pent much of Friday worried about whether

INDIANAPOLIS -- Paul George spent much of Friday worried about whether hed be suspended for Game 7 against Atlanta. Not a chance. Less than an hour after wrapping up practice, an NBA spokesman confirmed in an email to The Associated Press that league officials reviewed the tapes from Thursday nights altercation and determined none of the players who stepped onto the court would be punished for the decisive game of this first-round series. It was no surprise to the Pacers. "Were planning for him to be here until were told hes not going to be in there," coach Frank Vogel said shortly before the decision was made public. "I think he stayed in the vicinity of the bench." Players who leave the "vicinity" of the bench during a fracas can be suspended under league rules. Few, including Stu Jackson, the leagues former disciplinarian, expected that to happen with George, who took two slow, short steps onto the court before he was pushed back by assistant coach Popeye Jones. Jackson wrote on Twitter that he didnt expect the league to suspend George, Indianas best player and an All-Star starter. Losing George would have been a major blow to the Pacers comeback hopes. George has topped 20 points in all six games, has double-doubles in five of them and has been the one Pacers defender able to slow down quick, shifty Hawks guard Jeff Teague. And it was George and David West who saved the Pacers season with a late Thursday night in Atlanta, too. All the leagues best regular season home team must do now to reach the second round and avoid the distinction of becoming the sixth No. 1 seed in league history to be eliminated in the first round is protect its home court. Lately, thats been a problem. "My thing is that three of the last four times weve played these guys (in Indy), they built 20-point leads and beat us pretty good," Vogel said. "So I dont think anyone from this team can think were going to be OK just because were back home." The eighth-seeded Hawks understand. They had a chance to wrap up the best-of-seven series at home and rallied from a nine-point deficit in the third quarter to take a five-point lead late in the fourth. Yet they still lost. "Weve responded well all year when weve been in difficult situations," coach Mike Budenholzer said Friday. "Part of our response is going to have to be better execution. I think we have a lot of positive reference points from all year. Our group has been very good and very resilient. I have a lot of confidence in our group." But this is going to be different. The Pacers, who spent all season chasing the Eastern Conferences top seed, expect a raucous crowd for the first Game 7 to be played at home in the franchises NBA history. Plus, they appeared to find a defensive solution to Atlantas spread offence by going small in Game 6. The Hawks, meanwhile, have only a day to adjust to Vogels new rotations and are on their own historic quest. A win Saturday would give Atlanta the distinction of having the fewest regular-season wins (38) of any second-round team since Detroits 36-win team beat Milwaukee in the first round of the 1976 playoffs, according to STATS. "Weve won on that floor before, so we know we can do it," Teague said. "We just have to go out there and do what we do and play our style of basketball, and it will take care of itself." George has plenty of motivation after a stressful week that included ceding home-court advantage for the second time in the series, losing his 2014 All-Star ring in a burglary that took place while he was playing Game 5, two elimination games and speculation that his 24th birthday celebration might be marred by the announcement of a one-game suspension. Theres only one thing that really would help him relax -- getting a second straight win and setting up Nike Shoes Outlet Clearance . Ted Ligety, Mikaela Shiffrin, Bode Miller and Tim Jitloff underlined the squads enormous potential on the Rettenbach glacier in Austria. Cheap Nike Shoes China . Irving played 10 minutes Sunday night before going to the locker room. He had two points and four assists, missing all five of his shots. The All-Star game MVP is the top scorer among Eastern Conference point guards with 21. http://www.clearancenikeshoes.com/. The 22-year-old Spanish midfielder recently signed a new three-year contract with Chelsea, and after spending last season on loan with Valencia in La Liga, Romeu will move to the Bundesliga for the 2014-15 campaign. Cheap Nike Shoes Free Shipping . The Extreme Heat Policy was enacted at Melbourne Park just before 2 p.m. Thursday, suspending all matches on outer courts until the early evening and requiring the closure of the retractable roofs at Rod Laver and Hisense arenas before play could continue on the show courts. Discount Nike Shoes .The seventh-seeded Raonic was scheduled to play U.S. Open finalist Kei Nishikori of Japan, but was replaced in the Group B pool by Spanish substitute David Ferrer.Raonic, who was 0-2 at the year-end event, said he suffered the injury late in the first set of Tuesdays 6-3, 7-6 loss to Murray.TORONTO - Forty-eight hours after a disheartening loss in Brooklyn, and moments after their bounce-back victory at home over the Pistons, a collection of Raptors players and coaches gathered in the locker room to watch the tail end of the Nets one-point victory over Miami. With less than 20 games remaining and a postseason berth all but locked up, the scoreboard watching is well underway. The red-hot Nets pulled within three games of Toronto for top spot in the Atlantic Division on Monday. In defeating the defending, two-time champion Heat Wednesday - for the third time this season - they continue to keep pace with the Raptors, breathing directly down their necks. As Dwane Casey and his players watched Brooklyn close out its seventh victory in eight games, the Raptors coach delivered a strong message to the troops. Dont look back. "We can watch that but if we dont take care of our business its not worth a crap," he said after his team did just that, defeating the Pistons 101-87 at home Wednesday evening. "Im more concerned about what we do and how were playing and how weve got to make up for Patrick (Patterson) being out and losing leads more so than anything else." The Raptors, despite Mondays loss, still control their own destiny and they sure looked like a team in the drivers seat against an inferior opponent in the reeling Pistons. Detroit is a befuddling case of disjointed talent. Despite swinging for the fences over the summer - signing Josh Smith and trading for Brandon Jennings - Joe Dumars and company have struck out this season. Chemistry is a hard thing to quantify in a team sport like basketball, as the post-trade Raptors can attest to. You either have it or you dont. When the Pistons began to come apart - as they tend to do - in the third quarter and then again in the fourth, the Raptors came together. "I thought [the bigs] were battling and our guards came back in, what we call cracking down, and cracked down to help the bigs" said Casey. "I thought that was huge. Its a five-man job." Torontto was paced in scoring by DeMar DeRozan, who had a game-high 25 points, as well as Amir Johnson and Kyle Lowry, chipping in with 20 and 19 respectively.dddddddddddd Still, it was as much a collective effort as Casey could have hoped for, especially with the injured Patterson out resting an elbow sprain. With the intimidating frontcourt duo of Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond to contend with, the Raptors had four players pull down eight or more rebounds, including reserves Greivis Vasquez and Chuck Hayes. The Pistons came into the game ranked first in offensive rebounds, first in paint points and second in second-chance scoring. "We had to box out," said Johnson, who grabbed nine boards on the night. "We looked at all the stats and that was definitely the key, to get all those guys off the boards. They definitely have a big lineup and thats what we did." The Raptors "cracked down" - as Casey says - in the second half, besting Detroit 29-13 on the boards, holding the visitors to one offensive rebound. They also outscored the Pistons 24-14 in the paint and 15-0 in second-chance points over the final 24 minutes. On a night in which Brooklyn stole headlines with an impressive win over an elite team, the division-leaders took care of business. The Raptors have heeded their coaches warning, at least to this point. They havent looked back. With 11 wins in its last 12 games against opponents with records south of .500, Toronto continues to hold serve. Theyre not looking for style points so long as they come away with the prize. "A lot of our guys havent been there," Casey reiterated. "Like Ive always preached, its a different animal. I hope theyre enjoying it but yet still [understanding] how hard it is, getting there first and then after you get there it gets even harder." "Its good, its exciting, its great for our fans," he continued. "Its something our fans havent been through in a while but again, weve just got to take care of our business." ' ' '