Dein erstes Forum » Beveridge has just written himself a ticket to yea

In two games under new head coach Tom Thibodeau, the Minnesota Timberwolves held early double-digit leads only to watch those leads turn into losses.The first such instance came against the Memphis Grizzlies, who come to Target Center on Tuesday for Minnesotas home opener. The Timberwolves held an early 17-point lead in the first game of the season at Memphis. The Grizzlies, however, fought back to give David Fizdale his first NBA head coaching win.Minnesota also squandered a big lead Saturday in Sacramento, falling to the Kings after being up by 18 in the first half. Its been a bumpy start to the Thibodeau era as his young team figures out how to close out games.The third quarter was a problem, a big problem, Thibodeau told the Minneapolis Star Tribune after the loss to Sacramento. We have to get a lot tougher. Thats what I see.Memphis is 2-1 entering Tuesdays game, and its season-opening win over Minnesota was sparked by a 24-point effort from guard Mike Conley.After falling behind big early, Memphis outscored the young Wolves 52-39 in the second half to help Fizdale earn his first win.I was squirming on the inside, Fizdale told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. But I knew our team had big-time jitters. Our energy was really good.Now those same two teams face off for the second time in less than one week after also meeting in the preseason -- a matchup Minnesota won.Last weeks season opener came down to the final minute, with the Grizzlies making their free throws down the stretch to fend off the Timberwolves. Making shots from the free throw line is an issue for Minnesota in its first two games; the Wolves shot 69 percent at the line against Memphis and 71 percent in a three-point loss to Sacramento.Since that win over the Wolves, the Grizzlies lost to the Knicks on the road, 111-104, before beating the Wizards by nine at home. Conley was the steady hand in Memphis two wins. He scored a team-high 24 against Washington in the overtime win.That win came after Fizdale tweaked his starting lineup, giving James Ennis and Jarell Martin the start. That new look helped the Grizzlies get out to a fast start, something they didnt do in their previous two games.It remains to be seen which lineup Fizdale will go with against Minnesota on Tuesday.The Timberwolves, meanwhile, hope to have a large lead once again -- as long as theyre able to hold onto it for Thibodeaus first win in Minnesota.We lost two games already. We just try to win, Timberwolves fourth-year guard Zach LaVine told the Star Tribune. Thats all that matters to me right now. We invest a lot of stuff this summer to try and get better. The time is now. Cheap Air Max 97 Rose China . -- Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Farmar will be out for roughly four weeks after tearing his left hamstring. Nike Air Max 97 On Sale .C. -- Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Bobcats got off to a fast start, and the Sacramento Kings were never quite able to catch up. http://www.cheapairmax97fromchina.com/cheap-air-max-97-white-china/ . Already owning gold from competition in Vancouver in 2010, Loch posted a combined four-run time of 3:27.526. That included a track-record third run of 51. Cheap Air Max 97 Yellow China . At a Manhattan federal court hearing, attorney Jordan Siev said his law office has gotten more evidence nearly every day to support its lawsuit accusing MLB and Selig of going on a "witch hunt" to ruin Rodriguezs reputation and career. He said the defendants went "way over the line. Cheap Air Max 97 All Red China . - The Washington Redskins have cut defensive lineman Adam Carriker and punter Sav Rocca. In so many ways, the Western Bulldogs and Luke Beveridge have smashed the mould that tells us what to expect of AFL premiership teams.Beveridge entered the 2016 finals with hardly any of the KPIs that have come to be gospel in footy circles.For instance:1. The Dogs did not have enough experience, so it seemed. The team that won the preliminary and grand finals averaged 81 games per player, a ridiculously low number. Outside of the crusty veterans, Matthew Boyd and Dale Morris, and a 176-game player in Liam Picken, they were callow youth, with nine players having logged fewer than 50 games. Hawthorn in 2015 had players averaging 167 games.You needed to delve back to Adelaides 1997 outfit to find a less-experienced premiership team, the Crows coming in at 73 games per player. This explains why the Dogs were so nervous on grand final day. Or not!2. Beveridges team came from seventh place, which we know is unheard of. In the 23 years the AFL has had a top-eight finals system, no one has done it from there, or even reached the grand final before. Since the current finals configuration was adopted in 2000, the Bulldogs are the first to win from outside the top four. The reasons for that are simple: it requires winning four finals (and in the Bulldogs case, two of them interstate). The only previous team to win four finals, Adelaide in 1997, did it under the previous finals system.The conventional wisdom, spouted year-after-year, is that you have to finish top-four to win the flag. Its just been blown out of the water.3. The Bulldogs are not a high-scoring team. In the era of Alastair Clarksons Hawthorn, and following on from Bomber Thompsons Geelong, it has been accepted thought that you needed to be a heavy-scorer, probably in the top-four rankings, to win a flag. Hawthorn in their three consecutive flags, were No.1 every time. Fox Footys much-hyped premiership standard suggests a premiership team needs to score at least 100 points a game and concede fewer than 86 points, for example.But in the regular season, the Bulldogs were 12th in scoring with an average of 86 points per game. It is the lowest scoring rank of a premiership team since Paul Roos remarkably strong 2005 Sydney team, which defended so well and was 14th in points-for that season, eventually winning a premiership with eight goals on a picture-perfect afternoon.The key here is that when it counted, and when they plaayed their best footy, the Dogs found a way to score an extra two goals a game in the finals: from the regular-season average of 84 points to 96 points.dddddddddddd They conjured 14, 16, 13 and 13 goals in the big games, and continued to defend at the same rate (73 points per match). They did enough, albeit with an unconventional forward set-up with only one genuine tall (Tom Boyd), and with the seasons top goalkicker, Jake Stringer, having a stinker on grand final day.4. They did not spend big. Aside from the front-ended Tom Boyd contract, the Bulldogs have bucked the trend with football department spending, too. According to reports this week, they will be the first team in many years to win a flag without being in the top handful of clubs for football department spending, which counts player wages as well as coaching and other football costs. Beveridge has worked a miracle in this sense, for the whole point of the recently-introduced tax on this spending was based on the premise that the wealthy clubs were getting a clear advantage. So much for that theory.The lesson from all this? It is that there is hope. The Bulldogs were 14th in 2014, a short two years ago, which shows that with good coaching (and Beveridge has just written himself a ticket to years in this job), excellent recruiting (Simon Dalrymple and list manager Jason McCartney might be excused for the odd head-wobble this week) and smart development, a team can make quick strides.Fifteen of the 22 players who took the field on Saturday were taken after pick No.30 in the draft - an astonishing return on a modest investment. In the overall scheme of things at Whitten Oval, Dalrymple, the recruiting chief, has proved himself almost as valuable as the coach. Almost.All of these factors trump the idea that extracting early picks in the draft, which is fluky at best, are the key to improvement. Rather, the Bulldogs found organic growth from existing players like Picken, perhaps the most improved player in the competition and certainly the player of the finals, and from Jason Johannisen, a rookie. And, of course, they nailed the picks that they had Not to mention the great intangible of sports the world wide ... they had self-belief and it was never, ever shaken.Why not us? Why not, indeed. ' ' '