Memphis, TN (SportsNetwork.com) - Zach Randolph scored 20 points with 15 rebounds to help the Memphis Grizzlies in a 102-98 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night. Courtney Lee and Beno Udrih each contributed 17 points, with Udrih making all seven of his attempts -- including a pair of big shots down the stretch. Jeff Green also scored 17 points in his FedEx Forum debut for the Grizzlies. Memphis has won four straight games and also sent the Blazers to their first three-game losing streak of the season. LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 32 points and nine rebounds in the loss. Wesley Matthews and Damian Lillard went for 25 and 23 points, respectively. Matthews opened the final frame with a basket to cut the Blazers deficit to six, but Memphis responded with six straight points to regain a double-digit lead. A 12-2 Portland run was opened and closed with Matthews converting 3-pointers as the visitors closed to within two with 5:18 left. Lee stemmed the momentum with a 3-pointer out of a timeout to push the lead to 89-84, but the Blazers would not go away. Aldridge knocked down a pair of free throws to trim the deficit to three, then both teams traded baskets before Green came up with a big tip-in with 1:51 on the clock. Lillard hit a 3-pointer that cut it to two preceding Udrihs jumper from the top of the key with 38.4 seconds left. Matthews tossed up a deep 3-pointer on Portlands next touch, Randolph came down with the board and hit both free throws at the other end. Lillard then converted an off-balance 3 for the Blazers, but Udrih ran the clock down, drove past Lillard and made another mid-range jumper to essentially seal the outcome with 8.7 seconds remaining. Memphis made 75 percent of its shots in the first quarter to take a 30-23 lead into the second. Marc Gasol, who had 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists, knocked down a jumper to start a 14-6 run over the final five minutes of the second quarter to help the Grizzlies to a 60-42 lead at the break. Randolph contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds in the first half. Matthews and Steve Blake each canned a 3-pointer around a Randolph basket late in the third, then Matthews nailed another triple to make it a 78-70 game entering the fourth. Game Notes Memphis made 51 percent of its shots, limiting the Blazers to 39 percent shooting ... The Grizzlies led by as many as 20 ... There were a total of six fastbreak points scored between both teams ... The Grizzlies bench outscored Portlands reserves 31-11. Cheap Jerseys For Sale . Mauer struck out to end the inning, with a runner on third base in the seventh on Wednesday and the Twins trailing 1-0. Everybody does this, of course, in a sport with a 30 per cent success rate at the plate long proven to be a benchmark of excellence. Mike Whittington Jersey Online .A. remained bitter for Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers on the long flight back home to New York. https://www.cheapjerseysatwholesale.com/...-jersey-online/. CBS Sports Jon Heyman is reporting that Santana will sign a one-year deal, likely in the next two days with one of a trio of suitors, with the Toronto Blue Jays believed to be heavily involved. Keith Woodside Jersey Online . Russia has spent about $51 billion to deliver the Sochi Olympics, which run Feb. 7-23, making them the most expensive games ever, even though as a winter event it hosts many fewer athletes than summer games do. Cheap Jerseys China . -- C.J. Cron hit an RBI single on the first pitch he saw in the major leagues, doubled his second time up and hit a tiebreaking RBI single in the sixth inning to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 5-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Saturday night.Watching the Montreal Canadiens lose goaltender Carey Price to injury this week reminded me of what I often think is the great weakness of North American sports. The reliance of individuals in team sports. Hockey is obsessed with goaltenders. A team loses and the first place people look at for blame is in between the pipes. Baseball? As they say, momentum is all about the next days starting pitcher. NFL? Find an elite quarterback if you want to win the Super Bowl and stop using Trent Dilfer as an example (unless you can find one of the greatest defences to go alongside him). Basketball? You wont find many NBA championship teams that doesnt feature a current or future hall of famer. The global game of soccer is often very different, as the achievements of Atletico Madrid this week have shown. A sport that is so reliant on teamwork rarely allows a figurehead to rise to such prominence to make a championship be about them. Sure, domestic leagues have outstanding players who take over games, weeks, even months of a campaign, but without their teammates they are just one man with a ball at their feet. Even the greatest players in the world today are surrounded by players close to their level that allows them to perform brilliantly so often. For some reason, however, every four years many forget the common sense around this belief and two words are the reason for it. World Cup. There have only been nineteen of these in history and, specifically for the last 16 of them, it has been considered as the ultimate thing in the sport to win. However, the World Cup is not without its failings. Many games produce predictable, sterile games dominated by defensive-minded teams, unable to replicate the teamwork earned by club teams over long periods of time, who, subsequently, know its far easier to stop than score. It is a tournament that lasts one month every four years. The best team plays seven games and does not even have to win them all. Yet, because it is so short in time and so infrequent on the games calendar, the World Cup cares little for reputations, instead choosing to make them. This allows the sport to be much more North American in terms of individuals stamping their authority on it. With this in mind, collectively, we owe it to future generations to be extremely careful with the evidence provided (and this is not always easy with the lack of video available to us once the tournament ends). First of all we must remember that players can have excellent tournaments without actually winning it. This rule is for all, not just for those you didnt expect to win it anyway. Take Lionel Messis 2010 World Cup. Many adjectives have been used to describe this including poor and disappointing. What nonsense. Messi was excellent in South Africa but because he didnt score a goal some thought he was disappointing. When his out-of-his-depth manager, Diego Maradona, decided to play without a central midfield, Argentina were sent home packing in the quarterfinals. They never had a chance of winning the World Cup and none of that fell on the shoulders of Messi. Since leaving South Africa, Messi, with Barcelona, has won everything there is to win in club football, and added three more Ballon DOr awards. He has consistently succeeded in the most competitive tournament, the Champions League, the sport has to offer. He is described by many as one of the greatest players to play the game but suddenly he is removed from such a camp, by some, the closer a World Cup gets to starting, when a new hurdle is put in his path to reach the pantheon of greatness; a hurdle he simply cannot jump himself.dddddddddddd Messis countryman, Ossie Ardiles, who won the World Cup in 1978, hit the headlines last week with this gem of a quote: "To be considered alongside the top, top guys like Pele and Diego Maradona and so on, Messi not only needs to be in the World Cup but to win it." Mr Ardiles isnt the only one who feels this way, of course, and in fact there is an alarming chance he is in the majority rather than the minority when it comes to this topic. What a pity. And while we are on this quote, who is so on exactly? When Pele played, the World Cup was everything. He changed the sport and is arguably the greatest player to play the game. The World Cup made him the global star that he simply couldnt reach himself at Santos. Maradona graced four World Cups and is forever remembered as the face of Mexico 1986. It is fitting for a man so talented that he had that event to catapult him towards the legends of the game but many who celebrate Maradonas greatness, because of those 30 days in Mexico, often, conveniently, forget his 1982 and 1994 World Cups ended in disgrace. 1990? Dont let their runner-up spot fool you. His team was even worse than Messis 2010 side and his performances werent even close to the ones shown by Barcelonas current star in South Africa. There is no disputing Maradonas greatness on the field but if the guardians of football history and, subsequently, the makers of reputations are going to base so much on what happens at World Cups then they need to be fair about it. In a sport that cares so often about who wins and loses this seems like an impossible task. Only one team can lift the trophy when it all finishes on July 11. Of course, Messi will be considered as one of the true greats if that team proves to be Argentina but why should we wait to find out what some of his flawed teammates can do for him before we give him such an honour? Just because Maradona, Pele and so on won the World Cup? The game is full of true, elite greats who never did. Pele and Maradona call Alfredo Di Stefano the most complete player ever and what of Johan Cruyff, who was magnificent in the 1974 World Cup and did everything but win the tournament? Rather than holding the World Cup to a higher standard that some cannot reach, those who lean on individual quality, should enjoy its beauty at producing other stars whose solo acts can carry their teams far. Garrincha, Eusebio, Cruyff, Paolo Rossi, Toto Schillaci, Roberto Baggio, Romario, Davor Sukur, Ronaldo, Oliver Kahn, Fabio Cannavaro, Diego Forlan and David Villa are just some examples of that. Some won, some didnt. Some are true greats, some arent. Their reputations were enhanced by their World Cup play but also because their team was able to get to the final week of the event. Neither Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo needs to win a World Cup to be graced amongst the greatest ever. It appears, before the tournament already starts, that Ronaldo doesnt have the team to get him to the trophy, and if the tournament proves the same for Argentina why should Messi be judged differently to Ronaldo? This special group, created by the likes of Ardiles, that features Maradona, Pele and so on is a hindrance to football history and an ignorance to the game itself. ' ' '