ge from beyond the arc earlier this season. \'You put yourself i

DENVER -- The sudden resurgence of the Denver Nuggets has a lot to do with Randy Foyes surprising scoring punch. wholesale nfl jerseys . Foye had a season-high 24 points and the Nuggets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-88 Thursday night for their fourth win in a row after an eight-game losing streak. It was the second time in two games that Foye, who hit six 3-pointers, established a season high. He was coming off a 23-point effort in which he made seven 3s in Denvers victory over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. "I think its from my preparation, just understanding that every single day, no matter if I make six 3s in a game or seven, that I have to come in the next day and be ready to work," said Foye, who had struggled to find the range from beyond the arc earlier this season. "You put yourself in situations, if you work and do the right things, so that when you get in a game, nothing is foreign to you." All that work on polishing his perimeter shot has been paying off. Foye has made 17 of 29 3-point attempts during Denvers winning streak. His latest effort helped the Nuggets overcome Kevin Durants 30 points as Denver beat the Thunder for the first time in three tries this season. The teams meet a final time in Oklahoma City on March 24. Quincy Miller, making his first career start, had nine points while playing in place of Wilson Chandler, who remains day to day after straining his left groin against Boston, the team said. "To beat a team like that, without Wilson and having young guys in there and not being that deep on the bench, was huge," Foye said. Evan Fournier had 19 points, including four 3-pointers, and Ty Lawson added 16 points and 14 assists for Denver. Kenneth Faried grabbed 14 rebounds. Fournier said he fed off Foyes offensive output and the up-tempo pace set by Lawson. "It gives you confidence, and the crowd was great tonight. The passing game was great," Fournier said. "I had a lot of wide-open shots that made the work a lot easier." Reggie Jackson scored 13 and Derek Fisher 12 for the Thunder. Serge Ibaka, who missed Tuesday nights 112-101 loss at Utah because of flu-like symptoms, had eight points and 10 rebounds in his return. "Tonight, we didnt get a lot of good looks offensively and we didnt move the ball well enough," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "We took a lot of tough shots and our timing wasnt where it needs to be and we missed a lot of 3s. "Everything that happened tonight is correctable, which is good. Its not that we had issues. The fact is, everything that we did wrong tonight we can go back and get better." The Thunder missed their first 10 shots from 3-point range before Jackson and Durant each connected from beyond the arc on successive possessions, pulling Oklahoma City to 72-59. Denver answered with several 3s over the next 6 minutes. Foye and Fournier hit two apiece, Lawson converted a three-point play and the Nuggets extended their lead to 89-66 by the end of the third quarter. Overall, the Nuggets outscored the Thunder 29-15 in the third to build a 23-point lead heading into the final period. Oklahoma City didnt make a significant dent in Denvers advantage the rest of the way. Despite getting 24 points from Durant in the first half, the Thunder trailed 60-51. After Durant made a pair of free throws to pull Oklahoma City to 50-47 with 2:22 left in the second quarter, the Nuggets closed with a 10-4 burst punctuated by Lawsons 3-pointer from the top of the key in the waning moments of the period. NOTES: Durant scored 30 or more points for the 19th time this season. ... The Thunder lost consecutive games for the third time this season. ... Lawson has had five consecutive double-doubles, the longest such streak of his career. ... Foye has scored in double figures in seven straight games. cheap jerseys . Louis Cardinals 5-3 on Friday night and tightened the top of the NL Central. The Reds moved within three games of the second-place Cardinals, who have won seven of their last nine games while staying right behind the division-leading Brewers. cheap jerseys from china . Turns out, the alternative wasnt any fun for Malone, either. Durant scored 30 points and embraced a role as a facilitator by finishing with nine assists to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder past Sacramento 108-93 on Sunday night. SOCHI, Russia -- Canada was a second-half team at the 2010 Winter Olympics. The medal intake in Sochi is forecasted to happen at a more measured pace. Starting with Saturdays mens snowboard slopestyle and womens moguls, Canada has at least one legitimate medal shot, if not more, virtually every day until the closing ceremonies Feb. 23. Chef de mission Steve Podborski and his assistants Jean-Luc Brassard and France St. Louis intend to be present at events where a Canadian is a front-runner for a medal. "I would say were booked every day," Podborski said at a Canadian Olympic Committee news conference Thursday. The host country won 18 of its 26 medals in Vancouver during the back half of the Games. Ten of the 14 gold medals came in the second half, including four on the final weekend. Sports making their Olympic debut helped balance the schedule of Canadas medal prospects in Sochi. Mens and womens snowboard slopestyle, the figure skating team event and the luge relay are among the new events over the first eight days of competition in which Canada has solid medal prospects. Thats in addition to Canadas strength in the entrenched sports of alpine skiing, moguls, short-track speedskating and cross-country skiing. "Sure there are new sports and we happen to be very, very good in the new ones because we are a great sporting nation," Podborski said. "With the support were getting now from corporate Canada, Own The Podium and the Government of Canada, we have an opportunity to be good in the traditional sports as well and thats where well make our great gains in the areas where are athletes are getting better . . . cross-country, alpine skiing." Canadas athletes have been waging fierce foosball tournaments in their village lounge while they await Fridays opening ceremonies, according to Podborski. But Olympic competition started early for some Canadians with Thursdays preliminary rounds. Canada sat in second place, two points behind host Russia, after the first day of the new team figure skating event. Torontos Patrick Chan was third in the mens short program, then Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., were second in the pairs short to give Canada 17 of a possible 20 points after the first two events. Sebastien Toutant of LAssomption, Que., and Max Parrot of Bromont, Que., advanced to the mens snowboard slopestyle final Saturday, while Charles Reid of Mont-Tremblant, Que., and Reginas Mark McMorris will attempt to join them via the semifinal earlier in the day. The Dufour-Lapointe sisters from Montreal -- Justine, Chloe and Maxime -- all qualified for Saturdays womens moguls finals as did Audrey Robichaud of Quebec City. Reigning world champion Spencer OBrien of Courtney, B.C., qualified for the womens slopestyle final Sunday. Hockey Canada also made the decision to replace injured forward Steven Stamkos with Tampa Bay teammate Martin St. Louis. No competition is scheduled Friday because of the opening ceremonies. In addition to slopestyle and womens moguls on opening weekend, skiers Erik Guay of Mont-Tremblant, Que., Calgarys Jan Hudec and Manny Osborne-Paradis of Invermere, B.C., are medal prospects in Sundays downhill. Canadas figure skaters are favoured to win a medal in the team event, which ends Sunday. Canadas objective in 2010 was to top the overall medal count and the target remains the same in Sochi. The host team was third in total medals, but won the gold-medal race four years ago. Because of the new sports, there are 36 more medals to be won in 2014 than in 2010. That will help fill Canadas coffers, but also those of top rivals Germany, Norway, the United States and host Russia. "Canada is here to compete and win," COC president Marcel Aubut said. "Our aim is to contend for the number one spot in medals won. wholesale jerseys. ." "This is an ambitious goal, but we Canadians like it this way. Our athletes expect nothing less of themselves but the highest achievements." Added Podborski: "You dont try to come "somewhere up there." We expect great things in Canada now. Its an ideal approach. "We may not win the medal count this time. We may not win it the next time but one day we will because we are striving to be number one in the world in the medal count." While Canadas preparation for 2010 seems a successful model to copy for Sochi, the Canadian Olympic Committee took a different approach. The 2008 Summer Games in Beijing posed similar challenges to Sochi in terms of distance to travel, time-zone difference and unfamiliar language, food and culture. Virtually all of Canadas Olympians competed, trained or at least visited Beijing in the year prior to those Games to get comfortable with the place. The same practice was done for Sochi. There was less emphasis on pre-Games visits for the 2012 Summer Games in London. "If we look at the Beijing experience and we look at the Sochi experience, its actually very similar," COC chief sport officer Caroline Assalian says. "New and unfamiliar environment for most countries. "We ensured that the athletes and support teams as much as possible are familiar with this environment." The COC has conducted exit interviews with athletes, their coaches and support teams following Olympic Games since 2006 to better plan for the next. The athletes were asked "what made the difference in your performance?" "Their number one factor? Feeling part of a larger unified team, more than anything," Assalian said. "Thats what made the difference for them. Coaches and support team? Familiarity with the Olympic environment." And where Beijing was also a benchmark for Sochi was in Canadas conversion rate, which the number of athletes ranked in the top five at their most recent world championships make it onto the podium at the subsequent Olympic Games. The COC employs conversion rates to compare how Canadas athletes are performing compared to other countries. Even though Canada won just 18 medals in Beijing, the conversion rate there was 67 per cent compared to 59 per cent at the Winter Games of both 2010 and 2006, according to Assalian. The Canadian team needs at least match Beijings conversion rate to be in the hunt for the overall title in Sochi. "Our bar now is Beijing," Assalian says. "We know we need to convert better than we ever have at any Winter Olympic Games." The Canadian team will attempt this without the advantage it had in Vancouver and Whistler of home ice and home snow. Own The Podium chief executive officer Anne Merklinger says many winter sport teams have stronger leadership and better coaches since 2010. Both areas were priorities coming out of Vancouver and Whistler and she hopes improvements there compensate for the additional challenges of Sochi. "Weve come a long way in that regard," she says. "Without coaches, were behind the 8-ball. Its the most important success factor. "I think there are a number of examples where weve brought in great coaches, but weve lost some too. We need to find a way to continue to retain the good ones we have and attract new ones." "Were investing in that. Thats what it takes. Its a competitive industry." OTP oversees athletes competitive lives between Olympic Games and allocates about $62 million a year in federal government funding between summer and winter sports. The COC prepares athletes for the Games environment and looks after their needs and wants on the ground in Sochi. cheap jerseys ' ' '