sxx123: nce and try to be overall more consis

nce and try to be overall more consis

17 Mar 2018 at 05:02

LAS VEGAS -- The game started with a near-capacity Thomas & Mack Center at a fever pitch for a highly-anticipated matchup between No. Angel Di Maria Jersey . 1 pick Ben Simmons and No. 2 pick Brandon Ingram. It ended with another former No. 2 pick, DAngelo Russell, demonstrating he has ice in his veins with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.But in between, there was only one player who received M-V-P chants during the Los Angeles Lakers win over the Philadelphia 76ers: Larry Nance Jr., who was picked 25 spots after Russell in the 2015 draft.First of all, if anybody was the MVP, it was DAngelo, but I appreciated the chants, Nance said.It would have been hard to imagine any positive chants for Nance after a first half that saw him finish with more turnovers (four) than points (three).My energy was down, for some reason I just didnt have it, Nance said of his first-half struggles. Coach [Jesse Mermuys] pulled me aside and said Cmon man, its a different half, new ballgame, were going to win this game, and it just clicked.Things turned around quickly in the second half, when Nance put up 10 of his 13 points and grabbed 7 of his 8 rebounds to spark a Lakers comeback from 16 points down. He also finished with 7 steals, 4 assists and 4 blocks, doing a little bit of everything for the Lakers.He was awesome, said Mermuys, a Lakers assistant leading the summer league staff. I played him 35 minutes in a 40-minute game. He was dog tired at the end, but I wasnt going to take him out. He had earned those minutes to be able to finish it out.And the lift that he gave us in that run, we had taken some major punches. Our offense was brutal. Their pressure was really taking us out of everything we were trying to do. And he gave us a lift -- the big-time dunks were an incredible lift to us, obviously, the three he made was huge. And his toughness and energy -- unsung hero of the game, no doubt.Nance, the son of former dunk contest champion Larry Nance threw down a pair of highlight-reel slams, both coming off plays he started by grabbing a defensive rebound and pushing the ball. The second-year forward says he believes that could be a much bigger part of his game going forward.We have the freedom to do almost whatever we want now, he said. Coach has given me his blessing to push the ball up the court, take the ball off the rim and push it up the court. If they commit to me, Ill kick it. If they dont, Im coming down the lane. Its a position that I love playing. I love going downhill with the ball, and I hope to continue to play like that.Russell had high praise for the way Nance played in Saturdays game, and what he means for the Lakers improvement going forward.Hes a winning piece on a winning team, the point guard said. Every team needs a guy like Larry. Hes always positive. Hes one of the most positive guys I know. Hes always positive. I dont know. Hes just a great guy off the court and then on the court, hes a dog. So it leads up to him just playing hard. All his plays are like motor plays and just getting everybody going, setting great screens for the point guards or the guards coming off screens. He just knows how to play.Rookie center Ivica Zubac said Nances energy and enthusiasm are a huge part of what he brings to the team.It really means a lot. Every time somebody is down, he comes to that guy and helps him, Zubac said. You feel better after that and you play better.As for those MVP chants, Nance said it made him feel like a Lakers legend -- if only for a moment.I felt like Kobe [Bryant] for a little bit, he said. Although, I missed the free throw. It got to me. Javier Mascherano Jersey . Schenn scored the game-winning goal and added two assists to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday. Wholesale Argentina Jerseys . -- Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Farmar will be out for roughly four weeks after tearing his left hamstring. www.cheapargentinajerseysauthentic.com/fernando-belluschi-jersey/ . Despite the cost, effort and an improved steroid test, its possible that very few -- if any -- positives will be detected, Dr. Richard Budgett told The Associated Press in an interview. "We just dont know what the results from Torino will be," Budgett said. Alise Post and Brooke Crain line up their bikes at the gate. Donning navy jerseys with red-and-white sleeves and covered in stars and stripes, the BMX riders are ready to launch themselves from an 8-meter-high ramp.Here, at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, lies one of the toughest tracks in the world; its jumps and turns dare riders to conquer or crash.The slightest error, youre on the ground with a punctured lung, says Jamie Staff, director of BMX for USA Cycling.Heads down, backs straight, hands tight -- hands really, really tight -- Post, 25 and Crain, 23, dont have time for fear. Two and a half seconds later, the riders who will represent Team USA at the Rio Olympics starting Wednesday, zoom down the track, bouncing over jumps like billy goats and hanging in the air as if they wont come down. Less than a minute later, theyve completed the outrageous course.I think everybody in this sport is somewhat of an adrenaline junkie, Post says. You get addicted to that rush of it. Thats what keeps you coming back. That little bit of unknown, and that bit of fear, its always going to be there. But thats the thrill of it.A need for speedPost and Crain ride again and again from 9 a.m. until noon on the Chula Vista track, alongside their Rio-bound male teammates, Nic Long, Corben Sharrah and Connor Fields.BMX, or bicycle motocross, took off in Southern California in the 1970s. Testing riders to the brink of physical and mental exhaustion, the sport debuted on the Olympic stage at the 2008 Beijing Games.Side by side, cyclists race over a course filled with giant leaps and challenging turns, with the winner being the first to cross the finish line.Though three USA riders medaled in Beijing -- Mike Day (silver), Donny Robinson (bronze) and Jill Kintner (bronze), an American has yet to win gold.Post and Crain hope to change that this week.In practice, they dont go at any gear other than all-out, especially since the sting of the 2012 London Games remains. Post crashed twice in the semifinal heats, while Crain wiped out in qualifying on the first day but still advanced to the finals before finishing eighth.In practice, theyre always pushing it so hard, says Long, who conserves his maximum effort for races. I dont crash very often. Maybe its because I dont push it super hard out here.They dont seem to have that switch. They just go as hard as they can at all times.Both women grew up with family members who motivated them to keep up.The first time Crain hopped on a bike, she cried. The 6-year-old from Visalia, California, was terrified to ride down the hill at a local track, so her parents took turns running behind her, clutching the back of her shirt. I wouldnt let them let go, Crain says.Post, also beginning at 6, walked to the top of a local course in Minnesota and chickened out. My mom and dad tried to get the membership money back, like, Oh, cancel it, shes done, Post says.But Post returned the next week, fears be damned.She crashed.Hearing her brother yelling at her to get up, she realized she could do it. Whats a few bruises? BMX was gnarly. Cool. Something most girls didnt do.Crain, too, fell in love with the rhythm of the sport: fly, get knocked down, get back up.Post, who holds eight national No. 1 USA BMX series titles, is the winningest female in USA BMX history. German Pezzella Jersey. Crain, who won two world titles as an amateur, became the youngest rider to make a Supercross (international elite style of racing) final as a 16-year-old in 2009. She has made the podium at four World Cups and has been in the top three in the USA elite womens class every year since 2012.But both battled injuries that threatened their chances of qualifying for the London Games.Post broke her ankle in 2010. After a full recovery, she blew out her knee in the same leg three months later while going over the handlebars on a jump, which also left her with a ruptured hamstring tendon, a hairline femur fracture and a detached meniscus. She was back on the track in January 2012, just five months after surgery.Crain broke her shoulder at the world championships in 2012.BMX provides a high, no matter the physical costs, that only riders can understand.I dont think were human or were just not going to be able to move when were 30. One of the two, Crain says. You have to be tough to be in BMX, you really do. Thats just part of our sport.A shot at redemptionPost remembers London in pieces. It was just an emotional blur, she says.During the second semifinal heat, she failed to clear a jump, coming out of the tunnel into the second turn, and crashed. In the third heat, she crashed on the final straight, hitting her head hard.My parents told me that I came up to them and was just like, Hey, thanks for coming. I gotta go race now. They said, No, no, no. Youre done, Post says.Crain, originally selected as the alternate, was asked to compete at the last minute when teammate Arielle Martin crashed days before the team was supposed to leave for London. Crain didnt feel physically or mentally prepared.They were like deer in headlights, Staff says. It was a shock.Exhausted and disappointed after returning to the States, Crain rested on pillows while wrapped in blankets on her parents living room floor for three days. Post had two hand surgeries. But soon, the friends and long-time competitors were back on the track, using London as motivation for Rio.The driving force behind any athlete is wanting to reach your potential and put your best effort out, says Post, who bounced back from a broken tibia in 2014 to capture back-to-back Womens Pro titles in 2014 and 2015. Post currently ranks third in the world and is expected to contend for a medal.I personally know [London] was not even close to my best effort, Post says. I dont want to say that Rio has been the forefront of every race Ive done, but everything is a stepping-stone. How do we work backwards from that? How do we grow from every race experience and try to be overall more consistent riders?Crain, who is fifth in the world, recently recovered from a broken leg she suffered during a World Cup race in Holland 12 weeks ago.The grind doesnt stop.If you race BMX at this level, you have to be resilient. ... If you dont have that certain level of resilience, youre not going to make it, Fields says. Brooke and Alise, they just keep punching. They get knocked down, they get back up again. Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys China NFL Cheap Jerseys ' ' ' 



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