Clevelands six-game winning streak
BERLIN - Bastian Schweinsteiger scored one goal and set up another as Bayern Munich moved ever closer to the Bundesliga title with a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday. Schweinsteiger crossed for Mario Mandzukic to score with a powerful header in the 44th minute, and secured Bayerns league record 17th win in succession with a perfectly placed free kick in the 52nd. \"It was an important goal, so Im happy it went in,\" the Germany midfielder said. Stefan Kiessling headed Leverkusens consolation from Roberto Hilberts cross in injury time. Bayern extended its league record unbeaten run to 50 games and moved 23 points clear of Borussia Dortmund with nine games remaining. Dortmund was beaten 2-1 at home by Borussia Moenchengladbach, meaning Bayern can secure the title at Mainz next week if Dortmund and Schalke, 24 points behind in third, both fail to win. \"I remember we were champions in Mainz a couple of times before. It was funny because they celebrated with us,\" Schweinsteiger said. \"But its all the same when we do it.\" Bayern made a lacklustre start in its first game since Uli Hoeness stepped down as president after being convicted of tax evasion. He was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison on Thursday. Son Heung-min should have scored for Leverkusen in the 11th, when he had only Manuel Neuer to beat after being played in by Kiessling, but the South Korean shot wide of the far post. \"I wanted to place it in the corner,\" Son said. \"We did everything we could.\" Neuer also made a good save to deny Simon Rolfes from distance in the 29th. Mandzukic beat Philipp Wollscheid to meet Schweinsteigers cross before the break, and Schweinsteiger shot over the wall and inside the top left corner to seal the result. \"We werent at out limit,\" Bayern midfielder Thomas Mueller grumbled. \"Its all the same (when Bayern clinch the title). We want to win again to keep our rhythm so were there again in the knockout rounds of the Champions League.\" Earlier, Mainz came from two goals down to win 4-2 at Hoffenheim, Werder Bremen drew 1-1 with Stuttgart, Wolfsburg could only draw 1-1 at bottom side Eintracht Braunschweig, and Hertha Berlin lost 3-0 at home to Hannover. Dortmund, which hosts Zenit St. Petersburg in the Champions League on Wednesday, was without influential midfielders Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marco Reus due to suspension and muscle problems, respectively, as 10-man Gladbach ended its nine-game run without a win. \"We had a tough time and naturally were all relieved,\" said Gladbach coach Lucien Favre, who extended his contract on Wednesday. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck the crossbar for Dortmund before Raffael scored at the other end in the 31st. Max Kruse made it 2-0 by drawing Dortmund defender Lukasz Piszczek and goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller first one way, then the other, before clipping the ball in. \"When you go nine games without scoring then of course its a relief,\" said Kruse, who was dropped for Germanys recent game with Chile because of poor form. Havard Nordtveit was sent off for his second yellow card in the 69th, eight minutes before Dortmund substitute Milos Jojic pulled one back with a deflected shot. \"It shouldnt happen to us at home,\" Dortmund midfielder Nuri Sahin said. \"You could see after the sending-off that everyone believed in the equalizer but it wasnt to be.\" Hoffenheim led 2-0 minutes into the second half, but the defence crumbled, letting in three Mainz goals in an eight-minute span, and Shinji Okazakis second in injury time. \"I cant explain why we gave the game away,\" Hoffenheim coach Markus Gisdol said. It had been briefly interrupted in the first half when Hoffenheims Andreas Beck crashed into a pitchside cameraman, knocking him and the TV camera over. Both needed treatment. The cameraman was carried away on a stretcher, while Beck carried on. With new coach Huub Stevens in charge, Stuttgart was hoping to end its nine-game winless streak. But Bremen equalized with 12 minutes to go. \"A pity,\" Stevens said. Braunschweig was far happier in salvaging its draw with Wolfsburg. \"This lets us continue on our journey of Bundesliga participation,\" Braunschweig coach Torsten Lieberknecht said. Nike Air Max 90 Womens Sale . -- Cordell Cato scored his first goal of the season and the San Jose Earthquakes survived a full half playing a man down to beat FC Dallas 2-1 Saturday night. Nike Air Max 90 Womens . Redman began training camp expecting to compete for the starting job but struggled to stay healthy. He managed just 12 yards on 10 carries this season and saw his playing time decrease behind rookie LeVeon Bell and veterans Felix Jones and Jonathan Dwyer. http://www.airmaxonline-au.com/cheap-nike-air-max-90-australia/air-max-lunar-90.html. -- A big early deficit and an opponents hot shooting hand didnt faze Nikola Vucevic or the rest of the Orlando Magic. Nike Air Max 90 Mens Blue . The Clippers gave the prognosis Sunday after Paul had an MRI. Paul was injured in the third quarter of the Clippers game at Dallas on Friday when he tripped over guard Monta Ellis. Nike Air Max 90 Mens White .\" Inbee Park began her bid to become the first golfer to capture four straight majors in one season by teeing off at 7 a.TORONTO - Once he got going, no one could calm Jonas Valanciunas down, despite Kyle Lowrys best efforts. As Valanciunas was whistled for a rare technical toward the end of the third quarter - a result of waving his hand at an official after being called for a foul - Lowry pulled the Raptors sophomore aside, corralling him by his jersey and patting him on the back. \"Youve got to be smart in certain situations,\" Lowry told the young centre. \"I just tried to say look, you cant waste your money.\" \"Yeah, he was trying to calm me down,\" Valanciunas said of the conversation with his point guard, speaking with a mischievous look on his face following the Raptors 98-91 win over the Cavaliers. \"That technical foul cost me, so I feel bad now.\" He shouldnt. The tech will cost Valanciunas a small fraction of his next paycheque but the unbridled emotion he played with in the second half of Fridays game was the driving force of Torontos rapid turnaround. Valanciunas, like the rest of his team, got off to an ugly start. The Raptors were fortunate to be down by only five going into the break, scoring just 39 points in the first half and shooting 33 per cent from the field. For the third straight game coming out of the All-Star break, Valanciunas got a quick hook in the first quarter. The seven-footer has been strangely quiet of late, averaging under six points in four games entering Fridays contest. His minutes have been down, as hes battled growing pains on the defensive end. After being sent to the bench midway through the opening quarter, he sat for around 12 minutes of game time before re-entering. Somewhere, somehow, someone lit a fire under the sophomore and not only did it spark him, it ignited the whole team. Valanciunas was a possessed man coming out of the halftime break. He was aggressive on defence, manic on the boards and dominant down low. He ran the floor with a purpose, worked to establish position, then demanded the ball. As he turned to face up Clevelands Tyler Zeller midway through the third, he pump faked - not once, but twice - took the contact and drained the jumper. Before completing the three-point play, he pumped his fist in the air and yelled out to the crowd, or the Cavs, or his teammates, or whoever was listening. His face was as red as the logo at centre court. He meant business. \"Hes going to have ups and downs but tonight he was intense,\" Lowry said of Valanciunas, who had 10 points and four rebounds in the third quarter, finishing the game with 18 points and eight boards. \"He really kind of carried us with his intensity and his passion and fire tonight.\" The 21-year-olds inspired play lifted the Raptors in what turned out to be a game-deciding third quarter. Toronto scored 37 points in the frame - two fewer than its first-half total - and shot 70 per centt, turning a five-point deficit at intermission into an 11-point advantage going into the fourth.dddddddddddd. \"Hes our enforcer in the paint,\" said Amir Johnson, who returned to the starting lineup Friday after coming off the bench in his two previous outings, nursing an ankle injury. \"When he gets going, everybody else plays good and that just gets everybody open shots when hes scoring in the paint.\" Johnson also came to life in the second half, the two bigs even hooked up on an alley-oop lob - from Johnson to Valanciunas - late in game. \"We had to give our bigs a wakeup call,\" Dwane Casey said. \"They turned it around in the second half. We reminded them, theres more to the game than the offensive end.\" \"You can do a lot of different things other than make shots,\" he continued, \"and I thought the second half, Amir Johnson and JV worked at it and got it done.\" Although Valanciunas helped turn the game, the best Raptor on the night - from start to finish - was fellow sophomore Terrence Ross, hands down. Ross scored a team-high 20 points, shooting 9-for-18, but his most important contribution was on the defensive end, where he went toe-to-toe with All-Star Game MVP Kyrie Irving. When the game began, Ross was assigned to check former Raptor Jarrett Jack while Lowry defended Irving. Early in the first quarter, there was a switch and Ross ended up on the Cavs point guard and leading scorer. It stuck for the rest of the evening, and Ross did not disappoint. The Raptors forward used his length and athleticism to frustrate Irving, forcing him to launch tough perimeter jumpers, keeping him out of the paint and holding him to 3-of-16 shooting. \"He can score in a lot of different ways [and] get his teammates involved,\" Ross said of Irving, who ended up with 17 points and nine assists for Cleveland. \"So if you slow him down, you slow the team down.\" \"He had to chase [Irving] everywhere,\" Johnson said of Ross. \"He chased him off screens, he didnt quit on plays and thats how you have to play a guy like that. [Irvings] so crafty and hes always moving so you just have to keep a body on him and stay in front of him. [Ross] did a great job.\" It was Canada Basketball Night at the Air Canada Centre Friday, as local product and first overall pick Anthony Bennett made his NBA debut in Toronto. Bennett, who continues to improve after a slow start to the season, knocked down his first two shots and finished with nine points in 15 minute of action while fellow Canadian Tristan Thompson scored 13 to go along with nine boards. In snapping Clevelands six-game winning streak, the Raptors picked up their 30th win of the campaign, doing so in just 55 games. It took them 78 contests to reach the 30-win mark a year ago. Cheap Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China ' ' '