INDEPENDENCE, Ohio - They have the games best player, back on his home turf. Jeff Russell Rangers Jersey . They have two other All-Stars, each capable of dominating any game. And the Cavaliers have sky-high expectations.This is supposed to be Clevelands year.However, Cavs coach David Blatt thinks all that talk is awfully premature.Anybody talking about us winning it all, I think theyre being unfair to those great NBA teams that are out there that have either won it or have been there to win it, and also to us as a team thats talented but new, Blatt said Tuesday following practice. We have a lot of work to do before we can start claiming anything before its time.The Cavs, re-shaped this summer by the return of LeBron James, the re-signing of guard Kyrie Irving and a blockbuster trade that brought them power forward supreme Kevin Love, are predicted to win their first NBA championship this season. Las Vegas sports books have picked the Cavs as the 3-1 favourite to win the title — ahead of the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, who are 7-2 to repeat.Cleveland opens the season at home on Thursday night against the New York Knicks. It promises to be an emotional night for James, who left the Cavaliers four years ago for Miami but decided to come home after winning two titles with the Heat.Like Blatt, James has preached patience amid the lofty outlook for a team that hasnt played one regular-season game together. While the four-time MVP has plenty of post-season experience, Irving and Love, two-thirds of the leagues newest power trio, have not logged one playoff minute.The key for the Cavs is how the James-Irving-Love triumvirate meshes, and even if all goes well theres no guarantee theyll be able to get by the Spurs or whichever team emerges from the powerful Western Conference.Blatt has deep admiration for the Spurs, who throttled James and the Heat in last years finals, and coach Gregg Popovich.They played beautiful, winning basketball and thats been a team that over the years has not only been successful but has contributed to the style of play that I think is becoming more and more prevalent NBA-wide, Blatt said. I give coach Pop and the players of San Antonio a lot of credit for the style that they play, and for the willingness on the part of the players to be non-ball-dominant and to play together.Blatt, a wildly successful international coach, has spent the past few days cleaning up small things with his new team.On Tuesday, Love took a shot in the ribs and was pulled from practice as a precaution. Blatt insisted the 6-foot-10, 260-pounder is fine, but any bump or bruise this season will be watched as closely as the Cavs.Blatt feels his team is ready to go, but until the season begins everything is just speculation.Were going to see, Blatt said. Obviously now that the real games are getting started, were going to find out. I thought we showed in preseason that were a pretty good, competitive group and we played some good teams. But theres a big difference between preseason and regular season for everyone.But we got the right kind of personalities and the right kind of character guys to certainly get out there and make an effort every night.One of them is guard Dion Waiters, who could find himself with more scoring chances with teams focused on Clevelands higher-profile players.Although he admitted to freelancing and not watching much film to prepare for games during his first two seasons, Waiters has been listening to his new coach.The Cavs are only one of the contenders.We havent done anything yet, Waiters said. You got to look at the Spurs, teams like that, who won the championship last year and got every guy back. We got to look at teams like that. We cant just come into the game thinking everything is going to be easy. We know everybody is going to be gunning for us. Thats what makes it fun though, just to go out there and we know were going to get everybodys best shot. Luke Farrell Rangers Jersey . LUCIE, Fla. Jonathan Hernandez Jersey . The thunderous cheers quickly changed to an appreciative chant: "Ma-son! Ma-son! Ma-son! Headed to New York with new life, Mason sure earned this curtain call. https://www.cheaprangersbaseball.com/1492h-joe-palumbo-jersey-rangers.html . Stevenson scored the first three goals of the game in the first period for Regina (35-22-6), which has won eight of its last 10 games. Patrick DAmico added two for the Pats, Braden Christoffer had a single and Morgan Klimchuk chipped in a goal and four assists.The Pittsburgh Penguins and Los Angeles Kings combined for 32 shots on goal, yet both won Monday night. Notes on Crosby, Fleury, Diaz, Gaborik, Schultz and more. FLEURY SHUTS OUT RANGERS, AGAIN Sidney Crosbys first goal of the postseason was the game-winner and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 35 New York Rangers shots he faced, giving the Pittsburgh Penguins a 2-0 win in Game Three and a 2-1 lead in the series. Crosby played 16:54, a threshold that he surpassed in 86 of 88 previous games this season and only had one shot on goal, but it found the back of the net, going five-hole on Henrik Lundqvist after being sent in on a partial breakaway by a Robert Bortuzzo pass. Crosbys goal gives him seven points (1 G, 6 A) in nine playoff games, which is below his standard, but getting off the goose-egg ought to alleviate some pressure. The Penguins other goal was a gift for Jussi Jokinen, who picked up an errant Rangers pass for a breakaway as he stepped out of the penalty box. Jokinen now has seven points (4 G, 3 A) in the playoffs and, with four shots on goal, was the only Penguin with more than two shots on goal in the game. Back-to-back shutouts sure changes the view on the playoff performance of Fleury, who had allowed at least three goals in six of his first seven games in the playoffs, but hes stopped all 57 shots that the Rangers have sent his way in the last two nights. His save percentage is up to .919 for this postseason. While the Rangers held a possession advantage by games end, they gained that advantage on their punchless power play (now 0-for-30 in the past eight games) and once the Penguins had built their 2-0 lead. Before that point, the Penguins had 24 5-on-5 shot attempts for and 23 against (51.1%). After that, the Rangers held a 24-9 (72.7%) edge, but those are empty possession calories, a nature of the way the game is played by teams holding a multi-goal lead. The player sending the most shots toward the Pittsburgh net for the Rangers was D Raphael Diaz, who had six shots on goal and nine shot attempts in his first game of the postseason. Next was RW Rick Nash, who had eight shot attempts, but is still looking for his first playoff goal this year. Nash has two goals in 25 career playoff games. The schedule has been ridiculous for the Rangers, who have played five games in seven days, but tthey had better hope that getting back on a more normal schedule will be enough for them to solve a suddenly-hot Marc-Andre Fleury. Jesse Chavez Jersey. KINGS HOLD ON TO BEAT DUCKS Jonathan Quick stopped 36 of 37 shots while Marian Gaborik and Alec Martinez scored first-period goals, then the Los Angeles Kings held on (adding an empty-netter by Dwight King) to beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-1, taking a 2-0 series lead. Gaborik scored his playoff-leading sixth goal just 34 seconds into the game, after scoring the last two goals of Game One, and the Kings were off and running. Martinez, who finished the year strong (7 G, 8 A in 22 GP after the Olympics) now has two goals and five points in nine playoff games. Perhaps the most remarkable part of the night for Los Angeles was that D Jeff Schultz, playing with Robyn Regehr and Willie Mitchell injured, logged 19:58 of ice time, ranking fourth on the Kings blueline behind Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin and Slava Voynov. That might not seem like such a big deal -- someone had to play those minutes -- but Schultz didnt play a game in the NHL this season. He had 13 points (2 G, 11 A) and was plus-10 in 67 AHL games. Schultz was minus-10 in Corsi for Game Two but that ice time played into that deficit. Anaheims goal came on the power play from LW Patrick Maroon, their third-leading playoff scorer (2 G, 4 A, 8 GP), behind Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. The Ducks were dominating the possession game, but couldnt solve Quick and now head to Staples Center down two games in the series. With the ice tilted so heavily in Anaheims favour, the defence pairing of Ben Lovejoy and Cam Fowler was on for better than 80% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts. Anaheim was seven seconds away from winning Game One and carried the play in Game Two, yet still lost, so while they are facing a daunting task to come back, they have been able to handle the puck possession game against a Kings team that was the leagues best in that respect during the regular season. It may not do them much good, but its more encouraging than getting beaten from pillar-to-post in the first couple games. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '