Das Jahr 2008 » have taken. It is just a precaution.Ak

ORLANDO, Fla. -- After giving up a 12-point halftime lead, the Orlando Magic recovered with enough baskets and key stops down the stretch to grind out a big win.Serge Ibaka scored 16 points and Nikola Vucevic broke out of his shooting slump with 10 points and 14 rebounds to help lift the Magic to an 89-82 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night.After Terrence Jones basket pulled New Orleans to 84-82, Vucevic made back-to-back shots in the waning moments for the win.We are going to keep fighting, keep trying to find a way, said Vucevic, who finished 10 points and 14 rebounds. Were not playing really good basketball right now, its not easy to get stuff going and get into the flow but we just have to find ways to get wins until we figure that out.At times in the second half it appeared the Magic were headed to a second straight defeat as their offense tanked and they couldnt get stops against Pelicans team that found out late that Anthony Davis wouldnt be available because of a thigh injury.Jones, who replaced Davis in the starting lineup, scored a game-high 26 points for the Pelicans.Jones had 12 points in the third quarter to help the Pelicans comeback from a 12-point first-half deficit to pull within one point late in the period. The Magic held on to a 65-63 lead at the end of the third.New Orleans completed its comeback with 9:23 in the game when Buddy Hield knocked down a baseline jumper to put his team up briefly 70-69. But Augustin and Rudez countered with a combined 10 points during a stretch to put the Magic back ahead, 79-73.The Magic shot just 39 percent from the field with all of the starters struggling to hit shots consistently. But without Davis in the lineup, the Pelicans offense was stagnant at times, too, and finished shooting 37 percent. Serge Ibaka and Evan Fournier led the way with 16 points each.We talked the whole night that nothing is easy in the NBA, Magic coach Frank Vogel said. Its just one of those things where one guy goes down and everybody else has an opportunity. You are going to work and earn everything.After a sluggish start, the Magic got going in the second quarter. They came up with stops and Ibaka and Fournier both hit big shots to build Orlandos lead to 15 before heading into halftime with a 52-40 advantage.Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry was pleased to see his team fight the way it did in Davis absence but he still felt they let a winnable game slip away.I thought our defense was fantastic, played the whole game, said Gentry, whose team slipped to 2-10. You just have to find a way offensively to get a few baskets.TIP-INSPelicans: Langston Galloway, a free agent signee last summer, followed up his breakout game against Boston on Monday with 15 points off the bench against the Magic. He scored 21 points against the Celtics. ... The Pelicans came in having lost two of three.Magic: Vucevic came in shooting 5 for 32 from field in the Magics last three games and had not attempted a free throw in any of the three games. ... Jeff Green has struggled since being inserted into the starting lineup for Aaron Gordon. Green went 0 for 9 from the field for zero points on Wednesday night.ANOTHER JONES DOUBLE-DOUBLE (ALMOST)After not getting 10 rebounds in any of his 50 games with Houston last season, Jones came one rebound short of his second straight double-double. Jones had 15 and 10 off the bench Monday in a win over Boston.COLD STARTSThe Magic came into the game as the NBAs lowest-scoring (92.6) and worst-shooting (.410) team, and missed their first five shots while the Pelicans were missing their first eight. Orlando shot .386 for the game to New Orleans .370.UP NEXTPelicans: Host Portland on Friday night.Magic: Host Dallas on Saturday night. The Magic have lost nine of the last 10 at home to the Mavericks. Wholesale NHL Jerseys Online .C. Lions has come to an end. Banks told TSN on Jan 2 that he had no interest in playing out the option year of his contract with the Lions in 2014, and he again made that clear in a conversation with Lions GM Wally Buono last week. Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys . The International Olympic Committee released the official list of bid cities on Friday after the deadline for applications had passed. The candidates -- all previously announced in their own countries -- are: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; Oslo, Norway; and Stockholm. http://www.cheapnhlcustomjerseys.com/ . Scott Kazmir allowed four hits in seven shutout innings, Michael Brantley hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning and the Indians maintained their hold on an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. Fake Adidas NHL Jerseys . PAUL, Minn. Authentic NHL Jerseys Cheap .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again. BENGALURU --- When the womens 4x400m relay quartet of Nirmala Sheoran, Tintu Luka, MR Poovamma and Anilda Thomas booked Indias berth at the Rio Olympics during the Indian Grand Prix in Bengaluru earlier this month, one of their teammates would have been forgiven for pumping her fist harder than others.At 28, Ashwini Akkunji is raring to have her first go at the Olympics. More than that, it would be a shot at redemption for her.I come from an agricultural family in a small village called Jansale, Udupi district (in Karnataka), and in my childhood days I used to run in school, Akkunji says. My father always encouraged me about sports. The foundation of my career in sport was when I went to a sports school in Bangalore.Starting out as a sprinter, the young Akkunji tried her hand at 800m as well, before settling on the 400m, encouraged by her father, who observed how her lanky frame and stride-length gave her a natural advantage.However, it would take a few years, until the preparations for a seminal year in 2010 which brought her in touch with Russian coach Yuri Ogorodnik, that Akkunji began a purple patch in her career.The year 2010 was really amazing, because I got a very good opportunity to train under Yuri and the 4X400m relay team; the seniors were really good back then, Akkunji says of a phase when she helped India to relay golds in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and the Guangzhou Asian Games, besides bagging the 400m hurdles gold in the latter.I learnt a lot of things from my seniors, truly speaking, because they guided me. They told me things about running and also encouraged me a lot.A dark phase was to follow, when Akkunji and two of her relay teammates were among seven athletes who tested positive for anabolic steroids just prior to an Asian Championship in Japan the following year. Akkunjis voice chokes when recalling the two-year ban that followed.Those two years, emotionally and personally as well, were the hardest of my life, Akkunji says. My morale had really gone down. If my life had been normal then, I could have won gold medal. People used to humiliate us; I know it was a difficult situation. Life was entirely different, between 2010 and 2014.The ban was lifted 2013, and her first competitive race only took place the following June at the Inter-State Championship in Lucknow. Running the 400m hurdles, she beat her closest competitor by almost nine seconds in her heat. She then clinched the goold with a timing that broke the existing meet record -- held by Jauna Murmu, ironically one of her former colleagues who was also handed out a ban in 2011.ddddddddddddShe was ready for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, though this time the Indian team would fall way short of defending the crown they picked up in Delhi, finishing fifth in their heat. In two months time, Akkunji sat out as her younger teammates smashed the existing Asian Games record -- recorded by Akkunji and her team in 2010 -- on their way to the relay gold in Incheon.Akkunji stresses the importance of educating athletes about what they are ingesting, while pointing out an inherent flaw in the Indian drug-testing system.We dont have any specialised lab here to test. If anyone is taking something, we dont know what we are taking. We (athletes) are not manufacturers; at least we should have one specialist lab where we can test whatever we have taken. It is just a precaution.Akkunji also demands greater accountability from the nutritional supplements industry, possibly because there were rumours at the time of her ban that the banned substances had been introduced into the athletes due to supplements given by their coaches.The supplements industry is just a money-making enterprise. They dont think about athletes. But as athletes, we have to take supplements. Our physical capacity is not that much; we have to train and we need recovery.We cant say daal, chawal, roti?(pulses, rice and bread) and youll be an Olympic medallist. I dont think so; it would be foolishness. If daal, chawal, roti?was the diet of champions, every man on the street would be a medallist. Everybody is different and we have to think about recovery, diet, and everything.Akkunjis eyes light up when asked about the prospects of the relay team in Rio. Our team is really good for the Olympics. Two of the girls are from PT Ushas academy, one of the girls, Nirmala (Sheoran), is from Haryana; shes a really young girl. And we also have (MR) Poovamma, Anilda (Thomas), Debashree (Majumdar) and me.?People can say anything, but the 4x400m girls will always come in medal reckoning. New girls, anybody, (even) if I am not there, any of the other girls...the 4x400m team is always going to win in Asia and the next Commonwealth Games also. Were going to get medals. ' ' '