Benutzer stellen sich vor » challenge into May, and a haul that would show

OAKLAND, Calif. Cheap Rangers Jerseys Authentic . -- By the time reporters were allowed in the visiting locker room at Oracle Arena late Monday night, most of the Philadelphia 76ers already had cleared out. The television in the centre of the room was turned off. There were no box scores from the game on players chairs -- which is typical after most NBA games -- and there were no smiles to be had by anybody. After losing by a total of 88 points on consecutive nights in California, the 76ers just want to forget what happened. "Not going to turn on TV or read the papers," forward Evan Turner said. Marreese Speights scored a career-high 32 points to hand his former team a near-record setback, leading the Golden State Warriors past the woeful 76ers 123-80. Philadelphia nearly matched the NBA mark for the largest total margin of defeat in consecutive games. The Detroit Pistons lost by 95 points combined in back-to-back games in November 1966, according to STATS. "Its hard for everybody," Sixers coach Brett Brown said. "The reality of it is they have put in so much time and despite all the turmoil, its a group thats been together, stayed together. At times, you look up and you have to keep going and keep on playing with some level of dignity, and its hard doing that." After losing 123-78 at the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night in a game it trailed by 56 points in the third quarter, Philadelphia (15-38) figured it couldnt get much worse. It almost did. Speights finished 12-of-15 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds, and Stephen Curry added 23 points and eight assists to help the Warriors go ahead by 49 in the fourth quarter. "It was a thing of beauty," Golden State coach Mark Jackson said. Michael Carter-Williams scored 24 points, and Turner and Thaddeus Young had 12 points apiece for a rebuilding 76ers team that never put up much of a fight during its seventh straight loss. No other team in NBA history has lost two straight games by at least 40 points each. Philadelphia has now done it twice. The 76ers lost back-to-back games in April 1994 by a combined 93 points, and theyre struggling to explain -- and correct -- what has gone so wrong during this latest stretch. "You just look up at the scoreboard and see a lot of points. I really dont know," Turner said. "Were in the game at one point. We were down by like 10, and then the next thing you know it popped up to like 25 or 30." Philadelphia finishes a three-game road trip Wednesday night at Utah before heading into an All-Star break that cant come soon enough. Golden State outshot the Sixers 48.9 per cent to 36.7 per cent and outrebounded them 60-38 despite playing without centre Andrew Bogut (left shoulder injury) and backup centre Jermaine ONeal (sore right wrist). David Lee, who had missed the past two games with a sprained left shoulder and strained left hip, had 13 points and 13 rebounds in 31 minutes. Brown said before the game that he was happy his team had a chance to quickly atone for its horrendous showing in Los Angeles. Instead, the 76ers had another embarrassing performance. As if Philadelphias miserable two-day stretch wasnt bad enough, it was capped off by one of its former draft picks. Speights spent his first 2 1/2 seasons in Philadelphia before getting traded to Memphis. He split last season between Memphis and Cleveland before signing with the Warriors as a free agent last summer. The reserve big man made his first seven jumpers, including a 3-pointer and a layup through traffic that started a three-point play, to give Golden State a 47-27 lead midway through the second quarter. "They got real hot," Carter-Williams said. On his eighth attempt, Speights missed a 26-footer that had nearly everybody in the announced sellout crowd of 19,596 waiting to roar before it caromed off the rim. Speights left to a standing ovation before the Warriors went ahead 66-33 at halftime. Some fans even serenaded Speights with chants of "M-V-P!" after he began another three-point play in the third quarter that stretched Golden States lead to 92-48. "That was so funny. I started laughing," Speights said. "At least they still have trust in me, so its always good to have fans on your side." The defeat couldve been much worse, too. Jackson put in most of his reserves before the fourth quarter, though the highlights didnt stop from one of them. Speights made a step-back jumper to put Golden State up 107-58 with 9:41 to play before leaving to another ovation with 3:02 left. Brown kept most of his starters in until the final minutes to slice the deficit down a little. "Dont anybody feel sorry for us," Brown said. "We will wake up and be (OK) tomorrow." NOTES: The Warriors swept the season series against the 76ers for the first time since the 2007-08 season. ... Sixers reserve Hollis Thompson missed the game with a sprained right ankle. ... The league announced Monday that Curry received the NBAs Kia Community Assist Award for January for his generosity and ongoing charitable efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area. Wholesale Rangers Jerseys .com) - Sporting Kansas City announced Thursday that club has signed former on-loan midfielder Jimmy Medranda to a permanent contract from Colombian side Deportivo Pereira. Cheap Adidas Rangers Jerseys .Y. -- The Detroit Red Wings had just enough time to salvage a point. http://www.cheapnewyorkrangersjerseys.com/ . -- Creighton apparently has Villanovas number.Britains national weather service announced this week they had suffered their wettest winter ever. Yet, when Arsenals players woke up on Saturday morning, the calendar had turned to March and the sun was shining. In Stoke, of all places. The white ball was back, a sign that the harshest conditions were behind us, but also a stark reality that the final stretch of the season was now here. Arsenals journey, in the marathon that is the Premier League season, had so far been a success with them spending much of the race out in front. Many onlookers expected them to hit a wall but here they were in March, now, and the only thing remotely looking like a wall was a brief meltdown as they passed through the red half of Merseyside last month. Four points against Manchester United and Sunderland, plus a win over Liverpool in the FA Cup, had put them back on track, sprinting into March with more and more believing they could be the first across the line when their race is run in Norwich on May 11. Yet, still there were the non-believers. "They have always been an outstanding team and they have great ability within their ranks," said Stoke manager Mark Hughes on Friday before going on to tell us what he really thinks: "but I just felt maybe they wouldnt have the ability to sustain a challenge. I think there are possibly stronger challengers, stronger teams that could take it away from them." Arsenals match with Stoke was only one of 38 encounters that will define their league season but given the time of the year and their history with this opponent, it felt much more than that. It proved to be a test they failed miserably. The result went against them, losing 1-0, as did the decisions, a questionable penalty call and a missed red card for Stokes Charlie Adam amongst them, but if Arsenal want the jury to make a decision on whether they are genuine title contenders, this would not be evidence theyd want to present them. The Gunners were unimaginative in attack, too narrow and slow in tempo. They lacked the creative brilliance that has so often helped them this season and the sharpness in possession. As often happens when they struggle going forward, they look to have too many similar players; ball treasurers who demand it and flock towards it. Oh, how they missed a Theo Walcott, someone in attack who can sprint on to a ball rather than run towards it. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who is showing he will one day be a fine player, offered this in all-too-brief substitute appearance late on. Stoke, of course, deserved credit for defending well and it should be noted that Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City have also not won there this season, but the concerns for Arsenal didnt start and end with the final result. "Its a defeat that hurts," said Wenger after the match. He added: "The consequences of this defeat could be very difficult to take and we will have to respond very quickly." Wenger is not a man that allows a conclusion to be reached based on one game but the choice of consequence as a word shows he has a concern that the league challenge could slip away. Arsenal ended the day in third place on 59pts after 28 games, four points off leaders Chelsea. On this same weekend four years ago, Wenger also met with the media at the Brittania Stadium after his team had won 3-1 against Stoke (to this day their only victory there in eight attempts). It was a sad day for the Frenchman after Aaron Ramsey had broken his leg but, despite being visibly angry and upset, Wenger admitted that he felt his team was very much in the title race after the win. Cheap Rangers Jerseys China. Arsenal ended that day in third place on 58pts after 28 games, three points off leaders Chelsea. Arsenal faded down the stretch, going from an average of 2.07 points per game (PPG) to 1.70 in the last ten games, with 17 added to 58 to give them a total of 75. They finished third, 11pts back of winners Chelsea and they were out of the race with a month to go. Two years earlier, on this weekend during the 2007-08 season, Arsenal led the league with 10 games to go, sitting on 65pts to Manchester Uniteds 64 and Chelseas 61. At the end of the season, United won the title on 87pts (23 in their last 10 games), Chelsea finished second on 85pts (24 in their last 10 games) and Arsenal finished third on 83pts, going from an average of 2.32 PPG to 1.80 PPG (18pts in their last 10 games). With 10 games remaining in the 2010-11 season, Arsenal were second on 57pts, just three points off leaders Manchester United. Once again they faded down the stretch, going from an average of 2.04 PPG to 1.10 PPG, achieving just 11pts in their last 10 games to with a total of 68, in fourth, and 12pts back of winners Manchester United.Arsenal hit their wall while the best got stronger. 2009-10 -- Chelsea 25pts from a possible 302010-11 -- Manchester United 20pts from a possible 30 That is the nightmare scenario that Arsenal fans are concerned about happening again. The fixture list will ensure the Gunners will have their answer to this by early April. Of their last 10 league games, the four most difficult happen next - Tottenham (a), Chelsea (a), Man City (h), Everton (a) with the first three all happening this month, which also includes a trip to Bayern Munich and an FA Cup match against Everton. Talk about March Madness. After that, Swansea, West Ham, Newcastle and West Brom all come to the Emirates while Hull and Norwich welcome the Gunners. Last season, Arsenal achieved just 13pts from these 10 games (using Hull as Reading) losing at Tottenham, Chelsea and Norwich and at home to Man City and Swansea. It is their difficulties against these teams, coupled with their recent history, as title contenders through 28 games, that leads many to believe Arsenals pursuit of the finish line will fade quickly. Ironically, last season they ended the season extremely strongly, gaining 28pts from a possible 30 to qualify for the Champions League. Unfortunately, for them, at this time last season, they were already 24pts behind leaders Manchester United. In the nine seasons since Arsenal last won the Premier League, the average number of points achieved by the champions in the last 10 matches has been 22, with the lowest being 19 coming by two teams who were running away with the league - Chelsea of 2004-05 and Manchester United last season. Should Arsenal get 22pts from their last 10 games, that would give them 80pts, perhaps not enough to win the title but, likely, enough to maintain their challenge into May, and a haul that would show significant improvement considering they havent gotten over the 75. Arsenal players and fans are regularly told they have not won a trophy in eight years and, soon, that needs to change but, above all else, Arsenal finally need to be relevant title contenders into May, no matter who wins the league. Recent history suggests even that moderate, achievable goal could be beyond them. Upon the marathons completion, we wont just know if Arsenal were worthy title contenders, we will know if they were much better than their unsuccessful teams of the recent past. ' ' '