Dein erstes Forum » 11 members of the England team wh

When the New York Liberty look back at the 2016 season, Tina Charles and company might owe the Indiana Fever a huge debt of gratitude.In their last game on Thursday, the Liberty gave up 40 first-quarter points to Indiana, which tied a WNBA record. The Fever led by as many as 32 points on their way to a 98-77 shellacking of New York.But the beat-down by the Fever (13-14) might be a wakeup call reminding New York that on any given night any team can beat another.And even though the Liberty hold a comfortable 4 1/2-game lead in the East, coach Bill Laimbeers squad has learned a valuable lesson, one that could carry them deep into the playoffs.With a new-found sense of urgency, the Liberty get to test their resolve on Saturday, when they play host to the underachieving Phoenix Mercury (13-14) at 6 p.m. at Madison Square Garden.The Mercury have won three straight since play resumed after the Olympic Games. Included in that streak was an impressive win over Los Angeles, which is tied for the best record in the league at 22-5.Diana Tuarasi, who led Team USA to a gold medal (the fourth time shes stood on the winners podium), paces the way for three-time defending champing Mercury with 18.9 points per game.DeWanna Bonner (15.4 points, 5.2 rebounds per game) has proven to be trusty sidekick having scored in double figures in 11 of the last 13 games.And patrolling the middle, Brittany Griner leads the league in blocked shots per game at 3.1, hauls down 6.1 rebounds and scores a little over 13 points per game.With six Olympians on the squad, Phoenix is a formidable opponent no matter what the record is.New York had won seven of nine until laying an egg in Indiana, and if they are to get back on the winning track the Liberty will have to play much better defense.Offense is not an issue, with MVP candidate Charles prepared to carry the Liberty on her back. The perennial All-Star is second in the league in scoring at 21.1 per game, first in rebounding at 9.7 and adds 3.8 assists per game.If Charles should have an off-game, Sugar Rogers (14.5 points) is more than capable of picking up the slack. The sharpshooting Rogers is closing in on the franchise record of 78 3-pointers in a season with 74.The good news for the Liberty and bad news for the rest of the league is that Epihanny Prince, a second team All-WNBA selection last season, is rounding into form after missing 26 games because of a torn ACL.Prince has played in only two games, but before her injury, she was the second option on offense behind Charles and averaged 15 points per game as well as 3.5 assists. Celtics Jerseys China . After Mondays hard-fought loss, the wait seemed longer than usual. Getting set to go their separate ways for a short Christmas break, the Raptors coach credited his team for their effort on a seemingly impossible three-game road trip, urging them to build on that success when they get back to work at the end of the week. Cheap Custom Celtics Jersey . Jason Zucker and Matt Cooke also scored for Minnesota, which has won five of six. Kuemper made five saves in the first, nine in the second, and nine in the third. The rookies best save came with 2:17 left in the third period when he denied former Wild forward Matt Cullen from just outside of the crease on the right side. http://www.custompacersjersey.com/ . Takahashi, who had a 10-point lead after the short program, received 268.31 points after the free skate to finish 15 points ahead of second-place Nobunari Oda. Paul George Jersey Large . "Jeff is a hard worker who was an important special-teams contributor for us last season," said Stamps GM John Hufnagel. Cheap Celtics Jerseys . "It was nerve-wracking, but we pulled through," said Collaros, who threw four touchdown passes to lead the Toronto Argonauts (8-4) to a 33-27 win over the Calgary Stampeders (9-3) in front of 28,781 fans at McMahon Stadium. RIO DE JANEIRO -- In back-to-back games, the U.S. women were within range of upset wins over Australia and New Zealand, the two leading contenders for the first rugby sevens gold medal ever awarded at the Olympics.By the end of an eventful Sunday, though, the semifinal pairings reflected the status quo in womens sevens with the top four teams in the world series vying for medals.World series winner Australia rebounded from a surprising 12-12 draw with the United States in the last game of the pool stage to trounce Spain 24-0 and set up a semifinal match against Canada, which rallied to beat France 15-5 in the quarterfinals.Britain advanced 26-7 over Fiji and then watched as semifinal opponent New Zealand struggled to put away the Americans 5-0, the only points coming from a try by world series try-scoring leader Portia Woodman just before halftime.I told them that they were true Olympians. They represented USA really, really well, U.S. womens coach Richie Walker said of his squad. We played the No. 1 and No. 2 nations in the world today but I saw no fear. We hung with the best in the world. We drew with the No. 1 and we just lost by five points to the No. 2.The Americans lost 12-7 to Fiji in their opening game Saturday, adding to the pressure on them in the last Pool A match to beat Australia on Sunday. Winger Jessica Jevelet scored two tries to give the Americans a 12-5 lead going into the last minute, but Emma Tonegato reached over to score her second try of the match for the Aussies and Chloe Dalton converted after the full-time siren for a draw.Jevelet was again in the thick of it against New Zealand. The Americans had a scoring opportunity shut down with three minutes to go when Jevelet was tackled late as she attempted to chase a kick into the in-goal that could have leveled the game. Tylia Nathan-Wong was yellow carded and sent from the field, but the New Zealanders survived unscathed.The U.S. and New Zealand squads played practicce matches against each other in Florida leading up to the Olympics, and the Americans obviously picked up some intel.ddddddddddddThey didnt play us this hard in Florida. It was a nice surprise, and hard, Woodman said. We made it hard for ourselves, not playing to our strengths, getting a bit too ahead of ourselves, and wanting to score on the first phase when we needed to play three or four.But were in medal contention, so (were) excited.The Americans will have to settle for playing in classification matches for fifth-eighth places along with the other quarterfinal losers.It probably hurts right now because theyre out of medal contention, but still we have something to fight for, Walker said. We want to finish No. 5.Thats the best day rugby-wise, not results-wise, that Ive ever seen from the girls. So Im really proud.Australia coach Tim Walsh said the Americans gave his team the kick up the pants that we needed going into the quarterfinals, where Charlotte Caslick scored twice and Tonegato added another to each increase their tournament tallies to six, equal with Woodman.The top three teams from the sevens world series appeared more vulnerable on Sunday than Britain, a team containing 11 members of the England team which placed fourth in the world series. The British won all three group games comfortably, including a 24-0 victory over Canada, and outscored Fiji four tries to one.The Canadians entered as the likely bronze medalists, but now face Australia in the semifinals -- which doesnt entirely bother them. Canada beat the Australians to win the last stop on the world series last season and nudge ahead of England for third place.The Olympics are a whole new thing for us and were still kind of getting used to that, Canada back Bianca Farella said. I think its an unconscious thing but tomorrow we start fresh. ' ' '