Category Archives: NBA JERSEYS

NBA JERSEYS

Jimmy Butler Took Part in Timberwolves Practice for 1st Time Since Knee Injury

Minnesota Timberwolves star Jimmy Butler is reportedly nearing a return to the court after suffering a meniscus tear at the end of February.

According to Sam Amick of USA Today, Butler took part in five-on-five workouts Monday for the first time since the injury. nfl wholesale jerseys There are only four games remaining in the regular season, but he is still reportedly on track to come back before the final game.

Kent Youngblood of the Star-Tribune reported Friday that Butler had been cleared for contact drills, although it was one of several steps in his recovery.

“It’s him being ready to go,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I want him to have confidence in his body that he can go again. So, usually, what happens is you’re doing the on-court stuff. You start with non-contact. Then you phase in the contact and you build up. You start with one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three and then the five-on-five. And, after each step, you have to see how it responds the next day. So far it’s been pretty good.”

Competing in five-on-five work represents a significant step if he can make it through without setbacks.

Minnesota doesn’t return to the court for its next game until Thursday against the Denver Nuggets.

The Wolves are hoping to earn a playoff berth for the first time since 2004, but Butler’s injury has slowed them down. They are 8-8 since losing the four-time All-Star, falling to 44-34 on the season. Entering Monday, the team sits in the No. 7 slot but is just 1.5 games away from missing the playoffs altogether.

With four games separating the fourth-best and 10th-best teams in the Western Conference, nfl jerseys from china the final two weeks will be key.

Adding Butler—who leads the team with 22.2 points per game this year—back to the lineup could help Minnesota stay on the right side of the cutoff.

NBA JERSEYS

Is it the shoes? Color Michigan’s win streak pink

Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman has earned a nickname from his Michigan coaches and teammates, official nfl jerseys cheap thanks to his decision to unofficially incorporate a new color into his maize and blue uniform.

During the Wolverines’ semifinal against Loyola-Chicago on Saturday night, Abdur-Rahkman wore his hot-pink Jordan shoes, as expected. But he had some company. Duncan Robinson, Jaaron Simmons and C.J. Baird had on pink shoes too, and one had to wonder whether there was some inspiration or secret meaning behind the (pink) madness.

Baird explained the team received the pink shoes on Feb. 14 to wear against Iowa to raise awareness for breast cancer. Michigan won 74-59. It turns out that game was the start of the 14-game winning streak that has brought the Wolverines to the national championship game against Villanova.

So perhaps a good luck charm?

“We needed to come out and make a statement, show that we’re not on the downfall, and we need to start trending upward,” Baird said. “Iowa was a big part of that. We played great defensively, and I think that really set the tone for the rest of the year: ‘OK, we can really do this,’ and I think a lot of people — myself included — look at that night even with the pink shoes as kind of symbolic of the turning point of the season.”

That leads us back to highly superstitious basketball players. Even though nfl authentic jerseys cheap Simpson wants nothing to do with wearing pink shoes, he acknowledges a higher power could be at work for Abdur-Rahkman.

“He prefers the pink shoes because that’s just him,” Simpson said. “Hopefully, it can bring us some good luck tomorrow.”

NBA JERSEYS

The one night when this college basketball season made sense

When Villanova beat Michigan 79-62 in the national championship game on Monday night, nfl jerseys from china college basketball made sense for the first time all season.

A season of surprises and scandals that created chaos within the sport ended with the game’s most dependable and predictable product winning its second national title in three years. And with the bulk of Jay Wright’s squad eligible to return next season, Monday’s win might represent the next chapter for a dynasty.

In the title game, Donte DiVincenzo saved Villanova with his 31 points.

But Villanova did its part to salvage the sullied reputation of a sport gone awry in 2017-18 by producing the proper conclusion via the beautiful basketball that the season’s drama had overshadowed. Wright and the Wildcats wanted another championship.

The sport, however, needed a Villanova win to remind us that amid the wild times, what happens on the court is still the game’s centerpiece.

We weren’t sure of that in September.

The college basketball season usually commences each November with a series of attractive matchups designed to lure fans — both casual and devoted — to the sport’s official tipoff.

But the 2017-18 season began in September with Joon Kim, the acting U.S.official nfl jerseys cheap  Attorney for the Southern District of New York, standing at a dais and unveiling the details of a widespread bribery scandal that rocked college basketball.

NBA JERSEYS

Westbrook can’t do it all as Thunder drop Western Conference opportunity at San Antonio

Russell Westbrook crossed midcourt, Paul George flanking him on the wing, the Oklahoma City Thunder down three with 18 seconds left. nfl jerseys cheap china It was painstakingly obvious as to what was coming next; it was just a matter of how tough, how far and if this upcoming 3-point attempt went in or not.

Westbrook took a dribble to cut back to his left, clearing enough space from Patty Mills to launch. Westbrook knew it the second it left his hand, chasing after his shot as it missed everything and hit the baseline. Westbrook continued running, leaning onto the basket stanchion, slapping the padding. The San Antonio Spurs inbounded, hit some free throws, Paul George hit a 3, the Spurs hit some more free throws and that was it, a 103-99 loss as San Antonio seized control of the 4-seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

Two minutes earlier, Westbrook caught all air on another 3-pointer, this one with the Thunder down five. The play-by-play lists it as a 28-footer, but it felt more like a 48-footer, and came with five seconds left on the shot clock.

Westbrook loves late-clock shots, with his unflinching confidence often seeming to will the ball in the basket. This one didn’t have that outcome, and is the kind of shot that keeps Westbrook forever polarizing. He can take a defensive rebound and run 94 feet for a dunk in five seconds, but the call of the wild 3 is too much to turn down.

It put a cap on an ugly fourth quarter for the Thunder, with just 18 points, and Westbrook at the heart of it. He went 2-of-8 from the floor, and had two costly turnovers. He sat at his locker after the game in his full uniform, authentic nfl jerseys slouched deep into his chair, staring blankly at nothing in particular. He stood up, leaning over to grab his feet, and stood like that for a few seconds. The weight of the loss, and the aftermath of the misses, seemed to be hanging on Westbrook. But when asked if he looks back on them with any regret, Westbrook held serve.

“What do you think?” he said, his eyes blinking roughly 400 times, a classic Westbrook tell of annoyance. “You know me.”

NBA JERSEYS

Fantasy NBA Daily Notes: Motivation is a late-season monster

In yesterday’s “analytics advantage” section of Daily Notes, I highlighted the Thursday night game featuring the Milwaukee Bucks at the Golden State Warriors as one to watch for fantasy results. I mentioned how it was one of two games on the night featuring two teams in the playoff hunt, cheap nfl jerseys from china and that the other one (the San Antonio Spurs hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder) was likely to have a stronger defensive component and, thus, not as much fantasy production to go around.

The prediction turned out to be accurate, as the Bucks (116 points) and Warriors (107 points) combined for 223 points. Not only was that the highest combined point total of the night, but both teams individually scored more points than any of the other eight NBA teams that played on Thursday.

The Bucks are currently in the eighth slot in the East, but they still haven’t mathematically clinched the playoffs. They are only a game out of the sixth slot and still not mathematically eliminated from home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They are motivated to play, and their best player exemplifies that.

But he wasn’t the only one. Khris Middleton (23 points, 3 steals, 3 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 2 assists), Eric Bledsoe (20 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals) and Jabari Parker (14 points,nfl jerseys cheap china 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 3-pointers in 25 minutes off the bench) were all strong on Thursday as well.

The moral to the story, yet again, is that motivation is a monster at this time of year, and you can find examples to support this on a nightly basis.

NBA JERSEYS

Female assistant coaches have big presence in Final Four

The moment that coaching went from job to career for Niele Ivey came when Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw handed her youngest assistant an assignment to produce the lead scouting report for Tennessee in a 2011 regional final.nfl cheap jerseys Notre Dame hadn’t been to a Final Four since Ivey’s playing days a decade earlier. And no team, even UConn, was a bigger bugaboo for the Fighting Irish than Pat Summitt’s Lady Vols.

The adrenaline rush when she saw hours of work pay off on the court in Dayton, Ohio, a win that propelled Notre Dame to the first of six Final Fours in eight years, lingers even to this day.

“I can really do this,” recalled Ivey, now Notre Dame associate head coach. “I was already invested, but that took me to the next phase of my career.”

Dionnah Jackson-Durrett arrived at that moment sooner, roughly the time she first put on an Oklahoma Sooners uniform. Now in her second season as an assistant coach at Mississippi State, she helped the Sooners to their first Final Four in 2002. Even back then she wanted to give others what Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale offered her from the moment the coach promised the recruit nothing in the way of minutes and plenty in the way of work.

“She just communicated so well with me and talked to me about everything,” Jackson-Durrett said. “She prepared me every day, and it was hard some days.nfl jerseys cheap china I didn’t want to do it some days — not practicing, but being a point guard. The mental part of it, I didn’t think I had it. She instilled some confidence in me. That’s the kind of impact I wanted to have.

NBA JERSEYS

A technical foul and opportunity lost for Louisville

Two minutes, 42 seconds remained in regulation Friday night, in a Women’s Final Four semifinal that was going down to the final possession. Fuehring, cheap nfl jerseys from china Louisville’s 6-foot-2 junior forward, spent most of Friday night struggling to contain Mississippi State’s 6-foot-7 junior center Teaira McCowan, and Fuehring wasn’t happy about it. McCowan finished with 25 rebounds, 13 on the offensive glass, plus 21 points, carrying the Bulldogs to a 73-63 overtime victory while playing the full 45 minutes.

“I tried my hardest to keep her off the boards,” Fuehring said. “The refs were not calling anything in my favor so that did not help.”

McCowan is probably headed for a productive career in the WNBA, and nothing Fuehring tried worked. With Louisville trailing 54-53 and less than three minutes to play in regulation, Cardinals coach Jeff Walz told Fuehring to front McCowan. Mississippi State’s Victoria Vivians missed a jumper, and while Fuehring and McCowan tangled for rebounding position, Fuehring said McCowan shoved a forearm into her neck, snapping her head back and driving her to the floor. Whistle. Foul on Fuehring, her fourth.

“When I heard that call, I was confused,” Fuehring said. “I was frustrated. That’s when I slapped the floor.”

The technical foul call brought Walz scampering down the sideline from his bench, screaming at the officials. Morgan William, the best foul shooter in the Southeastern Conference, hit both for a 56-53 Bulldogs lead. Louisville, however, responded with the next six points before Mississippi State’s Roshunda Johnson, cutting open when the Cardinals were slow to foul, hit a tying 3-pointer with seven seconds to play.

The technical irked Walz as much as anything, on a maddening night that saw the Cardinals twice miss potential winning shots at the end of regulation, then shoot 1-for-10 from the field in overtime.

“I struggled with that call right there and then,” Walz said in the hallway outside the Louisville locker room at Nationwide Arena. “If she said something derogatory to the official, nfl cheap jerseys fine. But slapping the floor? How many technical fouls would the Duke men’s basketball team have had back about 15 years ago when they slapped the floor to be on defense? God forbid. So I struggled with that one.”

NBA JERSEYS

With an eye toward the future, Katelynn Flaherty running the show for Michigan

Not long after Michigan won the Women’s NIT championship last April, shooting guard Katelynn Flaherty strolled into coach Kim Barnes Arico’s office for the standard player/coach postseason meeting, looking ahead to next season.

The Wolverines were losing team captain and four-year starting point guard Siera Thompson to graduation, and Arico debated whether to entrust the job to incoming freshman Deja Church or someone else.nfl jerseys cheap nike In that meeting, Flaherty, a 2,000-point scorer heading into her senior year, surprised Arico by volunteering to replace Thompson.

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Arico was skeptical. Flaherty had been a point guard in high school in New Jersey, but this was the Big Ten — faster, more physical, with more on the line. Michigan needed Flaherty to score big to complement junior Hallie Thome inside, and asking Flaherty to do that while running the offense seemed too much. Arico knew this from personal experience as a guard at Montclair (New Jersey) State University in the early 1990s.

“Usually every time Katelynn sets her mind to something and has a plan,” Arico said, “she’s been able to reach that goal.”

It hasn’t been easy. Five times this season Flaherty committed eight or more turnovers in a game, with a season-high 10 in a Feb. 4 loss at Rutgers. Her assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.07 isn’t the greatest. But for the most part, cheap nike nfl jersey Flaherty found ways to score, distribute the ball and help the Wolverines win.

Shuttling between the point and the wing, she averaged 23.2 points per game, fifth-best nationally, while shooting 41.8 percent on 3-pointers. Earlier this season Flaherty surpassed Glen Rice as Michigan’s career scoring leader for men and women; she since pushed her total to 2,673 points. A three-time first-team All-Big Ten selection, Flaherty needs seven 3-pointers to join Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell as the only Division I women with 400 treys in a career.

NBA JERSEYS

UConn is favored in NCAA tournament, but BPI likes field

The world knows UConn is the favorite. But the Huskies’ edge is less than most might think.

ESPN’s brand-new Basketball Power Index (BPI) for women’s college basketball gives Geno Auriemma’s team a 37 percent chance to win this year’s NCAA tournament,nfl jerseys cheap authentic one year after the Huskies came up short in the Final Four. (You can read a little bit about the methodology behind our model here).

That would be overwhelmingly favorable odds for virtually any other team in any sport but for UConn? In women’s basketball? It’s … just 37 percent?

That’s more than double the next team’s chance to win — Notre Dame at 16 percent — but it probably doesn’t dull the shock value for the many who figure the Huskies hanging another banner this year is essentially a foregone conclusion.

So why is our model, relatively, down on the Huskies?71

Mainly: their draw. Though the top overall seed in this year’s field after a thus-far undefeated season earned the Huskies the top rank in Strength of Record, Auriemma’s team somehow managed to land reigning national champion and BPI’s sixth-ranked team South Carolina in its region. While UConn has virtually no chance of losing its first couple of games, its road gets considerably tougher at the Elite Eight stage. The Huskies have “only” a 78 percent chance of beating the Gamecocks, and waiting for them in the Final Four is likely Notre Dame,nike nfl jerseys cheap the second-best team in Division I, per BPI.

Though there’s a solid chance that the Irish and Huskies would have squared off no matter where they were located in the bracket, being on the same side of the Final Four puts the likelihood of them meeting at 42 percent. It would be the fifth time they have met in the national semifinals, with Notre Dame winning three of the previous four meetings.

NBA JERSEYS

Steven Adams’ Hip Injury Diagnosed as Contusion; Won’t Return vs. Kings

Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams suffered a left hip contusion in Monday’s game against the Sacramento Kings at Chesapeake Energy Arena and, according to Royce Young of ESPN, is unable to return.

He had six points,cheap nfl nike jerseys china six rebounds and two blocks in 23 minutes before coming out with the injury.24

Adams missed a handful of games last season because of a concussion and calf contusion, but neither injury proved significant.

That’s good news for the Thunder, who have watched him develop into one of the league’s premier two-way bigs.

So far this season, Adams is averaging a career-high 13.8 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks while shooting 63.5 percent from the field with the paint more open following the arrivals of swingmen Carmelo Anthony and Paul George.

“It should be one point for Steven and one point for Carmelo. One point for Steve,nfl nike jersey cheap one point for Paul,” head coach Billy Donovan said, according to Young in December. “It’s a team. I think you all benefit from each other when you’re out there on the floor and playing the right way.”

Now that Adams is banged up again, Donovan will be forced to consider alternate plans.

In the meantime, Patrick Patterson should do some heavy lifting as a small-ball 5 when the Thunder want to space the floor without a traditional big man in the middle. Dakari Johnson could also pick up extra minutes at center.