NEWS » up lopsided victories over Lithu

SAN DIEGO -- Tim Lincecum walked into the San Francisco Giants clubhouse late Sunday morning and, yes, his right arm was still attached to his body. That was no small matter, considering that Lincecum threw 148 pitches in his first career no-hitter Saturday night. The Freak, indeed. While he was still trying to put his no-hitter into perspective, Lincecum said his arm was OK after his incredible effort in the San Francisco Giants 9-0 victory against the last-place San Diego Padres. "I havent played catch yet but right now I feel good," he said, sitting in the dugout an hour before the defending World Series champion Giants tried for a four-game sweep. Lincecum looks different now that hes cut his long hair, and he doesnt throw quite as hard as he used to. One thing hasnt changed, though. Lincecum has never iced his arm after starts, including his 148-pitch performance. It turns out there was no ice of any kind Saturday night. "Not even in the drinks that I didnt have last night," he said with a laugh. "I said to him, One time, can you ice it?" manager Bruce Bochy recalled. Lincecum, a two-time NL Cy Young Award winner, said he had a low-key celebration. He spoke by phone with his father and spent time with his girlfriend and his two dogs. He said he didnt get to sleep until around 3:30 a.m. "I woke up today, so Im good," he said. Lincecum said his family and friends "get more excited than I do just because its hard for me to kind of realize and take in whats going on." "It kind of goes back to what my dad tells me: Dont get too excited about the good stuff and dont get too down about the bad stuff," he added. "Im trying to hover in the middle, and it could be the plague of me right now. Im not really finding a way to enjoy this, I guess. But being able to share it with my family and friends was the best part." There was still a buzz in the Giants clubhouse, where 12 hours earlier Lincecum was doused with champagne. "Timmy!" one teammate hollered when Lincecum walked in, wearing a beanie and glasses. Another Giants player gave the slightly built pitcher grief about the fanny pack he was wearing. "Its momentum. Its exciting," said right fielder Hunter Pence, whose sensational diving catch of Alexi Amaristas sinking liner in the eighth inning preserved the no-no. Pitching coach Dave Righetti -- who threw a no-hitter for the New York Yankees on July 4, 1983, a year before Lincecum was born -- said the Freaks pitch count became an issue in the sixth inning. "The only way he was staying in was if he didnt give up a hit," Righetti said. "He wanted it. You could tell. He was definitely in his zone, so to speak," Righetti said. "It goes without saying how badly a guy wants it when its going like that," Lincecum said. "You just hope they give you a leash to do so and you do so with the slack that youre given. I think it just turns into an internal focus and you try to take advantage of the pitches you have left and you know that every pitch that you throw is that much more worrisome, Im pretty sure." Bochy said he was impressed with how Lincecum got locked in when he had thrown about 100 pitches. "Sure, thats a lot of pitches, but theres days when a guy gets in a groove, hes not putting a lot of effort in it and you let the dog run. ... Theres no way I could have taken that kid out," Bochy said. "First of all, he probably wouldnt have talked to me the rest of the season. But he was still going strong." Lincecum struck out 13, walked four and hit a batter. He struggled this year and last, although hes also been plagued this season by poor run support. Lincecums no-hitter for the Giants follows Jonathan Sanchezs no-no in 2009 -- also against the Padres -- and Matt Cains perfect game last year. Righetti recalled that early in Lincecums career, his stuff was so good that it wasnt uncommon to think, "Uh oh, this is the day." "I dont know that hed say this publicly, I think he maybe felt his time was past," Righetti said. "I knew he watched Jonathan get his, and then Cain, and you know hes thinking about it. "For him to get it, I had tears in my eyes. I know what hes been through, back and forth, and being the guy, and people picking him apart. Im proud of him. I told him that the last game -- the way hes been handling it all, and the way hes gone through this wave that every guys got to go through." Lincecums no-hitter -- the first in Petco Parks 10-year history -- was popular well beyond the pro-Giants crowd in San Diego. Lincecum is from Seattle and pitched for the University of Washington. During a pitching change during the Angels-Mariners game at Safeco Field, the ninth inning of the Giants-Padres game was shown on the video board, until there were two strikes on the last batter, Yonder Alonso. Josh Hamilton then stepped into the batters box and the other game was taken off the board, drawing boos from the crowd. Hamilton had a long at-bat and word began trickling through the crowd that Lincecum had finished the no-no. Before the next batter, the final out of Lincecums no-hitter was shown, and the crowd cheered.Wholesale Air Max 720 . The 15th-ranked Canadian men lost the opening two games of their European tour: 19-15 to No. 17 Georgia and 21-20 to No. Wholesale Nike Shoes Clearance .com) - The Montreal Canadiens embark on their first road trip of the season as they head out west to battle the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. http://www.wholesalenikeshoesclearance.com/ .7 million, one-year contract, a raise of $2.2 million. Wieters had asked for $8.75 million and the Orioles had offered $6. Nike Shoes China Wholesale Paypal . Rob Manfred, baseballs chief operating officer, testified last week during the grievance filed by the players union to overturn Rodriguezs 211-game suspension. A person familiar with the hearing, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press on Saturday that Manfred testified the sport wasnt concerned whether Bosch distributed performance-enhancing drugs to minors because MLBs interest was his relationship with players under investigation. Wholesale Air Max 97 ., for the next three years with the signings on Monday of Daryl Townsend and Michael Carter.RIO DE JANEIRO -- Here is some at-the-buzzer analysis from press row at the Carioca Arena 1 after Team USA booked a spot in the semifinals of the Rio Olympics with an emphatic 105-78 victory over Argentina on Wednesday:How it happened: Remember what Argentinean sage Luis Scola said the other day?Its Scolas contention, after a lifetime in the international game, that no one has a bigger say in how the United States fares than the United States itself.Its pretty much up to [them], he told me early in the tournament.Three sluggish showings from the Yanks against Australia, Serbia and France certainly tested Scolas theory. But this quarterfinal reunion with the rugged Argentines brought it back into focus because Team USA snapped out of its weeklong funk with a strong display of team ball that enabled the Group A winners to reintroduce themselves to the concept of winning comfortably with this 27-point triumph.And they did so emphatically after falling into an early 10-point hole.With the Argentines passing and cutting their way to a quick 19-9 lead in what is widely believed to be the Olympic swan song for the likes of Scola and Manu Ginobili, Team USA awoke at last, rediscovering the determination on D that was so lacking for half of group play.The Americans also stopped settling for every 3-pointer that presented itself and gradually got the ball moving, too, which led to a stunning 38-8 run that made it 47-27 before the Argentines and their famously raucous fans had much chance to celebrate.Coach Mike Krzyzewski also made the notable tactical choice to briefly divert from his reliance on Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant by taking Irving off the floor and surrounding Durant with more defensive-minded players, such as Paul George, Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler.All those changes sped the game up to a pace that the aging Argentines -- 12 years removed from their unforgettable upset of Team USA in the semifinals of the 2004 Athens Olympics -- simply couldnt cope with.The game was a non-contest throughout the fourth quarter ... but it was lively in the building nonetheless because Argentinas passionate supporters used the occasion to serenade their 04 heroes for all theyve done in the new millennium in a fashion that had awestruck Team USAers cheering from their bench.The brutish play inside of DeMarcus Cousins (15 points and two blocks) was another positive development in support of Durants team-leading 27 points (7-for-9 on 3s), enabling Team USA to look almost as dominant as it did in a 37-point exhibition trouncing of Argentina on July 22 in Las Vegas.I dont really think anybodys putting pressure on themselves, Cousins told ESPN.com before the game. We know we got a lot of expectations coming into this tournament. Were expected to win a certain type of way we havent in the last few games. But we are winning.Its funny, he continued. Because you hear some of the fan reactions or the media, and its like, were 5-0, but theres people complaining about how were winning. Ive never experienced that. But thats the kind of expectations you have playing for Team USA.For the first time in about a week, those expectations didnt look like a burden for the tournaments heavy, heavy favorites.The streak: Make it 74 wins in a row and counting for Krzyzewski. That includes 22 consecutive victories in Olympic play, 19 in FIBA World Cup tournaments, 10 in Olympic qualifiiers and another 23 in exhibition games.dddddddddddd The Americans previously tasted defeat in the semifinals of the 2006 FIBA World Championship against Greece. They launched this streak on Sept. 2, 2006, with a 96-81 victory over Argentina in the bronze-medal game in Japan.Play of the game: Durant needed 17 points Wednesday to move past Michael Jordan?for?fourth in all-time scoring for the United States in the Olympics, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and David Robinson. He got there by halftime in Kyrie Irving-esque fashion.Isolated with the ball at the top of the 3-point arc, Durant shook Andres Nocioni twice, first with a crossover to the right then with another to the left that got KD into the lane with ease. When Ginobili charged out at him, Durant simply sidestepped him with a long stride to the left and calmly dropped a fallaway jumper that gave him 18 points en route to a total of 27.The current leaderboard:(Honorable mention for Top Play: Nocionis impressive -- and highly unlikely -- rejection of a DeAndre Jordan dunk attempt at the rim early in the third quarter. Jordan got loose for a makeup dunk seconds later, but Nocioni is 36 and stands just 6-foot-7, which should explain why Argentina fans were serenading Chapu, as they call him, with a chant in celebration of the swat.)Numbers game: Only three players who represented the United States in its 2004 Olympic loss to Argentina are still active in the NBA: LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Richard Jefferson. Melo was on that Olympic squad but did not play in the Argentina game.Anthony is the only U.S. player who has appeared in all 23 Olympic Games that the Americans have played -- and won -- since the loss to Argentina in Athens. Melo had 14 Olympic points to his name at the time of that loss and has since scored 308 in the 23-game win streak to become the all-time leading U.S. scorer in Olympic hoops.Heres a detailed look at Team USAs nine consecutive wins over Argentina since the semifinal loss in Athens:Whats next: After meeting Spain in the past two gold-medal games, Team USA has to face its fiercest international rival one round earlier than normal here in Rio.To complicate matters, Spain heads into Fridays semifinals suddenly playing arguably the best basketball of any team in the tournament, having rung up lopsided victories over Lithuania, Argentina and France in its past three games by a combined 94 points.The resurrection started with a 50-point hammering of Lithuania and has completely transformed the reigning European champions, who opened this tournament with losses to Croatia and Brazil. That left Spain at an uncharacteristic 0-2, followed by an unconvincing win over Nigeria.Spanish coach Sergio Scariolo explained after Wednesdays 92-67 rout of longtime rivals France that a slow start was actually no surprise, given what he described as terrible preparations for the Olympics, thanks to injuries plaguing multiple key players, most notably Pau Gasol and Sergio Rodriguez.But the Spaniards have rebounded emphatically and, even without Marc Gasol, appear poised to push the Americans as hard as they ever have. Team USA won the past two Olympic showdowns by a combined 18 points, 118-107 in the championship game at Beijing 2008 and 107-100 in London in 2012. ' ' '