Willkommen » St. Louis, and his replacement,

(SportsNetwork.com) - The Portland Trail Blazers will close out a five-game road trip Saturday against the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Trail Blazers are 2-2 on the eastern trek and have lost back-to-back games following a five-game winning streak. In Friday nights 115-106 loss to the Chicago Bulls, LaMarcus Aldridge scored 21 of his 35 points in the first quarter and grabbed nine rebounds. Aldridge made 15-of-24 shots and Damian Lillard also scored 35 points to go with six assists and five boards. Lillard had 18 points in the fourth quarter and was 13-of-21 from the field for the Blazers, who shot 48.9 percent and were outrebounded, 47-37. We werent good enough defensively, said Lillard, who made 7-of-11 3- pointers. We started off the game well...but they just got it going. Chicago made 50 percent for the game and scored 30 or more points in both the second (35) and fourth (33) quarters. Portland is 7-4 on the road and will return to the Rose City to face San Antonio and Milwaukee. The Trail Blazers are 13-2 when scoring 100 or more points and had won their first 10 games against Eastern Conference opponents until Fridays loss to the Bulls. Indiana hopes to put an end to its seven-game losing streak Saturday and suffered a 106-94 setback at Toronto Friday night. Solomon Hill scored 16 points and both Rodney Stuckey and C.J. Watson posted 13 for the Pacers. David West tallied 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists in a losing cause. I thought we played better, said West, who is seven points shy of 12,000 in his career. The effort was there. The Pacers will also host Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers on this short homestand and are 4-7 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. They have lost two in a row in front of the home crowd. Pacers guard C.J. Miles left Fridays game with a bruised knee and is questionable for Saturday. Miles is in his first season with the Pacers and is averaging 9.1 points. Portland recently defeated Indiana, 88-82, on Dec. 4 at the Moda Center, where Lillard and Aldridge scored 23 and 18 points, respectively. Stuckey had 16 points in that one for the Pacers, who have beaten the Blazers four straight times in Indy. Aldridge is averaging 23.7 points in the last four games against the Pacers. Cheap Nationals Jerseys Authentic . -- Top-seed Shahar Peer and Canadian Eugenie Bouchard advanced to the second round of the inaugural WTA Citi Open. Cheap Nationals Jerseys . Webb birdied the 18th hole to take the outright lead, then watched as Choi, who shot a course-record 62 on Saturday to take a share of the third-round lead, pushed a 10-foot putt wide of the hole at 18 to miss the chance for a playoff. http://www.cheapnationalsjerseys.com/. “Im not sure well get Melky Cabrera at all,” said Gibbons. The 29-year-old left fielder struggled all season with knee and hamstring problems. Cabrera was first on the disabled list from June 27-July 20 with tendinitis in his left knee. Cheap Washington Nationals Jerseys .C. -- Jackson Whistle made 26 saves for his first shutout of the season as the Kelowna Rockets blanked the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes 5-0 on Saturday in Western Hockey League action. Wholesale Nationals Jerseys . With his father watching from the stands, Harrison homered, doubled, single and drove in a career-high five runs to lead the Pirates to a 8-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday.(SportsNetwork.com) - All of a sudden, its become crisis time in Kansas City. Coach Andy Reid and the Chiefs were riding high on a five-game win streak - including a defeat of the defending Super Bowl champions - as they reached late November, but the arrival of the holiday season has meant particularly bad tidings when it comes to a would-be AFC playoff list. First came an embarrassing loss to previously winless Oakland on a primetime Thursday night, which was followed up by another national television misstep, this time to the Denver Broncos last Sunday. The result: Kansas City has dropped from first to third in the AFC West and now finds itself among a gaggle of conference teams - six, to be precise - with 7-5 records and postseason dreams. We didnt finish the third quarter (of the season) the way that we wanted to. Weve got to go back to it and get that part fixed, Reid said. Weve stalled the last two weeks, so weve got to get this thing turned around and get us straightened up. The Chiefs were in a 14-point hole against the Raiders before ultimately dropping a four-point decision, then were down, 17-0, to the Broncos last week. The offense generated just 120 yards in the opening 30 minutes in the Oakland game and only 59 in that same timeframe against Denver. Running back Jamaal Charles carried 10 times for 35 yards and caught four passes for 24 yards last week, while quarterback Alex Smith was intercepted for the first time since Week 5. Our defense was out on the field the majority of that first half. Couldnt help them out, Smith said. To start off the game with those three-and-outs like that, youre just not helping the team, and not getting into any rhythm hurt us. Kansas City matched up reasonably well with Denvers prolific passing attack thanks to an aerial defense thats the best in the league with an average of 196.8 yards allowed, but the Chiefs had few answers when the Broncos switched gears and pounded them for 214 yards on the ground. In fact, the team has allowed 4.93 yards per run, worst in the league. This weeks opponent, Arizona, throws the ball on more than 60 percent of its snaps and averages a league-worst 3.08 yards per attempt. The Cardinals ran just 11 times last week against Atlanta. Its disappointing, Kansas City defensive tackle Dontari Poe said. But we have a couple more games to play. Its not like (the Denver game) was the last one. We still have some stuff to fix. Well come out this next game and play better. Arizona is trying to brandish the same confidence amid a raft of injuries. Quarterback Carson Palmer was lost for the season with a knee injury during a Week 10 victory over St. Louis, and his replacement, Drew Stanton, has lost two of three starts as the Cardinals have tumbled from 9-1 and a clear No. 1 seed in the NFC to 9-3 with just a one-game division lead. Safety Tyrann Mathieu will miss significant time, too, after fracturing his left thumb. He was part of a ball-hawking defense that had forced eight turnovers in a three-game stretch against Philadelphia, Dallas and St.dddddddddddd Louis, but that same unit has generated only two takeaways in the last three games. Its a sense of urgency, because we have to play lights-out football, cornerback Patrick Peterson said. We have all the confidence in the world in (Stanton), but we are still playing with a backup quarterback and that changes the dynamics of everything. As a defense, we have to do what got us here, which was taking the ball away, and as an offense, protecting the ball. Stanton has thrown three touchdown passes and five interceptions since becoming the starter, though he was without No. 1 receiver Larry Fitzgerald for the losses to Seattle and Atlanta. Arizona now leads the Seahawks by one game in the NFC West. When you stink, you stink. You point out how you stunk and get it corrected, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said. I dont throw chairs and holler and do all that stuff thats non-productive. Thats not teaching. You have to teach in order to get things corrected. Theres two pictures - the two-game losing streak and being 9-3. We have to get back to the things that got us to this point. The next one is huge to maintain where were at. The sky has not fallen yet. Were still No. 1, and we need to stay there this week. Fitzgerald is labeled probable to face the Chiefs and help Arizona try to maintain an unbeaten record at its University of Phoenix home. The Cardinals have lost just once there in their last 11 games. Weve played well at home, and this is a great opponent, Arians said. Jamaal Charles is playing as well as any running back has in a while. Hes always an unbelievable challenge. WHAT TO WATCH FOR What Can Brown Do? Rookie wide receiver John Brown has been a home-field phenomenon for the Cardinals in 2014, making 25 of his 39 receptions and scoring all five of his touchdowns there. Considering that Arizonas leading rusher, Andre Ellington, is listed as doubtful with a lingering hip injury, its likely that the third- round pick from tiny Pittsburg State will become a go-to as Stanton continues to seek offensive comfort. Go Wide, Young Man Its a pretty remarkable stat that a quality team like the Chiefs - even after 12 games - has still not generated a single touchdown catch from a wide receiver. Indeed, Smiths 15 TD throws have been divvied up among tight ends (eight) and running backs (seven), though Dwayne Bowe leads the team with 46 catches. Arizona is just 27th in the league is pass defense, so the drought could soon end. OVERALL ANALYSIS His teammates have said all the right things and his coach still insists that teaching is the way to end the recent doldrums, but the reality is that the Cardinals with Stanton at the helm are simply different than theyd been with Palmer. Hes got to play nearly mistake-free to win football games, and against a near-elite team like Kansas City, thats a tough task to complete. In fact, it says here that he wont. Sports Network predicted outcome: Chiefs 24, Cardinals 14 ' ' '