth. I am excited about the opportunity and I look forward to getting this process started immediately. Prior to joining the Steelers, Butler was linebackers coach for the Cleveland Browns for four years. He has also served as defensive coordinator for Arkansas State University and linebackers/defensive ends coach at the University of Memphis, where he and current Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin were on the same coaching staff in 1996. We are excited to announce Keith Butler as our defensive coordinator, said Tomlin in a statement Tuesday.dddddddddddd Keith has been an integral part of our defensive game planning and schemes for several years and we look forward to him moving into the role of calling the defense. His passion and energy will be important to us taking the next steps to being one of the top defenses in the NFL. Butler was a three-year starting linebacker at Memphis, leading the team in tackles his junior and senior year. He was a second-round pick of the Seattle Seahawks in 1978 and played 10 seasons with Seattle, where he still ranks second all-time in franchise history with 813 tackles. LeBeau, 77, helped the Steelers win two Super Bowls following the 2005 and 08 seasons. He had been with the Steelers organization for 16 seasons. ' ' '