The Indiana Pacers continue at the top of the TSN.
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.ca NBA Power Rankings, a spot they havent relinquished since the start
of the regular season.
Just behind Indiana, the Oklahoma City Thunder, Miami Heat and Portland
Trail Blazers.
Moving up this week, the San Antonio Spurs won three straight and,
getting a few bodies back from injury, moved from 10 to seven.
Further down the list, the Orlando Magic are healthy and went 2-2 last
week, which was enough to vault from 29 to 24. Sometimes it doesnt take a
lot to move among the bottom-tier teams.
Heading the other way, the Los Angeles Clippers lost three of four and
shooting guard J.J. Redick is hurt again, so they fall from seven to 10,
effectively flipping spots with the Spurs.
The Memphis Grizzlies sunk from 12 to 17 after back-to-back losses and,
more importantly, an injury to point guard Mike Conley.
The Toronto Raptors split their four games last week, but it was enough
to hold their ninth-place ranking.
Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on
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A 23-year-old rookie, Stroman is 4-2 with a 3.44 earned run average in
12 games this season, the past seven of those being starts. He logged
the first scoreless outing of his career on Friday versus Oakland in a
no-decision.Andy Carroll had a quiet transfer deadline day. He trained,
prepared himself for his first home start of the season and got rid of
some overdue baggage, finally shaving off his overgrown beard.
It was three years to the day since he was the most expensive British
signing in history.
January 31st, 2011 changed the Gateshead lad forever.
Playing and scoring goals for his boyhood club, Newcastle United,
Carroll was enjoying the dream life - on the pitch.
Off it was a constant battle. That Andy Carroll came with some serious
baggage.
Multiple assault charges finally saw him granted bail on the condition
of him moving to a permanent residence, rather than a hotel. Newcastle
teammate Kevin Nolan took him in and put a curfew on Carroll to help him
stay out of trouble.
"I said he could stay, I cleared it with the Mrs, of course, first,
Nolan later reflected. She was down in Liverpool a lot of the time so we
were like roommates. He was a pretty good cook. Pasta with tomatoes,
chicken; things like that."
On the field, Nolan wanted nothing changed and loved making runs from
midfield to get on the end of a knockdown by the big striker.
Back at the family home, issues around Carroll continued when his car
was set on fire in the driveway and graffiti was written all over the
garage door.
The Nolan family stuck by him as the midfielder revealed to the
Guardian, back in 2010: "Andy has got to be indoors for 10.30pm and he
has got to be in bed by 11pm. Wed already got the kids on curfews, so
its no trouble to enforce.What I have learnt about Andy, though, is that
hes always asleep at the wrong time, like when I get him up early to do
the school run with me. He gets up at 10 to eight and we leave at five
past. We then have our breakfast at the training ground. I dont know if
he likes it but thats the way it is."
Carroll would later see the assault charges dropped and as he moved out
of the Nolan household, he did with much less baggage.
Nolan told the Daily Mirror in 2012: "When you look back on it now, it
was bizarre him staying with us, but it worked. In our family, thats
what we do for our friends. Ive been brought up like that by my mum and
dad.
"I know Andy was very grateful for what we did for him, thats why were
so close. He has his family there for him but sometimes you need other
people as well."
Carrolls 35 million pound move to Liverpool in 2011 was called a dream
move by Nolan, who was obviously delighted for his mate, but the dream
soon turned out to be a nightmare for Carroll.
It was not a move that came too soon for him. It was simply a move that
should never have come at all.
Liverpool captured the Englishman on the day they let Fernando Torres
leave. The 35 million pound figure they paid was never what Carroll was
worth. It was simply a number Newcastle, on the final day of the
transfer window, would allow their goal scorer to leave for. Incredibly,
Liverpool took the bait and Carrolls life changed forever.
Sure, there were some good moments, such as scoring the winner at
Wembley over Everton in the FA Cup semifinal, but there were some tough
moments too and when Kenny Dalglish was replaced by Brendan Rodgers as
manager, it was only a matter of time that Carroll would be moved on.
Nineteen months after signing at Anfield, Carroll was reunited with
Nolan, this time down south at West Ham, agreeing to a season-long loan.
"He has learned so much. There is a different lad standing in that
dressing room now. There is a man who can look after himself and do the
right things on a daily basis," Nolan said.
Carroll did enough last season to convince the Hammers to pay Liverpool
15 million pounds and hand the striker a new six year contract. Except,
once again, Carroll came with baggage, this time in the case of a heel
injury that he picked up on the final day of last season against
Reading.
The injury proved to be far worse than original thought and with Carroll
out for months; West Ham struggled badly, causing mmany to panic,
including the clubs co-owner David Sullivan.
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"Had we known he would be out for this long, we would not have signed
him," Sullivan told the BBCs Football Focus in December.
"We are not a rich enough club to deal with that. You know any player
can get injured, but we cant buy a player knowing he is going to be out
for half the season. When we signed him we were assured by the medical
staff that the very, very latest he would be back was September 1st.
That would have meant he would only miss two league games."
Sullivan has every right to look after his investments but it seemed a
bizarre thing to say publicly. Even if he privately believed it, it is
not as if the money spent on Carroll could have gone on another player
who would have instantly changed the clubs fortunes. You only have to
look at the long list of strikers bought for a lot of money, in the
Premier League, to know many do not work out.
Injury or no injury, that label is yet to be attached to the now
25-year-old Carroll. The jury still remains out on what he can actually
become.
On Saturday he started his second game of the season, at home to
Swansea, and in the first half showed exactly why West Ham wanted to
spend that amount of money on him.
Carroll was magnificent, finding pockets of space to hold up the ball
and supply wide men, choosing his battles in between Chico Flores and
Dwight Tiendalli, to regularly win aerial duels, and then winning two
significant headers that set up the games two goals, in a 2-0 West Ham
win.
The beneficiary? Nolan of course.
Like Carroll, the 2013-14 season had been a season to forget so far for
the Hammers captain but he had no injury to blame for his torrid
campaign. Nolan scored 10 goals from midfield last season and had been
expected to score regularly again this season but, heading into
Saturday, the 31-year-old had as many league red cards as goals this
season (2). After the second red card, against Fulham in December,
manager Sam Allardyce had seen enough, fining him two weeks wages (100
thousand pounds), saying: "Our captain was irresponsible. Not just today
but for the future because he is suspended. Hes let everyone down and
himself. I just dont quite understand where hes lost his cool and why
its happened."
Nolan sat out seven games through suspension but on Saturday he was
reunited with his mate, playing just behind Carroll, giving West Ham
fans what they hope to be a glimpse at the partnership that can keep
their team in the Premier League this season.
Except, once again more baggage comes with Carroll. In the second half
on Saturday he was sent off for extending a wild arm to Chico Floress
head. Allardyce called it an injustice and plans to appeal against it
but if that is unsuccessful Carroll will again sit out for three more
games.
Once Carroll returns he will have gone nine months without playing a
full 90 minutes. He will have three months to not only play a pivotal
role in saving West Hams season but also attempt to get on Roy Hodgsons
England plane to Brazil.
At the moment he appears to be completely off Hodgsons radar but in just
45 minutes on Saturday he showed why he should be more than just
considered if he can play regularly. Carroll offers something completely
different to the England manager, who has enough quick forwards looking
to get in behind a defensive line. Carroll showed against Sweden in
Euro 2012 that he can be a real handful for international defenders if
the quality of the deliveries into the box is high. West Ham became the
final Premier League team to score a headed goal this season on Saturday
and if they can improve their crosses and get Carroll heavily involved
down the stretch then do not rule out the forward making an unlikely
late, successful attempt at the 23rd and final player seat on the plane
to Brazil.
Time is certainly running out but if Carroll can remove the personal
baggage, he may well be packing his own baggage to the World Cup.
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