ROME -- Italy suspended Romes bid for the 2024 Olympics on Tuesday, forced to pull the plug because of the staunch opposition of the citys mayor.Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malago said that he had written to the IOC announcing the decision to interrupt the candidacy.While the letter left open a small possibility for a revival of the bid if there is a change in city government, Malago didnt hold out much hope.Today the game is over. But if someone decides that the game isnt over its not up to us. But today were ending the game, Malago told The Associated Press after his announcement at a news conference. Thats it.The move comes after Romes city council voted last month to withdraw support of the bid on the recommendation of Mayor Virginia Raggi.The bid committee is officially liquidated as of today, Malago said. Its a big wound for us. I hope they realize how bad an impression weve made.The International Olympic Committee said it had taken note of the Italian decision and will further explore with the candidature committee what this means.All the circumstances and the information that we have received in the past days clearly demonstrate that this is about Italian politics only, the IOC said.Romes withdrawal leaves only Los Angeles, Paris, and Budapest, Hungary, in the running for the 2024 Games. The IOC will select the host city in September 2017.Its also the second time in four years that a Rome bid has been withdrawn or suspended. In 2012, then-premier Mario Monti scrapped the citys bid for the 2020 Olympics because of financial concerns.I feel like Ive been robbed of hope, Rome bid vice president and Italian Paralympic Committee president Luca Pancalli said.Hoping to regain the trust of the IOC, Malago said he was offering up Milan as host of the IOC session in 2019.This is the first step of Italys rehabilitation after this unacceptable interruption, Malago said. The other evening I had a chance to discuss this possibility with (IOC President) Thomas Bach and IOC general director Christophe De Kepper and there is ample support for this idea.This is a way to turn the page and move on, Malago added.Raggi, who represents the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, said that taking on the costs of an Olympic bid is irresponsible for a city struggling to emerge from years of corruption and poor public services.While Raggi wrote a letter to the IOC last month, IOC rules state that only the national Olympic committee can withdraw a candidacy.Anybody can write to the IOC but the only letter that counts is the one from the president of the Olympic committee, Malago said.Since being elected in June as Romes first female mayor, Raggi has had a rough first few months in office. Her administration was thrown into chaos after she dismissed her Cabinet chief and four other officials resigned.A budget of 24 million euros ($27 million) had been allotted -- much of it spent -- to the 2024 candidacy, even though bid leader Luca Cordero di Montezemolo had no salary.Malago revealed that he would have promoted Nerio Alessandri, the entrepeneur who is president and founder of Technogym, as organizing committee president if Rome had won, with architect Renzo Piano in a supervisory position.But I was never able to speak with the mayor since she was elected, Malago said.Malago compared Romes situation to Vancouvers withdrawal six months before the 1980 Winter Games were awarded to Lake Placid in 1976. Vancouver had to wait 30 years to host the 2010 Winter Games.While its true that Canada had two games in the intervening years -- Montreal (1976) and Calgary (1988) -- I think Vancouver paid a big price for that decision, Malago said. Rome and Italy find themselves in a similar situation today.Still, the interruption of the bid is another signal that the IOC still has work to do to convince cities that hosting the games is a boon and not a burden.Last month, a city government panel in Tokyo warned that the cost of the 2020 Olympics could exceed $30 billion, more than four times the initial estimates.Voters in Hamburg rejected the German citys 2024 bid in a referendum, and Boston dropped out last year amid a lack of public and political support and was replaced as the U.S. candidate by Los Angeles.Four cities withdrew during the bidding for the 2022 Winter Games, leaving only two candidates in the field. Beijing, hardly known as a winter sports destination, defeated Almaty, Kazakhstan.---Andrew Dampf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/asdampf Lee Smith Angels Jersey . 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Jake Jewell Angels Jersey . 1, meaning problems for the doping controls at both major international sports events next year. The World Anti-Doping Agency provisionally suspended the Moscow Antidoping Center on Sunday, saying its operations must improve or a six-month ban on the facilitys accreditation will be imposed. INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue called J.R. Smiths in-game hug with a Milwaukee Bucks bench player -- leading to a wide-open score for the opposition -- an embarrassing moment and met with the Cavs guard to address the mental lapse Wednesday.It was an embarrassing moment, Lue said. Me and J.R. talked about it. Were just going to move forward. We had a discussion about it, he felt embarrassed about it. It was an embarrassing play. We talked about it. Were moving on.Smith greeted Bucks reserve Jason Terry on the baseline while Milwaukee was readying to inbound the ball late in the second half of their eventual 118-101 win over Cleveland on Tuesday. When Smith removed himself from the play, Milwaukees Matthew Dellavedova zipped a pass to Tony Snell who converted an uncontested dunk.Lue was sure to clarify he believed there was nothing intentional behind Smiths blunder, adding there was no negative motive for Smith to expose the Cavs defense like that.Smith said the Cavs also addressed the mistake as a team within the larger context of complacency settling in for the defending champs despite their sterling 13-3 record.Obviously we both know it wasnt intentional, but it was just a lack of focus, Smith said after practice Wednesday. One of the multiple things that compounded onto the loss was just as a team we havent been as focused as we previously were. Winning and being who we are has a lot to do with that, but weve just got to overcome that and be better as a whole. It starts as individuals and then we can collectively become a group and team and have that mindset.Lue also took issue with Smiths explanation for the play Tuesday night, claiming he had no recollection of the mistake while wearing a ski mask-style hood covering his face during his interview with reporters.It wasnt right, Lue said. I talked to him about that also. Theres no need for that. Just address the media in the right way, move on. We got our butts kicked (Tuesday) night. Give Milwaukee credit, they came out, they attacked us, they beat us. Now weve got to move on.Smith said his postgame act was a joke gone wrong.I said it more in a joking manner because you can see what happened, Smith said. Obviously, I wasnt paying attention. For me to just sit there and tell you I wasnt paying attention makes it plain and boring somewhat, especially when youre asking a question you already know the answer to. But at the same time, I still have to give that boring answer, for whatever reason.Making matters worse, Smith is mired in terrible shooting slump, averaging just 3.0 points in his last three games while shooting a combined 3-for-29 (10.3 percennt).ddddddddddddIve had mental errors before while not shooting the ball well and while shooting the ball well, and vice versa, Smith said. So I cant compound one on top of the other. Its just a matter of getting out of the groove of shooting bad and just staying more locked in.This is the first ... mental error that Ive had since I was here (in Cleveland). I mean, I think thats just one of the reasons why its so big because it hasnt been seen yet here. And on top of not shooting the ball well. I mean, Ive gone on streaks where I havent shot the ball well here, but I was always making up for it in other areas so it wasnt as big. Its just a part of the game. I got to do better with it.Outside of a two-game suspension during the 2015 playoffs for a hit on Bostons Jae Crowder, Smith has been mostly a model teammate since the Cavs acquired him from the New York Knicks in a trade during the 2014-15 season.?He led the Cavs in 3-pointers each of the last two seasons, was dubbed the teams best defender by Lue and earned a four-year, $57 million extension from Cleveland in the offseason.Smith said Lue wants to rely on him and other role players to shoulder more of the load and take the pressure off the Cavs superstar trio in LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love to produce.For me, it was just trying to get a better understanding of why weve become complacent, Smith said of his conversation with his coach. Weve both come up with winning has a lot to do with that. Being who we are and having the players we have on the team has a lot to do with that, but weve got to understand for guys like myself, we cant be the Bron-Kevin-Ky who can have that mindset.We have to be those guys -- the worker ants. We have to put that work in even more and have their back even more and have their back even more. I think the last couple games ... I mean, obviously theyre going to score the majority of our points, but theyve done even more than what theyre accustomed to. So we have to do a better job of helping them out from a playing side as well as a serious side as well.Lue was in a noticeably better mood Wednesday than he was Tuesday, beginning his media session by greeting every reporter individually and apologizing for using a curse word during his postgame remarks in Milwaukee.Today was great, Lue said of practice. Today was great. I thought the guys were really locked in.Cleveland hosts the?LA Clippers?on Thursday before heading to Chicago for the second night of a back-to-back on Friday against?Dwyane Wade and the?Bulls. ' ' '