ld also missed two extra points in the finale against the Browns. The Bears decided to part ways with him, and Gould has not been picked up.The Browns stand by the decision to sign an

The Denver Nuggets were cruising as they hit the midpoint of their six-game road trip Thursday. They had built a healthy lead over the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center on Wednesday with the ball moving around the perimeter and finding open shooters.The well slowly dried up. The ball movement stopped as Washington upped its defense. The lead quickly disappeared. The Nuggets looked like they ran out of gas, fatigue killing the teams spacing and ball movement as the Wizards found that last bit of energy.Denver scored just 12 points in the fourth quarter, seeing a two-point deficit balloon to a 92-85 loss on the road. The Nuggets had just 33 points in the second half and committed a league-high 29 turnovers this season. As the game wore on, Denver saw the energy that built them as much as a 14-point lead evaporate. Their sharpness and precision whittled away.There are repercussions to not being ready to play (Wednesday night), Nuggets coach Michael Malone told Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. Back-to-backs are always tough, but when you have to dig so deep to make it a three-point game late (Wednesday) night, they jumped on us in that second half. You could see our pace slow down, we missed free throws, we missed open shots, and thats what fatigue does to you.So is the energy-sucking reality of a road trip.The Nuggets will head to Orlando on Saturday for their fifth game on a six-game road trip that has taken them from Utah to the East Coast. It is Denvers fifth game in nine days. Adding in all the travel, it is an exhausting set.The Magic know all too well the rigors of travel. Saturday represents the ending to one of the most difficult stretches they will see this season.Orlando returned home from a five-game road trip Wednesday in a loss to the Boston Celtics. The Celtics, like the Wizards did to the Nuggets, blew the doors open in the second half, outscoring the Magic by 31 points for a 117-87 win. It was a disappointing and frustrating moment for a Magic team that won four of five games on that road trip.As dutiful players, no one would blame fatigue for the blowout loss at home.I dont think that should be an excuse as far as us coming off a back-to-back, Bismack Biyombo. Everyone is playing back-to-backs. There are a lot of teams winning back-to-backs. We have to be responsible and handle our business. We have to find a way to get back to playing our game, trust the next guy, do the right thing and set the right screens and get back to being the team we want to be.Undoubtedly, though, fatigue played a role. The team just completed an eight-day, five-game road trip that ended with a back-to-back at home against the Celtics. That would make six games in nine days, an incredibly brutal stretch.And the last game of that road trip began the Magics only stretch of four games in five nights. Orlando completes that stretch with Saturdays game against the Denver Nuggets, making for eight games in 12 days. That is about as jammed a schedule as any team in the NBA will have for any stretch.That fatigue and that exhaustion got tested in Charlotte as Orlando fell 109-88. In the process, the Magic may have lost three key players to injury. Bismack Biyombo (shoulder), Nikola Vucevic (knee) and Jeff Green (ankle) all left during the game because of injuries.By the time Saturday comes around though, the Magic may very well be exhausted. So too might the Denver Nuggets with how their schedule is playing out.The schedule, though, does not wait for any team.Joe Ross Jersey . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. Aaron Barrett Jersey . The quest begins with what is supposed to be an easy one, although Germany has traditionally been a stubborn opponent to Canadian teams at international tournaments. https://www.cheapnationals.com/ . Anthony Davis had 31 points and 17 rebounds in his seventh straight game with more than 20 points, but that was only enough to keep the Pelicans competitive into the final minutes. Andrew Bogut had 10 points and 15 rebounds for Golden State, which rebounded from a loss a night earlier in Oklahoma City and snapped a two-game skid. Adam Eaton Nationals Jersey .Y. -- Sabres defenceman Tyler Myers had no intention of changing his hard-hitting style before taking part in a disciplinary hearing for his illegal check to New Jersey forward Dainius Zubrus head. Brian Dozier Nationals Jersey . Halladay signed a one-day contract with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday that allowed the veteran right-hander to retire as a member of team with which he broke into the majors and spent the bulk of his distinguished 16-year career.BEREA, Ohio -- The Cleveland Browns do not believe place-kicker Cody Parkey should take the fall for Sundays overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins.The team also has no plans to change kickers before the Browns play in Washington, coach Hue Jackson said Monday.This latest drama came after Parkey went 3-for-6 in his Browns debut. Parkeys missed 46-yard attempt on the final play of regulation led to a loss and came after Parkey was rushed onto the team over the weekend.I think its unfair just to dump it all on him, Jackson said.Parkey joined the Browns after Patrick Murray hurt his knee in practice on Friday. On the chance someone might call, Parkey kicked on his own Friday afternoon near his home in Jupiter, Florida. He heard from the Browns, then flew to Cleveland on Friday night.He went to the facility Saturday morning and had no time to practice before he got on the plane with his new teammates to play the Dolphins. ?His first warm-ups came before the game. During the game he made field goals of 46, 48 and 38 yards, but he missed kicks of 41, 42 (off the upright) and 46 yards (the potential game-winner).Everybody says Well, thats the kickers job; well, it is his job, Jackson said. But normally a guy has a job, hes been around his employer a little bit. Hes been around his teammates a little bit. So it was tough, it was tough circumstances.It was unfortunate. If he would have made it, wed be celebrating right now. But he didnt.Every one of the misses went left, which might indicate Parkey was anxious and trying too hard. After the game, he merely said, They all missed left, so ... aim right.Parkey kicked in only three games in 2015 before going on injured reserve with a groin injury. In his rookie season in 2014, he went to the Pro Bowl. When Murray was injured, the Browns had a choice of a young player like Parkey or a veteran like Robbie Gould, who was cut by the Bears before the season started.We felt good about watching [Parkey] kick on tape. We felt good about everything that he was doing, Jackson said. We felt he was the best of the group, and we all made that decision together.Jackson said any chatter that the coaching staff preferred Gould should be dismissed. The Miami Herald reported from league sources that special-teams coach Chris Tabor wanted Gould, but the front office took Parkey, in part because he cost less. Tabor was assistant special teams coach in Chicago from 2008-10, when Gould was the Bears kicker.ddddddddddddJackson said the Browns picked Parkey because he was the guy that we wanted. The team has somewhere near $50 million in salary-cap room, and it did now know what Gould would cost because it decided on Parkey. But if Gould would have signed for the veterans minimum, which seems likely, the difference between Gould and Parkey would have been less than $500,000.Any decision thats made here by the football team we make together, Jackson said. I felt very comfortable. And if theres anything that comes out of this building it should come from me, not from anybody else. If I didnt say it, I guarantee you nobody else has any right to ever say anything about we should have had this guy or somebody wished they had that guy.We took the guy that we wanted. Thats Cody Parkey. Thats the guy we put on our team and thats the guy who kicked for us.The Browns M.O. through this point of the season has been to favor younger players who can grow together under Jackson. Murray fit that mold before he was injured.Gould is 34, Parkey 24. The past two years when Parkey was in the league in Philadelphia, he made 35-of-40 kicks (87.5 percent), 4-for-4 from 50-yards plus. Gould was 42-for-51 (82.4 percent), 7-for-10 from 50 yards plus.But Gould had a stretch last season when he went 2-for-5. That included misses of 40 and 36 yards in an overtime loss to San Francisco. The 36-yard try could have won the game on the last play of regulation. The next game, against Washington, Gould missed a 50-yard kick with 1:45 left that would have tied the game. At the end of this preseason, Gould also missed two extra points in the finale against the Browns. The Bears decided to part ways with him, and Gould has not been picked up.The Browns stand by the decision to sign and keep Parkey.I challenge any of us to come in here on a flight on late Friday night, wake up and meet the coach for a second and get on another flight and head to Miami and not know really a lot of your teammates, but some, Jackson said. Walk out and kick in pregame, and then kick in a game, where you attempt five of these feel goals. Not two, not one, but five.Thats a lot of pressure. And then heres the game-winner. Hitting you right in the face. Thats a tough situation. ' ' '