Teenage Bills fans have no recollection of the last time Buffalo made the NFL playoffs.Many of their elders, however, might not remember the last time the Bills won a game in Oakland, back when they were battling for position in the 1966 AFL playoffs.Fifty years ago? Phew, Bills head coach Rex Ryan said this week. Thats amazing. Wf. You talk about a drought.If the Bills can end one drought Sunday at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, it could go a long way toward helping them put the other one in the past.That wont be an easy task against a resurgent Raiders (9-2) team that is off to its best start since 2000 and tied with the New England Patriots for the best record in the AFC. Oakland is poised to end its own 13-season playoff drought, which is tied with Cleveland for the second-longest in the NFL behind Buffalo (16 seasons).The Bills (6-5) enter December with a winning record for the second time in three years, but just the third time since 1999, their last playoff season. They are currently ninth in the conference standings and one game back of the final wild-card spot.Buffalo has not won a road game in December while still in playoff contention since 2004. The Bills were 8-6 when they traveled to Oakland two years ago and were knocked out of playoff contention with a 26-24 loss to the 2-12 Raiders.While the Bills have struggled to take the next step since, the Raiders have risen to become one of the top teams in the league. Oakland has won five in a row and leads the competitive AFC West division by one game over Kansas City. The Raiders have already won two more games than they did last season.Were stacking up wins right now and we need to continue to do that, Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio said.Third-year quarterback Derek Carr has led five fourth-quarter comebacks, most recently in last weeks 35-32 victory over the Carolina Panthers after dislocating the pinkie finger in his throwing hand.Carr wore a glove on his right hand during practice this week but said he will have no limitations for Sundays game.My hands doing great, Carr said with a smile. Thank you for asking.Carr has been touted as an MVP contender, but he may not be the only Raider in the discussion. Defensive counterpart Khalil Mack last week became the first player to record a sack, interception return for a touchdown, forced fumble and fumble recovery in the same game. Over his last eight games, Mack has nine sacks, 10 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.Talk all about him. Im gd with that, Carr said. Im gd with doing my job and going home to my kids and my wife. Talk to him. He doesnt have any kids or a wife yet. Give him all the praise.Ryan ranked Mack among the two best defensive players in the NFL, along with Denvers Von Miller, MVP of Super Bowl 50.Some guys are speed guys, but some dont play with power. Some guys are just power guys. But this guy can do it all, Ryan said. He can truck you, he can run around you, hes got moves, hes creative with his pass rush. ... Its pretty much a nightmare.Buffalo has won two in a row following a three-game losing streak. The Bills have been depleted by injuries and suspensions throughout the season, but are starting to get key players back healthy.Top wideout Sammy Watkins returned from injured reserve to catch three passes for 80 yards and draw a key pass interference penalty in last weeks 28-21 win over Jacksonville. Watkins had some issues with the ft this week, but the Bills are hopeful he will ve fine for Sundays game. The Bills need Watkins because wide receiver Robert Wds is out with knee injury. Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys Sale . Isner, ranked No. 14, won his eighth career singles title and tk the title in New Zealand for the second time after his victory in 2010. The match was similar to Isners quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber which went to three sets, all tiebreaks and contained no breaks of serve. NFL Jerseys China . Manuel was offered a position the day he was fired. He accepted earlier this week and the team made the announcement Friday. http://www.cheapnfljerseysonlinechina.com/ .ca lks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys .875,000, avoiding arbitration. Clippards deal Monday means all eight Nationals players who filed for arbitration wound up settling before a hearing. Wholesale NFL Jerseys Authentic .500 on the season. The Jets are now 0-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The game started the same way the Vancouver game started the night before, with the Jets taking the first two penalties of the game and killing off the first, but the Oilers getting on the board first, scoring on the second man-advantage. MIAMI -- Standing on the cusp of the NBA Finals has tended to agree with the Miami Heat in each of the last two seasons. When the Heat have gotten a game away from the title round, theyve finished the task as quickly as possible. And here they are again. A third straight Eastern Conference title is now just one win away for the reigning champions, though if the way this series has gone so far is an accurate indicator, that win will hardly come easily. The Heat -- without suspended forward Chris Andersen -- will visit the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night, leading the best-of-seven East finals 3-2 and in position to close out their new rivals on their own flr for the second straight season. "Were desperate, t," Heat forward and four-time NBA MVP LeBron James said Friday. "Were desperate to get back to the NBA Finals. So both teams are desperate in their own sense of theyre trying to keep their season alive and were trying to advance." The teams have alternated wins and losses through the first five games, and if that trend holds, then its the Pacers turn to prevail on Saturday and send the series back to Miami for a winner-goes-to-the-finals Game 7 on Monday night. If the Heat -- who have won each of their last six potential series-closeout games, including two in the 2011 and 2012 East finals -- win, then the championship round against the San Antonio Spurs will begin in Miami on Thursday. "You cant start thinking about opening up the invitation," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "Thats over there. You cant even think about that." The Pacers saw their season end a year ago on their home flr, at Miamis hand, in Game 6 of a second-round series. So Indianas biggest source of motivation on Saturday may be the desire to avoid the indignity of watching Miami advance in Indianapolis for a second straight season. "Game 6 will really determine how much weve grown, because weve been in the same ditch, I guess, being in the same predicament," Pacers star Paul George said. "Going 2-2, losing in Miami, then coming back home and losing at home. So well see where were at. Weve done well all year, especially in the post-season, dealing with adversity and overcoming games where we didnt play as well as we wanted." The shirts in Indiana say "Gold Swagger" for a reason. Even down 3-2 against a team that hasnt lost back-to-back games since early January, the Pacers still have plenty of confidence, and it starts with a coach who came into the series insisting his club had genuine belief that it could knock off the champions. "Its not just false talk," Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. "Theres a reason Im confident. I like to tell these guys that Im not an optimist. Thats what my image is. Im a realist. And when I lk around at what I see in the rm when Im talking to this team, and what I see on the court, and the level of execution that were capable of ... it gives me real confidence in this basketballl team.dddddddddddd Our guys understand its not just happy talk." Adjustments will be made by both sides before Saturday, of course. But at this point, its more than likely that the sides are out of ways to tactically surprise one another. A play here, a play there, that might be the difference, and that sort of thinking is shared by both sides. "Its about effort," Pacers centre Roy Hibbert said. "Its about who wants it more, who wants to get that offensive rebound, who wants to get that blocked shot, who wants to get the lse ball. We just have to come out with more determination. Its not anything the coaches can tell us, its about whats in here. Its lose or go home right now." Sometimes, its not even about what happens on the court. The Heat were losing 44-40 at halftime on Thursday in Game 5, when veteran Juwan Howard -- who appeared in seven games for all of 51 minutes this season after being re-signed by Miami -- went on a shouting spree in the locker rm. James followed that up with a fiery, slightly profane speech of his own, and Miami went on a 30-10 run not long afterward that served as a springboard to victory. "His purity, respect level, the credibility that he has, it resonates with our guys and specifically it resonates with the guys in the locker rm," Spoelstra said of Howard. "They hear what he says. It means something. And it was raw communication. Were at that point right now where it has to be real, has to be raw, has to be eye-to-eye. These are desperate times. Theres no lking back. Its either us or them." James said Friday that he couldnt even remember specifics of some things he had yelled the previous night. "Absolutely not," James said. "You just let the game speak for itself, I guess." Vogel said he expects that reserve forward Tyler Hansbrough, who sprained an ankle in the second half of Game 5, will be available on Saturday. Andersen, the backup big man who is 15 for 15 from the flr in the series and has made his last 18 shots overall, was suspended Friday night for shoving Hansbrough twice in the second quarter, then not backing away quickly enough for a referee who stepped in. Dwyane Wades aching right knee is still limiting him and Chris Boshs numbers are nowhere near what the Heat would want right now, so the defending champions arent exactly at their best, either. Still, the Pacers know that the challenge theyre facing now -- needing to go 2-0 against Miami in a three-day span to get to the finals -- is enormous. "One game at a time," George said. "We have to come home and play a gd game. Everybody is going to have to step up and play a huge role. I know in the back of their mind they want to get the job done and be finished. So were going to have to come out and bring it." Or else, the Heat will be finals-bound, one more time. "The close-out game," Heat forward Shane Battier said, "is always the toughest." ' ' '