TORONTO - Inbounding the ball from behind the basket with 2. Tampa Bay Rays Gear .7 seconds left on the shot clock, at least there would have been if they were working, Nets guard Shaun Livingston found veteran and future Hall of Famer Paul Pierce in the corner. "One," counted down Raptors public address announcer Herbie Kuhn - filling in for the busted shot clock - over the Air Canada Centre speakers as Pierce stepped back and drained a 19-foot dagger to put Brooklyn up by eight. The Raptors had led by one a couple minutes earlier until Pierce went on a fourth-quarter rampage, scoring nine straight points to put the game out of reach in the dying minutes. This was precisely what Dwane Casey and his club feared most, whether they cared to admit it or not. "I thought we played a little bit as expected as it is our first playoff game," Casey said after a 94-87 loss to open the Raptors first playoff series in six years. "I thought we took ourselves out." They had battled their own inexperience, working through an early and understandable case of playoff jitters, they contended with spotty officiating and even navigated around an arena malfunction that knocked both shot clocks out of commission for most of the second half. For all their shortcomings on a Saturday afternoon they cant be particularly proud of, the game was in reach until the final few minutes, winning time. Thats when experience comes into play, more so than any other moment, any other game situation. The Nets have it, the Raptors dont and its something you cant simulate or prepare for. "You just get that feeling," said Pierce, who has played in more postseason games - now 137 - than anyone on the Nets roster. "[Ive] been in those situations a number of times. I dont get rattled in the fourth quarter, down the stretch, in playoff settings. Ive been in pretty much every playoff setting that you can imagine so I just try to stay calm." Torontos leading scorer had no such luck. Making his playoff debut, DeMar DeRozan didnt knock down his first field goal until late in the third quarter after missing his first eight shots. After the game he sat in front of his locker, dejected, disappointed, frustrated. Hes a student of the game and has studied playoff basketball but finally he understood what its like to live it, to experience it first hand. "Its not rocket science," he had said Thursday. No, but its a lot harder than it looks. "I just missed shots," DeRozan maintained, but it was more than that. "They overplayed him," said Kyle Lowry. "They really denied him the ball. Weve got to find ways to screen him and get him more looks, get him open a little bit sooner and quicker and get him to his sweet spots." At this time of year theres a learning curve, and the quicker DeRozan picks it up the better off the Raptors will be. If the playoffs are indeed about mental over physical strength, as Chuck Hayes so eloquently put it Friday, no one does it better than Pierce and the wily Kevin Garnett. "I grew up watching this guy," 27-year-old Greivis Vasquez said of Pierce, nine years his senior. "I went to his basketball camp, Nike camp, back in the day, imagine playing against him right now. Hes still doing it." Nothing could faze Pierce with the game in the balance, none of the Raptors multiple defenders - some bigger, some smaller and quicker - not even the hostile reception he got from Torontos electric, sellout crowd. Draped in white, the ACC was buzzing for nearly three hours in support of the home team, making things - or at least trying to - challenging for the visiting Nets. "The atmosphere of the crowd, the intensity, the noise, we need that every night," said Lowry, who finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in his first playoff game since 2009. "I can tell you that the Brooklyn Nets were saying speak up, we cant hear, its loud in here. It definitely affected them a little bit." "Paul, the truth is youre old, ugly and slow," one fan, sitting behind the Nets bench, yelled at Pierce. Moments after enacting his revenge, in the form of a nine-point fourth quarter, Pierce threw his headband into the stands, only to have it tossed back it him. The Nets forward tossed it to another fan, and back it came again. "Third time was the charm," he joked after the game. "I really feed off the emotions of the crowd, especially on the road," said Pierce. "Its fun when you get to go on the road and beat a team. I think its more gratifying than winning at home. I love those moments." Ultimately that was the difference in Game 1. The Raptors shot 39 per cent, committed 19 turnovers and got little-to-no contribution from three of their starters, but those final minutes - the moment Brooklyn embraced, the moment Toronto seemed petrified of - is what really did them in. As Casey wisely pointed out, this series is a long way from over. DeRozan, like his young teammates, is a sponge. He and the rest of his team will watch film, theyll study and if they learn from their mistakes and evolve in those crucial moments of this most crucial time of the year theyll be ready to throw the next punch at the ACC for Tuesdays Game 2. "Believe me, this is nowhere near disappointing," Casey said. "We are a young team and we won the division. Were third in the conference. Were going to fight our butts off to win this series. This does not identify us as far as who we are if we dont come out on top. This is one game. The series is not over." Carrying the load While DeRozan and sophomore Terrence Ross struggled in their playoff debuts, 21-year-old Jonas Valanciunas looked like a polished veteran, utilizing his size and strength advantage to get Toronto going early in the game and dominate the boards throughout. "Ill tell you what, I thought Jonas played big time," Casey said of his young centre. "He really did. He grew up today and that was huge for us." With 17 points and 18 rebounds - the most by any Raptor in the postseason - the sophomore became the second player in franchise history to record a double-double in his first playoff game. Shot clock malfunction Early in the third quarter, the shot and game clocks above both baskets went blank, causing a short delay. After about five minutes, play resumed but in place of the two clocks - still powerless - Kuhn, with the use of a timer, called out time markers over the PA on each possession. "It was awkward," Vasquez said, playing without shot clocks for the remainder of the game. One flickered on directly after the final buzzer sounded. "It reminds me of back in the day when we used to play with the shot clock in the corner." "It was definitely tough because youre so used to looking up, being able to see the time," DeRozan added. "It was tough but we just tried to help each other." Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment issued a post-game statement explaining the incident. "We experienced a signal path failure," the MLSE release read. "Our backup system for the temporary shot clocked relied on the same source. New cables will be run tonight and tomorrow to ensure no issues arise on Tuesday and the NBA will inspect both the fixed and backup systems before Game 2." The stat There have been 453 best of seven series in the NBA, going into this season, and the winner of Game 1 has moved on 77 per cent of the time. The quote(s) "Guys, I used the wrong choice of words out there," said Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri, conducting a brief press conference at halftime to apologize for using profanity in an attempt to fire up the crowd, speaking to hundreds of fans outside the ACC before the game. "I apologize to the kids out there. Nothing against [the Nets], just trying to get the fans going. You guys know how I feel. I dont like them, but I apologize." "Well I feel the same way so, and Ive got his back," Vasquez said after the game, coming to the defence of Ujiri. "Hes part of the family. Thats all Ive got to say. Hes our guy and were going to go fight for him no matter what. We dont like any of them either. Thats how we feel. All of us." Rays Jerseys 2019 . With one penalty, Fourcade finished in 24 minutes, 58.2 seconds, just nine-tenths of a second ahead of Timofey Lapshin, who shot clean in the cold. Rays Jerseys 2020 . The third-ranked Buckeyes were down eight points to Notre Dame with less than 2 minutes to play and their offence was nowhere to be found. https://www.cheapraysonline.com/ . Bobrovsky posted a 2-0-1 record with a 1.58 goals-against average and .950 save percentage to help the Blue Jackets (35-26-6) gain five of a possible six points last week. He capped the week by making 32 saves and stopping 2-of-4 shootout attempts in a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- Nick Mora made sure that California would play for the Little League World Series championship. Mora allowed just two hits and smacked a three-run homer, and Chula Vista beat Westport, Conn., 12-1 in the U.S. title game on Saturday. California will play Japan for the World Series title on Sunday. Japan beat Mexico 3-2 earlier Saturday on Takuma Gomis leadoff home run in the top of the sixth inning. California took a 6-1 lead in the first two innings against the New England champions, scoring three times in the first with the help of some sloppy Connecticut play and getting three more on Moras long home run in the second. The West champions added six more runs in the sixth on a passed ball, a wild pitch, an error, an RBI single by Mora, and a two-run double by Michael Gaines. Mora gave California the spark it needed with ace right-hander Grant Holman not eligible to pitch until Sunday. Mora struck out 10 and walked only one before reaching his pitch limit with one out left in the game. It had been a memorable World Series for both teams. The 6-foot-4 Holman pitched the first extra-inning no-hitter in the Little League World Series since 1979, striking out 13 in seven innings in a 3-0 first-round victory over Grosse Pointe, Mich. Holman also won Wednesday nights game against Connecticut with a three-run homer in the ninth inning and hit a grand slam in the fourth inning that ended a mercy rule-shortened 15-3 victory over Newark, Del. For Connecticut, Chad Knight lined a run-scoring single to deep left field in the seventh inning to give the New England champions a wild 14-13 win over Sammamish, Wash., on Friday. He also hit a solo homer to tie it at 13 in the fifth. Westport was torched for 10 runs in the fourth inning by Sammamish, then rallied with seven runs in the fifth to tie it. They did it with power, also getting home runs from Alex Reiner, Max Popken, Tatin Llamas and Ricky Offenberg. Perhaps worn out from all that excitement and with not much time to recover, Connecticut fell behind early against California and couldnt make another valiant rally. Tampa Bay Rays Shirts. Chula Vista scored three times in the first inning when Connecticut committed three errors. Micah Pietila-Wiggs led off with a single, his eighth hit of the World Series, and Jake Espinoza reached second on an error after grounding into a force play. Mora then reached on an error by third baseman Harry Azadian, and Holman singled to left, reaching third when the ball went through the legs of outfielder Charlie Roof. When Giancarlo Cortez followed with an RBI single, California had a 3-0 lead. Matt Stones RBI single in the first put Connecticut on the board, but California came right back again. Pietila-Wiggs singled again, this time through the pitchers legs, Espinoza beat out a high bouncer to the mound, and Mora crushed a 3-0 pitch from Connecticut starter Knight onto the hill well beyond the fence in right-centre for a 6-1 lead. Knight settled down after that, striking out the side in the third and retiring the side in order in the fourth. He went to the dugout having thrown 74 pitches, just 11 from the maximum allowed under Little League rules, but his teammates couldnt produce one last rally as Mora held the New England champions at bay. Mora struck out the side in the second, allowed one hit in the third, and faced only three batters in the fourth as Connecticut blundered again. Stone lofted a high fly to left that Michael Gaines appeared to lose in the sun. The ball caromed off his glove for an error. Stone, however, was out trying to reach second when Pietila-Wiggs took the throw, blocked the bag with his feet, and slapped a tag on him. Connecticut challenged the call, but it stood after a video replay. Chula Vistas victory came 50 years to the day after California defeated Connecticut 2-1 for the 1963 Little League World Series title. ' ' '