FIVE QUICK NBA THOUGHTS: 1. RAPTORS STRUGGLING: The bottom line is the true test in sports isnt just how you handle failure, but how you handle success. This team has gotten off track from the formula that it was using beautifully of late. The games against the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers and Mondays loss to the Charlotte Bobcats all had major stretches where this team looked like they acted as if they had already "arrived" and didnt have to do the dirty work anymore and just wanted to win pretty instead of grinding it out and laying it on the line with great effort and passion. I felt bad for coach Dwane Casey in Charlotte. Its a helpless feeling as a coach when you have a team that thinks that they can beat folks with talent and not have to do the work to win. He was scrambling, trying to mix and match combinations and burn timeouts to give wake up calls, yet in the end, a terrific desperate effort came up short. As you can tell, I havent even mentioned Xs and Os once and dont have to or plan to - thats not the issue here, nor is it talent. To sum it up, winning is really, really, really hard to do, but losing is really easy. Youre a 20-20 club. Do you want to be mediocre or average or do you want to accomplish something? Its gut-check time and theres a very simple solution to the problem: Respect your opponent, have top-notch attention to detail, compete with great passion and stay committed to the team concept. You do that and youll be fine. If you dont, there will be changes. The trade deadline is 30 days away. You dont want to get stuck in no mans land. You gave away three games in the past six days to teams that are banged up with slightly inferior talent levels and you have to wonder about the direction you want to take this. I love what general manager Masai Ujiri has done with this whole thing, being patient with the process. Its all on the players now. Its time to produce and, more importantly, learn from this experience and, if you do have success again, dont let these things happen again. You cant stay like this - either cross the line and be a consistently good team with great habits or make changes. The clock is ticking now. 2. HERE THEY COME: Hearing footsteps yet? Im sure youve all noticed that the Atlanta Hawks have gotten the third seed back in its possession and the Brooklyn Nets are now breathing right down the Raptors backs with Deron Williams back in the line-up, as well as a huge game on Monday between the Raptors and Nets in Brooklyn coming up. And dont sleep on the Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls, either. Theyre both 20-20 and not going away. The Raptors had a chance to make hay against weak competition and didnt do it. Things get tougher and tougher now. Can they still win the Atlantic? Sure. Can they get the #3 seed? Sure. If, and its a big if, they play the way theyre capable of playing. Excellence is a habit, not an act. This is a nice test coming up and well all find out in the next few weeks what theyre all about. I think they can do it. Its a good group of guys with enough talent that get more than a good share of the coaching and leadership they need to be successful. Theyve now put themselves into a "backs are against the wall" scenario and maybe thats what this team needs and I cant wait to find out. The middle part of the schedule is when the distancing starts to happen. Who will fight and contend and who will fade away and make plans for golf and the beach for mid-April? The Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat already know what their spring plans are, but the rest of the East is in complete flux. It is all starting to take shape now and the competition is on. 3. NICK YOUNG (Lakers): This guy can flat out score. He torched the Raptors on Sunday with some ridiculous shots and then drops 31 against a terrific Bulls defence on Monday. Hes one of those guys that will always have a job because its hard to find guys who can heat up like him and bring you back into a game. His defence and maturity are areas you wonder about sometimes, but he is a talented guy who has some high octane ability. He creates his own shot quite well and shoots it from distance effectively. Hes able to get to the foul line and has good creativity with his ball skills. He seems to wear out his welcome eventually, but while you have him, he gets you the numbers, thats for sure. 4. RICKY RUBIO (Timberwolves): Hes an exceptional defender and a wonderfully entertaining and creative passer and playmaker. With that said, for his game to truly get to the next level, he has to become a guy who is a consistent long range shooting threat in order to open up his impact in the screen and roll game and space the defence out, because youve got to come out and guard him rather than sag off him. Hes a point guard who can make all the plays with amazing vision and reflexes, yet for him to reach that upper tier, he needs to get his shot mechanics in order. He has great work habits, so Im sure hell pay the price. If he gets that together, he can make that next step. 5. JOAKIM NOAH (Bulls): You gotta love this guy. Hes already had three 20 and 15 games this season and had 17 and 21 against the Lakers last night in an OT win. Since the Bulls traded Luol Deng, hes been on a mission and hes playing angry and with amazing energy. Hes a winner in every sense and doesnt get enough credit for this, but hes a really good passer. Hes a smart player who makes the right play next in your offensive sequence. Hes got a bigger piece of the puzzle in the Bulls scheme now with Deng in Cleveland and hes responding. Noah is not a bad guy to bank on. And, by the way, Im happy for former Raptor DJ Augustin. Hes found a home with this Bulls team and playing pretty well. Hes a good guy who has the talent to help you win.Im glad its worked out for him. Site Air Max Pas Cher Fiable . The D-Backs came into being in 1998 and appear destined to finish second in the AL West after the Tsunami that is the Los Angeles Dodgers swept over them. I thought it might be interesting to see what the D-backs have done over their 16 years compared to what the Blue Jays have done over their past 16 campaigns. Air Max 270 Moins Cher .C. -- Only two Syracuse teams have won their first 20 games, and C. http://www.airmaxpaschersite.fr/basket-a...-97-outlet.html. Anything less than gold for either nation is considered a disappointment. Yet for Switzerland, advancing to the semifinal might be a victory in itself. Air Max Tn Plus Livraison Gratuite .com) - Devin Booker scored 19 points and top-ranked Kentucky put on a defensive clinic in an 83-44 obliteration of UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic. Air Max Pas Cher France . The Redblacks are taking on the Edmonton Eskimos in their second regular season game Friday night. Catch the game live on TSN as the back end of a doubleheader starting at 10pm et/7pm pt.ROME - Law enforcement authorities need to prevent banned physician Michele Ferrari from seeing riders and conclude his long-running stain on the sport, according to the president of the Italian Cycling Federation.It needs to be law enforcement and judicial officials that put an end to it, Renato Di Rocco told The Associated Press. Unfortunately, teams dont have these means.Earlier this month, investigators led by Padua prosecutor Benedetto Roberti sent a 550-page file detailing allegations of Ferraris continued influence on cyclists to the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).Of the more than 35 pro cyclists involved in the inquiry, most of them are still competing, police told the AP.CONIs anti-doping prosecutor is currently going through the dossier and will likely start calling in athletes to answer for the case starting in January, the committee said.The same four-year-old investigation played a role in the massive 2012 report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that detailed doping by Lance Armstrong and led to him being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.Armstrong has acknowledged that Ferrari was his trainer until 2004, and Ferraris name was mentioned throughout the USADA report.Doping is a crime in Italy, and Ferrari was already cleared on appeal in 2006 of criminal charges of distributing banned products to athletes. But he remains barred for life by the Italian Cycling Federation under a 2002 ruling. Ferrari was also banned for life by USADA in 2012.Im telling you as a citizen of Italy: these long cases dont help anyone, Di Rocco said this week. We always ask magistrates to help us and remove bad apples from cycling. But in the end we lose too much time. A lot of the people involved have already served bans.Calls to Robertis office went unanswered but nobody has been called to trial yet in the case. A similar judicial inquiry invollving alleged doping within the Lampre team has also dragged on for years without any conclusions.ddddddddddddWhen there are only doubts and shadows I think cycling is tired of that, Di Rocco said.The Gazzetta dello Sport reported this month that investigators photographed Ferrari meeting with members of the Astana team outside the teams training camp hotel one night in November 2013.Astana is the team of Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali, but his name does not appear in the Padua dossier that CONI received, the Olympic committee said.Ferrari wrote on his website earlier this month that he never went to the team hotel.Up to a few years ago I coached some of the Astana athletes, including (the teams current general manager Alexandre) Vinokourov, Ferrari said. It has never been a secret. We never hid anything. We attended training venues where there were many other athletes, all in broad daylight.The International Cycling Union decided last week that Astana will keep its World Tour license — although on probation — despite five senior and development squad riders being caught doping with EPO and steroids since August.There was certainly some tension within the squad, Nibali said while at CONI on Monday for an awards ceremony. Ive always remained calm. We were waiting for the license and in the end it came and its all been resolved well.Meanwhile, Nibali is drawing out his schedule for 2015, and the big question is whether hell ride in the Giro dItalia.For sure Ill do the Tour. Whereas for the Giro Im still waiting, he said.Di Rocco suggested that Nibali should definitely focus only on the Tour, partly because the Giro features an unusually long 59-kilometre (37-mile) time trial.Thats so long it doesnt suit anybody, not even (Chris) Froome or (Alberto) Contador, Di Rocco said.___Andrew Dampf can be followed at www.twitter.com/asdampf ' ' '