waste time in their chase of 413.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The NBA is loaded with top-tier point guards, and talented players at the position will get good looks during Summer League play.Games begin Saturday in Orlando, on Monday in Salt Lake City, and on July 8 in Las Vegas. And though there are about 90 roster spots for point guards in the NBA, a strong pedigree is no longer enough: Players such as Marcus Paige, a McDonalds All-American who led North Carolina to the national championship game, face an uphill climb to make a team.The Utah Jazz havent reached the playoffs since 2012 and Paige still remains a long shot with six other point guards on the team.Its kind of a great era for point guards right now in the NBA, said Paige, the No. 55 overall pick. Theres no nights off. Youve got elite talent almost at every spot, especially in the West.You want to be a competitor. You want to accept that challenge. You know youre not on that level right away, but you can aspire to work every day and work to get to that level. Im just excited for the different challenges. Gone is the physical style in which the ball is mostly dumped into the post for centers to go to work. Now teams must deal with a Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, John Wall, Kyrie Irving and a host of other skilled ballhandlers on a nightly basis.The Minnesota Timerbwolves drafted Providence point guard Kris Dunn with the third overall pick despite Ricky Rubio coming off his best year as a pro. General manager Scott Layden said its difficult finding a good point guard that also holds his own on the defensive end.In the NBA its so hard to find two-way players, Layden said. The other thing is, how hard it is to find a good point guard. ... Kris, when you watched him play, he made others better. When youre leading a team, thats so important. The toughness factor, when you get that from your point guard, it seems to resonate to the rest of the group. And the ability to defend, because often times youre defending the other teams best player.Teams are regularly carrying three point guards on a roster and continue to look for help at the position. Summer Leagues will feature former college standouts such as Notre Dames Demetrius Jackson, Kentuckys Marquis Teague, Ohio States Aaron Craft, Oregons Joe Young, Louisvilles Terry Rozier and Arizonas T.J. McConnell -- all facing the same challenge as Paige.Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey acknowledged a dearth of point guards on the roster and hopes to work with Paige and his agent on a way to keep him in the organization regardless of whether he makes the club.Its a very important time for me, Paige said of Summer League. Its a guard heavy roster, but Im trying to make it in the league. So I have to show what Im capable of and build on what I did in the combine and in workouts to show that Im somebody that can make a difference at the next level with my shooting. With my playmaking in the pick and roll. And with my competitiveness and leadership.Rule changes and shifts in playing style have given ball handlers an advantage in todays NBA. The lane has widened from its original 6 feet to the current 16, pushing big men farther from the basket. Hand-checking and arm-bars are now fouls, making it more difficult for defenders to stay in front ball handlers, particularly the likes of James Harden. The strategic emphasis on spacing and the pick-and-roll gives quicker players with handles more room to operate.But teams are specifically thirsty for point guards. The Pacers traded for Jeff Teague in a three-team deal that sent George Hill to the Jazz. The Hawks valued Dennis Schroder over Teague. Mike Conley is in for big pay day in free agency, and the Brooklyn Nets have agreed to a deal with free agent Jeremy Lin. The Knicks traded for former MVP Derrick Rose with hopes he can return to a top-tier level of play.Summer League rosters are full of point guards drafted in the second round with no guarantees, and others that signed as undrafted free agents. The odds are long, but the emphasis on the position has organizations searching for diamonds in the rough.It should be an intriguing 17 days of action. Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys . -- Three close looks at the bucket, three misses. Stitched China Jerseys . If ever they start actually putting pictures beside words in the dictionary, the Blue Jays left-handers mug will appear beside “Consistency. http://www.cheapchinajerseys.net/ . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. Cheap Jerseys Online . After a lengthy wait, persistent rain finally forced the postponement of the Nationals game against the Miami Marlins on Saturday night. The teams, and a few thousand fans, waited nearly four hours from the 7:05 scheduled start time before an announcement was made shortly before 11 p. NFL Jerseys China . Rinne played two periods in his first game since left hip surgery in early May. Gabriel Bourque scored 3:07 into the second period and Austin Watson tallied 5:15 later for Nashville. Shaun Marsh deserves this Test selection. Those are words that have not always been true. At his lowest, at home to India in 2011-12, Marsh was to Test batting what Eric Moussambani was to Olympic swimming. Yet chances kept coming, and now, at 33, Marsh is repaying that faith. When he replaced the injured Usman Khawaja last summer, he made 182 in Hobart. His next Test innings was 130 when recalled in Colombo. Then came a Sheffield Shield ton this week.So yes, Marsh has earned his opportunity this time. He is David Warners incumbent Test opening partner, and has given the selectors no reason to drop him. At the WACA next week, Marsh will face South Africa in what will be his first Test at his home ground since that miserable 2011-12 summer.And when he does, spare a thought for Joe Burns.In Australias last Test before the tour of Sri Lanka, Burns was Man of the Match, his 170 and 65 in Christchurch having helped secure Australia a series win over New Zealand and the No.1 Test ranking. And he was coming off a home season in which he scored two Test hundreds and averaged 45.70, a very encouraging return in his first summer as a Test opener.But on a selection whim, Burns was axed in Sri Lanka, one of two men - along with Khawaja - who paid the price for Australias collective poor batting in the first two Tests. They were, in Khawajas words, scapegoats.At this point, lets revisit the comments made by chairman of selectors Rod Marsh after Sri Lankas win in the first Test in Pallekele. What else can we do really? Marsh said. We send them off to India, we send them to other parts of the world where the ball turns, we played Australia A series in India last year and they batted well against good spin bowling.That statement is worth dissecting.Who is the they of whom Marsh is speaking? Indeed there was an Australia A tour of India last year, during which two Tests were played. Burns and Khawaja were the only two batsmen from that series who also played in the Tests against Sri Lanka. So they must be the they. Did they indeed bat well against good spin bowling? Khawaja batted four times with a high score of 41*. Burns played just one game and batted only once in it, for 8. He barely had a chance.Perhaps Marsh was referring to the one-day portion of that tour, in which both men scored more freely. But since when has 50-over white-ball cricket been relevant to picking a Test side? It is a game of different tempo, different fields, different attacks. Completely different.In any case, consider the one-day game in which both Burns and Khawaja scored hundreds in Chennai. ESPNcricinfos Alagappan Muthu was at the match, and described the situation thus: An India A bowling attack which relied on medium pace and non-turning spinners proved incredibly appetising, and the two bbatsmen were ravenous.dddddddddddd Hardly valuable preparation for a Test series against Rangana Herath and co.It is true that there were Australia A batsmen who performed strongly in the Tests against India A. Cameron Bancroft scored Australias only century, a fine innings of 150, and was one of five men to also post fifties: Callum Ferguson, Marcus Stoinis, Travis Head and Peter Handscomb were the others. But none of those batsmen were in the Test squad in Sri Lanka. If they were the they of whom Marsh spoke, then they were irrelevant. In fact, Burns embarked on the Sri Lankan tour with just a single first-class match in Asia to his name: the game against India A in which he scored 8 in the first innings and did not bat in the second. Before he was a scapegoat, he was a lamb to the slaughter. Still, he warmed up for the Test series with 72 against a Sri Lanka XI in Colombo, and then made 29 in the second innings of the first Test in Pallekele, which earned praise from Rod Marsh.I thought Joe Burns played really well in that second innings after perhaps not looking too sound in the first innings, Marsh said after the first Test. He went to plan B and he looked really good until he didnt hit one. But in Galle, Burns fell in the first over of both innings - first against pace, then against spin - and was dumped. Could his second-innings method of dismissal - driving Herath in the air to cover - have cost him his place?That would seem especially harsh given the batsmen were told by captain Steven Smith and coach Darren Lehmann not to waste time in their chase of 413. On a Galle wicket that was spinning quite a bit, the skipper and the coach asked the batting group to be a lot more proactive with the way we went about things, Adam Voges recently said of that innings. With those words ringing in his ears, Burns went hard from the first over.In the same innings Khawaja shouldered arms first ball and was bowled, failing to pick a Dilruwan Perera arm ball. Khawaja has now been given quite a few chances in first-class cricket in Asia, including two Tests in Sri Lanka in 2011, yet has passed 50 just once from 15 innings. Burns has just the one fifty, too, but from only six innings. And four of those were in the recent Sri Lankan Tests.But on very scant evidence, Burns was viewed as expendable in Asian conditions. And thanks to Shaun Marshs Colombo century, he remains expendable at home. Like Marsh, Burns made a Shield century this week. Unlike Marsh, he will be playing a Shield game again next week. And probably for most of the summer. Khawaja, meanwhile, is back in the Test team.Yes, spare a thought for Joe Burns, the real scapegoat. ' ' '