VALLS, Spain -- Slovenian cyclist Luka Mezgec earned his third stage win of this Volta a Catalunya, edging the pack in the final sprint on Friday. Joaquim Rodriguez maintained the overall lead, with the 218-kilometre (134-mile) ride from Llanars Vall de Camprodon to Valls producing no changes at the top of the general classification. Mezgec, riding for Giant-Shimano, finished the stage in 5 hours, 16 minutes at the front of a large pack. He also won the two opening stages of the seven-day race with sprint finishes. Rodriguez kept his four-second lead over Alberto Contador. Tejay van Garderen remained seven seconds behind. Nairo Quintana trailed by 10 seconds and Tour de France winner Christopher Froome was 17 seconds off the pacesetter. "I hope I can reach the final day with the same advantage," said Rodriguez, who won the Volta in 2010. "We will have to be very attentive and stay focused." Contador downplayed his chances of overtaking Rodriguez. "The remaining course leaves very little margin," Contador said. "For me, the important thing is to recover physically from these tiring days." Saturdays sixth stage will take riders over 172 kilometres (107 miles) from El Vendrell to Vilanova i la Geltru. The race finishes in Barcelona on Sunday. Tampa Bay Rays Pro Shop . James Jones got his turn Sunday. And the lift he brought, combined with the expected playoff showings from LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, have the Heat off and running in these playoffs. Brandon Lowe Jersey . -- Michael Bennett gambled last off-season that playing on a one-year deal in Seattle would pay off in the future with the long-term contract he always wanted. https://www.cheapraysonline.com/746i-bre...sey-rays.html.2 million deal for the upcoming season with right-hander Garrett Richards.The person spoke on condition of anonymity Saturday because the announcement hadnt been made. Yonny Chirinos Rays Jersey . -- Scottie Wilbekin sat on the bench for the final minute, holding a bag of ice against his left knee. Rays Jerseys 2019 . Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon; a brief, poor outing that served to highlight two trends that have developed this season.MIAMI -- The San Antonio Spurs left Miami last June looking so human, Tim Duncan nearly in tears talking about how close they were to another championship. They dont look human now. They look like a machine. Up 3-1 and shooting the ball at a level never seen in the NBA Finals, the Spurs headed home with a chance to wrap things up on Sunday night in Game 5. The Miami Heat, who were able to deny the Spurs last year, have two days to figure out what can possibly be done to do it again. "Theyre a high-oil machine and they move the ball extremely well," LeBron James said. "They put you in so many difficult positions. If youre not right on time, right on target, theyre going to make you pay for it." The Spurs won by 19 and 21 in the two games in Miami and are shooting 54.2 per cent in the series. The NBA Finals record for a series of any length is 52.7 per cent. No team has overcome a 3-1 deficit in the finals, and the Heat were so thoroughly manhandled in Miami that the only reason to think they could be the first is what they did in the past. Duncan said the memory of last seasons loss -- the pain thats driven the Spurs through this entire season -- would "definitely come up" before Sunday. "As I said, we know the calibre team they are, and we have a lot of respect for what theyre able to do," Duncan said. "Theyre able to throw it another gear and theyre going to do just that. They dont want this to be done." Duncan probably meant "done" as in the series. Of course, it could also mean the era. Two off days were sure to be filled by talk of the Heats uncertain future, with James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all eligible for free agency. Might such a one-sided beating convince James he had to leave to find a better roster elsewhere? Make him more resolute in his desire to stay and get the Heat back on top? The two-time champions have more urgent concerns now. "Did we expect to come here and lose two the way we did at home? No way," Wade said. "But we also expect to go to San Antonio and put up a better effort and try to come out with another win.dddddddddddd. So well get away from it (Friday), but well still think about what we need to do to try to get another win to keep the series alive." James simply acknowledged the obvious, that the Spurs were the better team, when they swept his Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007 for the last of their four NBA championships. But he wasnt supposed to be on the wrong side of the talent differential once he bolted for Miami, where the Heat would build a Big Three for this decade that would rival what San Antonios did last decade. But the Spurs go so far beyond Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili now. Theres Kawhi Leonard, who followed his career-high, 29-point night in Game 3 with 20 points and 14 rebounds Thursday and has done no worse than battled James to a draw over the last two games. Or Boris Diaw, who wasnt even in the starting lineup until Game 3 and had eight points, nine rebounds and nine assists in Game 4, serving as one of the catalysts for the Spurs mesmerizing ball movement. Individual players get hot all the time. The Spurs are on a team-wide hot streak. "I just think were playing Spurs basketball," Parker said. "Were just moving the ball and were just playing the way weve been playing all season. Wed like to do a good to great, the extra pass, and we preach that, and right now were clicking." It gets a little harder to keep that going when trying for that fourth win, the one the Spurs couldnt quite get last year, when even the real freewheeling teams tend to tighten up a bit. "I mean, every closeout game is very difficult, for all the obvious reasons," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. Especially if James delivers as so often when the Heat faced elimination, from his 45-point game in Boston in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals, to a triple-double against the Spurs in Game 6 last year, followed by 37 points in Game 7. He may need to deliver something similar, or a championship reign could be over sooner than expected. ' ' '
