Die Macht » the lead-up to Rio. Or wor

A week ago, the Orlando Magic were in dire straits.The team was struggling at 3-5, dropping two after winning three games in a row. Their supposed defensive identity was falling apart as they ranked 29th in the league in defensive rating, giving up 109.0 points per 100 possessions. With one of the worst offenses in the league too and the worst field-goal shooting to boot, the Magic were sinking fast.Magic coach Frank Vogel took the drastic change of sending prized youngster Aaron Gordon to the bench in favor of veteran Jeff Green, hoping to add some stability. The results were not immediate, and that change may not be the root cause, but something happened for the Magic in the week since.In four games, the Magic defense has suddenly come alive. Orlando has given up 96.1 points per 100 possessions in the past week, the sixth best in the league in that time. They have risen from 29th in defensive efficiency to a much more respectable 15th overall.Defense has taken hold.We are creating habits, Evan Fournier said after practice Friday. Its not second nature yet. But we are definitely creating habits. It is encouraging. But on both ways. We have good players offensively as well. We have times where we really move the ball and find the open shooter. At times we do it, but we have to be more consistent. It is obvious we are getting better.The Magics offense remains much more of a work in progress than the defense at this point. But they have held three of their last four opponents to less than 90 points and have held opponents to worse than 40 percent shooting in the past two games. That helps the offense do just enough to win games -- two of the past three.Orlando has slowly begun to formulate a defensive identity that has propelled the team to five wins despite its anemic offense.The Dallas Mavericks are in much the same boat, without the same kind of success.Dallas has just two following an 80-64 home loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. The Mavericks have seen injuries hit the teams roster hard. Deron Williams, Devin Harris and Dirk Nowitzki have all missed time so far this season.Both Nowitzki and Williams will miss Saturdays game in Orlando, in addition to sitting out Fridays home game against the Grizzlies, coach Rick Carlisle said Friday.(Nowitzki is) making progress, but were going to be cautious and were going to be smart about it, Carlisle told Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas. Hes played hurt a lot in his career. This situation is different, though. Were early in the year. Theres something that has hung around that needs to be addressed and be expunged, so were working on it.Harrison Barnes and Wesley Matthews have had to carry the offensive load. And have struggled to do so. The Mavericks shot 28.8 percent from the floor in Fridays loss, the lowest single-game field-goal percentage in the NBA this season.But like the Magic, the Mavericks have thrived on defense while struggling on offense. Dallas has the second worst field goal percentage in the league at 41.8 percent entering the game (the Magic are last at 40.8 percent).That defense has not translated to wins yet though.Both teams have had to settle into the season, integrate new pieces and discover their identity. Injuries have hurt the Mavericks offense while their defense has played well enough to keep them in most games. The Magic appear to be rounding into form.Wholesale Air Max 270 Black . 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Jefferson has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend.RIO DE JANEIRO -- On a night in which Michael Phelps became the first Olympic swimmer to win an event for the fourth consecutive time, a night he squashed the competition by nearly two seconds and then 37 minutes later swam the semifinals of a different race, it was perhaps the fight he had atop the medal stand that was his greatest challenge.For all these years, Phelps has always maintained his stoic, machine-like poker face when gold is draped around his neck. Especially on a night when he still had another race. These had been the directives from U.S. coach Bob Bowman. When you hear The Star-Spangled Banner, start stoking that fire for the next race. Maintain your focus. Thursday night that proved impossible.As the American flag was raised to the rafters of the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Phelps eyes watered. He pursed his lips. He took one deep breath. Then another. And yet another, trying anything he could to swat away the waves of emotion that were coming over him. He failed.Every time I hear the national anthem there are so many memories going through my head now, he said. And pretty much every time I hear it Im in tears. I was trying to hold it back tonight and I couldnt.Barring an unforeseen comeback, Phelps career is down to two events. He has one more individual race -- Friday nights 100-meter butterfly -- and then the 4x100 medley relay to close out the meet Saturday. And with each step closer to the end, he pulls down shade after shade to reveal the human that has lived within this swimming robot all along.Thats the first time hes ever done that, Bowman said of Phelps emotion on the stand. But that was nice to see, actually. I liked that.If Tuesday nights win in the 200 butterfly was about redemption and regaining ownership of a race he had long felt belonged to him, Thursday nights gold in the 200 individual medley was confirmation that Phelps is not only the greatest of all time but the greatest in the water right now. At 31.It had been billed as him vs. fellow American Ryan Lochte, the two most decorated Olympic male swimmers in history, one last time. Swimmings version of Manning vs. Brady. But on this night, as it had been the previous three Olympics and four Olympic trials, Lochte couldnt top his rival and friend. Not even close. Lochte, 32, led halfway through the race, but on the breaststroke leg -- supposedly Phelps weakest stroke -- Phelps transformed a hundredths-of-a second deficit into a nearly half-second lead.He then put the pedal to the floor on the final 50 meters, the freestyle leg. The final margin of victory over Japans Kosuke Hagino? Nearly two seconds, an outcome Bowman said he never saw coming but became possible when Phelps broke his competition during the breaststroke.I thought they would go out fast and someone would hold on, Bowman said. I think he surprised them a little bit.Phelps time of 1:54.66 was the fastest in the world this year and only 0.66 seconds off Lochtes 5-year-old world record. It was yet another reminder -- as if it were needed -- of Phelps utter dominance. Bring your shadowboxing Chad le Clos. Bring Lochte, the guy who perhaps could have been Phelps had he been born in a different era. Bring Thiago Pereira, Brazils most popular swimmerr.dddddddddddd Have the race in the heartbeat of Brazil, with fans chanting THIAGO! THIAGO! THIAGO! It wont matter. Phelps will still crush them all.And when its over, the rest of the field will largely be left dazed and confused. On Tuesday it was le Clos, who finally spoke Thursday afternoon and called his loss to Phelps in the much-hyped 200 fly the worst performance of my career. Later Thursday, it was Lochte, confessing, It just wasnt good enough.This is the ending Phelps has done everything he could to script since coming back in 2014. Burned by the bitter taste in his mouth after a relatively disappointing performance in London, he promised to do Rio the right way. It wasnt even about the medals -- he walked away from 2012 with four golds and two silvers, after all. It was about recommitting himself to swimming and falling in love with the sport all over again. And it just so happens that the reward for that unwavering, never-miss-a-practice commitment has been a nearly perfect performance in Rio.I feel like a kid again, and thats the difference, Phelps said. I feel like I did when I was 18. That was the only way to get back and race at this level consistently.There are those who surely have flipped on their television this week and basked in the red, white and blue glory that is Phelps winning gold after gold. They, like Phelps himself, are without adjectives to describe what they are watching. All they know is when he dives in the water he is as certain to touch the wall before anyone else as the sun is to rise in the East.But lost in that perfect outcome is the work it took to get there. It wasnt always this way. When Phelps first returned to training in 2014, he lost sets to female teammates in training. He finished ninth in the 200 freestyle at a May 2014 Grand Prix meet in Charlotte, North Carolina. And just this past June in an Olympic trials tuneup meet in Austin, Texas, he finished fourth in the 200 free and second in the 100 butterfly.There are multiple times where I can recall I said, What the hell am I doing swimming again? Im so slow. This is terrible. Whats going on? Phelps said. I was frustrated. But I just had to trust Bob. He hasnt let me down once, so I didnt think hed let me down now.Added Bowman: It isnt because of the talent; its the work. The work is what did it -- particularly this time around.Work like extra sets on breaststroke, which Bowman specifically fine-tuned in the lead-up to Rio. Or work like not missing a single training session after finishing a 45-day stint at a behavioral rehabilitation center in November 2014.Combine that with the unparalleled talent and a competitive fire that Michael Jordan himself would respect, and youre left with the greatest Olympian of all time putting on one final show for the world to see.The biggest thing for me so far is Ive been able to finish how I wanted to, Phelps said. Ive been able to come back and accomplish things that I dreamt of. Being able to win my fourth 200 IM in a row? I dont know how to put that into words. Its been a very, very special week so far for closing out my career. ' ' '