NEW YORK -- The Detroit Pistons answered questions about whether they could find a capable replacement for Andre Drummond in their frontcourt.The New York Knicks answered inquiries about whether they can defend.Now comes the follow-up for both teams.Drummond may be out with a sprained right ankle Wednesday when the Pistons visit the Knicks, who are coming off their best defensive showing of the young season.Drummond missed his first game due to injury since March 19, 2014. He had an MRI, which revealed no structural damage, and did not practice Tuesday. The injury is not serious and if he does not play in New York, Drummond will likely return Friday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.Without the leagues leading rebounder, the Pistons recorded a 104-88 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder Monday night. Drummonds absence was compensated for by Aron Baynes finishing with 20 points (one shy of his career high) and eight rebounds.I put it back on everyone else. Everything they got me, I was in great position, Baynes said. All the way through the team, they got me great looks and I just had to finish. On a couple of them, I didnt, so I still have some work to do.Technically Baynes comments are accurate since seven of his eight baskets were within 6 feet of the rim.Hes a starting center in the NBA. Hes just playing behind an All-Star, Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy said. You look around at all the starting centers and Arons a starting-caliber center in the league, so its not surprising he played as well as he did.Now comes a chance for Detroit to play well on the road. While the Pistons are 5-0 at home and each win has been by double-digits, the road has been a significant different story.Our defense at home has been great, Van Gundy said. Im not quite sure why we havent been able to duplicate that on the road yet, but were locked in at home.Detroit was 0-5 on the road before taking a 15-point lead through the first quarter of Saturdays 106-95 road win against the Denver Nuggets. During their first six road games, the Pistons have allowed 105 points per game while averaging 94.3 points.In their seventh road game, Detroit will encounter a team that gave up less than 100 points for the second time this season. The Knicks are 4-6 after getting a 93-77 victory over the Dallas Mavericks Monday night.A week after naming former interim head coach and current assistant Kurt Rambis as defensive coordinator, the Knicks held a team under 80 points for the first time since April 11, 2015, at Orlando and the first time at home since Dec 11, 2013, against the Chicago Bulls.Kristaps Porzingis and Carmelo Anthony had 24 points apiece and the Knicks took control over the final eight-plus minutes of the third quarter. During the second half Joakim Noah watched from the bench as coach Jeff Hornacek moved Porzingis to center while using Justin Holiday extensively at small forward.I got to figure out ways to be effective on that end of the floor, Noah said.Noah had six rebounds and was scoreless in 16 minutes. Noah has reached double-figures once and has been held scoreless twice, but any changes in the starting lineup are not occurring based on one half of Porzingis playing center and Anthony playing power forward.I dont think so. Noah does a nice job in there defensively, Hornacek said. It may depend on the team (were playing). Maybe we can go there (small) a little bit more often. But were not, just because we were good in the second half doesnt mean were going to change it.The move worked as Porzingis exploited his height advantage on Andrew Bogut while the Knicks gave up a season-low 26 points in the paint.Ill keep playing the four if they play me at the four, Porzingis said. And if Im at the five, Ill try to be as productive as I can at the five.Detroit took the first meeting with the Knicks when Tobias Harris scored 25 points in a 102-89 home win on Nov. 1. Drummond had nine points and 13 rebounds but has eight career double-doubles against New York.The Knicks have won 11 of the last 13 meetings at home. Kyle Garlick Jersey . 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. Fake Dodgers Jerseys .Y. -- Syracuse has turned up the defence at the right time all season, and when High Point threatened to pull off a monumental upset the second-ranked Orange did what they do best with their quick hands and savvy play. https://www.cheapdodgersonline.com/185h-gary-sheffield-jersey-dodgers.html . The phone hearing is scheduled for 4:30pm et/1:30pm pt. Winchester, who was not penalized for the hit, appeared to make contact with Kellys head early in the first period of Thursdays game in Boston. Gary Sheffield Dodgers Jersey . Booth picked up 65 caps after making her national team debut in 2002 at the age of 17. She most recently played for Sky Blue FC of the National Womens Soccer League. "It just felt like it was my time to move on," she said in a phone interview from her hometown of Burlington, Ont. Los Angeles Dodgers Gear . Numbers Game looks into the Canadiens securing the services of Thomas Vanek in a trade with the New York Islanders. The Canadiens Get: LW Thomas Vanek and a conditional fifth-round pick. While the big league NASCAR world travels south to Homestead, Florida, from Charlotte to crown a national champion, the stock car short trackers are migrating east. From all corners of the grassroots racing world, trailers and tow trucks pulling late-model race cars are headed to Myrtle Beach Speedway for the annual Myrtle Beach 400 in South Carolina. Its an event that signifies the end of the season for many of NASCARs home track racers.Among those pilgrims will be the racer with the Kid N Play fade and his friend with the partially shaved head. Their trip to Myrtle Beach started more than a year ago, a road thats carried them around bullring racetracks, through cancer wards and, they hope, ultimately into Victory Lane.Im so excited about this weekend I cant hardly stand it, Erika Newcome said Tuesday evening.The 21-year-old had just walked out of class at Akron University in Ohio, where shes a fourth-year public relations major. She was heading home to pack, load her car, and make the seven-hour drive to Mooresville, North Carolina, There shed meet up with her friend to carry on toward Myrtle Beach.I cant believe everything that Dylan has done for me since we first met, she said. And I cant wait to get back to a racetrack with him.Dylan is Dylan Smith, aka Black Mamba, the 24-year-old racer who most recently created a social media buzz among NASCAR fans by winning the highly coveted Best Costume honors at Tony Stewarts annual Halloween party.He was dressed as Halle Barrys Catwoman.I told yall I wasnt messing around this year, and that trophy looks oh so good on my mantel. @halleberry ???? #HappyHalloween pic.twitter.com/OEuGiddQrP- Black Mamba (@DylanSmith34) October 27, 2016Erika and Dylan met on Oct. 21, 2015 -- at a racetrack, naturally.Newcome was a late-model racer from Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of a short tracker who, inspired by her trips to Columbus Motor Speedway, started driving her own racing machines at the age of 8. By 2015 she was voted that speedways Most Popular Driver.Smith was a resident of Concord, North Carolina, by way of Randolph, Vermont, where he landed after being adopted out of his native Haiti. He too loved his local racetrack, Thunder Road SpeedBowl in Barre, Vermont, and convinced his adopted father to buy him a go-kart at the age of 4.After wins at tracks scattered all over the American map, Newcome and Smith met in a hotel lobby in southeastern Virginia. Both were there as invited participants in NASCARs Drive For Diversity Combine, an annual talent-scouting event held at the legendary Langley Speedway, a four-tenths mile oval strikingly similar to Newcomes Columbus track.It was the night before we went to the track and there were 23 of us there. A lot of them had been to the combine before. I hadnt and I was really nervous, Newcome recalls. Dylan had done it before and he noticed I was being kind of quiet, and he immediately started talking to me. I was so relieved.At that combine orientation meeting, she was equally relieved to see that the nameplates for the assigned seats in the classroom had her sitting next to Smith. What she didnt know at the time was that hed switched those plates around to ensure that theyd be paired up.We just hit it off immediately, Smith says. I think what we know now is that our instant friendship wasnt just a coincidence.Racers are driven people by nature, but their business is one built on rejection; no is a constant answer, whether from a potential sponsor, a car owner, a would-be car owner or even a loan officer. The Drive For Diversity program is designed to help young racers step out of the shadows, but what happens past that initial push is up to the individual.Smith finished out 2015 but had trouble landing a ride for 16. Hes taken jobs working with other teams, doing everything from building race cars for other drivers to using his significant social media skills to help those teams with their PR efforts.Newcome went back to Ohio and resumed racing, but she couldnt shake a nagging pain in her shoulders. In August 2015 she had crashed into a wall at Columbus, dislocating her right shoulder and tearing her labrum. It seemed odd, though, because the wreck wasnt that hard. In fact, shed kept running and finished the race. And why was her left shoulder hurting, too? The next spring, during a visit to her orthopedist, she wwas about to leave but asked one last question about an odd-looking blood vessel in her neck.dddddddddddd He sent her to have it checked out via ultrasound. On May 18, it was identified as a blood clot, odd for a just-turned 21-year-old.On June 2, 2016, Newcome was told that she had masses in almost every organ of her body. She was suffering from Stage 4 sarcoma, a cancer that aggressively attacks the bodys soft tissues.Now that were looking back on it, what sarcoma damages are things like your muscles, Newcome explains. So thats why my labrum tore so easily. I had been weakened and didnt know.She immediately began treatments that have continued to this day: chemotherapy, an immunotherapy drip and blood thinners to battle the clot. Shes doing it all while also being a full-time college student. When the chemo started thinning her hair on one side, she shaved only that side, leaving longer blonde locks on the other. But its the blood thinners that dont allow her to race, as thinned, freer-flowing blood makes racing too risky. For a moment last month it appeared as through that might no longer be an issue, but the clot returned and so did the thinner.Being in school gives me normalcy, she says. I really feel pretty normal. But cancer is all anyone can talk about. Its all anyone can see when they look at me. Thats hard. But Ive come to peace with it. Still, thats what makes encouraging talks and phone calls and texts so important. At my low points, I always hear from Dylan and he always knows just what to say. He always says we because were in this together.Really excited for this weekend, @dylonwilson really hooked it up with the @AmericanCancer & @WendellScott_34! #FearTheFade #CancerSucks pic.twitter.com/XAC508wmEO- Black Mamba (@DylanSmith34) November 16, 2016Last month Smiths call was even more enthusiastic than normal. Hed been kicking around an idea for a while and it was starting to come together. While Dylan had been encouraging Erika during her treatment, shed been returning the favor, pumping him up during a summer when he hadnt turned a single competitive lap on the racetrack.I havent raced all year and its driven me crazy, Smith said earlier this week, en route to work. So I thought, if Im going to race only once this season, then Im going to make it count.He secured a late-model car he could race from one of his employers, racer Travis Millers father Matt and team co-owner Chris Florian. Then he went looking for support. He used LinkedIn to track down the national marketing director of the American Cancer Society, who just so happened to be looking for ways to reach out to blue-collar cancer victims about services such as its transportation-to-appointments program.Smith also reached out to the Wendell Scott Foundation, run by the family of the late NASCAR Hall of Famer. Wendell Scott, the only African-American to win a NASCAR Cup Series event, is Smiths hero and the family has become one of his biggest supporters. Scott died in 1990, killed by cancer.Smith set up a GoFundMe page titled Beating Cancer 1 Lap At A Time, promising donors that any money raised and all winnings from the Myrtle Beach 400 would be split between the American Cancer Society and an account to help pay Newcomes mounting medical bills.I couldnt believe it when he told me what he was doing, she said Tuesday night. But thats Dylan. Thats the kind of person he is. Hes so unselfish and hes so positive. I knew I had to go with him this weekend. Just being back at a racetrack again, theres no more positive atmosphere than the racetrack. And working with the American Cancer Society to let people know about sarcoma. This is all the best medicine I could possibly think of.On Thursday, the dude with the fade and the girl with the half-shaved head traveled east toward Myrtle Beach on a mission. In the front seat were two reunited friends. Behind them was a towed late-model race car, painted baby blue with a big white 34 on the side. Its modeled after the rides of Wendell Scott. The duo racing it will do so fueled by one of Scotts favorite sayings.Wendell always said, When it gets too tough for everyone else, its just right for me, Smith explained. That sounds like my friend Erika right there. ' ' '