n but it could hav

NEW ORLEANS -- Dwight Howard sat calmly in his locker and spoke softly, but with cutting tone as he ripped into his team for what he saw as a lack of effort. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . "I look at guys and they dont look like they want to play," Howard said following Orlandos surprisingly lopsided 93-67 loss to a New Orleans Hornets team that came into Friday nights meeting on a nine-game skid. "I told them at halftime, If you dont want to play, just stay in the locker room, because it dont make sense for a team who we should beat to just demolish us." Howard had 28 points and 16 rebounds, but was the only player in double figures in any statistic for the Magic, who continued to slump after blowing a 27-point lead to Boston a night earlier. Starting with the third quarter against the Celtics, the Magic have now gone six straight quarters without scoring 20 points in any of them. "It hurts to get out there and you play your hardest and you expect everybody to play the same way, and Im not calling anybody out by no means because we all have to get better ... but if you dont want to be out there, dont dress up," Howard said. "If you dont want to play, stay home. People work too hard. I want to win a championship. I work too hard every night for anybody to not want to go out there and play hard. ... "None of the -- whatever, trade stuff -- none of that stuff matters. Play basketball. Thats why we all get paid to do this, because we love the game and its basketball, so why not give it your all?" Carl Landry led New Orleans with 17 points, while Marco Belinelli added 15 points and Jason Smith 14. Jarrett Jack added 11 points and nine assists for New Orleans, which won for only the fourth time this season against 15 losses. "Any time you hold team like that to 67 points, you get excited about the fight and character of our team," Hornets coach Monty Williams said. "I hope our fans understand this transition hasnt been easy. We have a ways to go ... but when Im in that locker room, in those huddles and the guys are supporting one another, out there fighting for each other, the way they played tonight, it makes the prospects for the future of our organization look bright." The Hornets won without 7-foot centre Chris Kaman, who was asked to stay home while the team tries to trade him, general manager Dell Demps said. Orlando shot only 39 per cent (24 of 61) and turned the ball over 23 times, the most by any Hornets opponent this season. New Orleans converted those turnovers into 28 points. "They killed us because they just played hard and they wanted it," Howard said. "Look at their roster, but they play hard every night. ... They kicked our butts tonight, not because theyre a way better team than us, but because they play harder than us." The Magic played most of the game without Jameer Nelson, who was limited to less than 11 minutes after taking a shot in the jaw in a collision with Jack as the Hornets guard drove to the hoop. Nelson said later he was not seriously hurt and was day to day. The lone bright spot for the Magic was the one player who apparently would rather play elsewhere, given the constant trade speculation surrounding Orlandos star centre, who memorably wore a Superman cape while winning the 2008 All-Star dunk contest in the same arena. Howard was 9 of 14 shooting and got to the free-throw line 17 times, although he made only 10 foul shots. The rest of his team combined to go three of four from the foul line and 15 of 47 shooting (32 per cent). After starting 11-4, Orlando has lost three of four, including two losses to the Celtics, one of which ended with the Magic scoring a season-low 56 points. "We were awful. The three worst losses I think weve had since Ive been here and its in the matter of five days. Its tough to take," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Its very, very bad right now. Its a matter of energy and we dont seem to conjure that up right now." The Hornets, by contrast, shot nearly 51 per cent (41 of 81) and outrebounded Orlando 43-36 while turning the ball over a relatively low 13 times. The Hornets led by 13 at halftime and then scored the first seven points of the third quarter, starting with Trevor Arizas driving layup and ending with Belinellis third of four 3-pointers in the game to give the Hornets a 54-34 lead. The gap never got smaller than 14 points after that and climbed to 28 -- the largest lead the Hornets have held in any game this season. The Hornets took their first lead on Belinellis 3 six minutes into the game and did not trail again. Landrys 13-foot jumper capped an 11-2 run that gave New Orleans a lead as large as nine, at 20-11, in the first quarter. "We were making sure they didnt come out and have a ton of energy after that Boston game," Smith said. "We wanted to make sure that we came out and had the first punch and not get hit first and be clawing back and try to dig ourselves out of a hole." Notes: The lineups of the two teams included four players born in Louisiana: Davis, Chris Duhon and Von Wafer for Orlando and Carldell "Squeaky" Johnson for New Orleans. ... Actor Will Ferrell, who is in New Orleans to film the political comedy "Dog Fight" and will be the featured celebrity guest in the Bacchus Mardi Gras parade next month, sat courtside with fellow comedian Jason Sudeikis. They were part of an announced crowd of 16,176. Cheap China NFL Jerseys .com) - Na Yeon Choi rallied to win the season-opening Coates Golf Championship on Saturday, but that didnt stop Lydia Ko from becoming the No. NFL Jerseys China . One category most Canadians will be watching is for Best NHL Player, with a list that includes three Canadians amongst the five nominees. Sidney Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf, and Jonathan Toews are among the players with a shot at being named Best NHL Player.LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland -- Marcel Hirscher clinched his third straight overall World Cup title on Saturday but couldnt prevent Ted Ligety from winning his fifth season-long giant slalom trophy. A race that came down to a few hundredths of a second saw Hirscher finish fourth, giving him enough points to clinch the sports biggest prize. Ligety won the race and thereby tied the Austrian on points in the season-long discipline standings, giving the American the GS title on a tiebreaker as he had more race victories. "Its an unbelievable happy day," said Hirscher, content to concede the discipline to the American dubbed "Mr. GS" by race announcers. "My big goal was the overall World Cup title and I got it and Im so happy," said the 25-year-old Hirscher, the first man to win three in a row since American Phil Mahre completed the feat in 1983. Hirscher needed 19 points to overtake Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who led the standings going into the race but skied out in the first run. Fourth place gave the Austrian 50 points. Hirscher completed Austrias first overall title double since 2002, after Anna Fenninger clinched her first womens title this week. They both come from villages near Salzburg and raced each other as juniors. Ligety earned his victory in a crowd-pleasing race by just 0.03 seconds ahead of runner-up Alexis Pinturault of France, in a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 15.63 seconds. "Im super-thrilled. That was by the skin of my teeth today," Ligety said. He still relied on a big assist from first-run leader Felix Neureuther of Germany to make clinch the discipline title as the narrow margins all fell Ligetys way. Ligety, the Olympic champion in GS, was second-fastest in the morning and had time in the start house to absorb the second-leg target set by Hirscher. Hirscher finished outside provisional leader Pinturaults time, leaving Ligety an opening. The 29-year-old American came down barely faster than Pinturault, drawing applause from Hirscher who was in the ffinish area already knowing he was overall champion. Wholesale Cheap NFL Jerseys. Ligety then needed his good friend Neureuther to finish second or third in the narrow time gap between himself and Hirscher. Neureuther did it in the tightest way possible, finishing 0.01 ahead of Hirscher, who was relegated to fourth. With 10 fewer points awarded for fourth than third, he fell into a tie with Ligety on 560 over the eight-race season. Ligety got the tiebreaker with five World Cup race wins against Hirschers two. "Felix, I owe a lot of beers," Ligety said. Hirscher was smiling later, after watching Ligety and Neureuther roll around the finish-area snow in celebration. "He is not allowed to travel to Austria. It is over. Just kidding," Hirscher said of Neureuthers intervention. They will renew their rivalry Sunday for the season-long slalom title. "He is very mad about me so its going to be very close," said Neureuther, who leads Hirscher by five points in the slalom standings. Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway is also in contention. Svindal faded again, extending his disappointing series of results since leaving the Sochi Olympics early, affected by allergies and without a medal. He is not competing in Sundays slalom. "It was a good season but it could have been fantastic," said Svindal, who won the World Cup titles in downhill and super-G though all but conceded the overall title to Hirscher earlier in the week. "That was too bad, because I had a really good opportunity to win the biggest thing a ski racer can win," said Svindal, a two-time former overall champion. Ligety completed a race double for the U.S. team Saturday, with Mikaela Shiffrin earlier winning her fifth World Cup slalom this season. The American anthem played four times in quick succession for a crowd of 10,500 at the Swiss venue -- twice each for Ligety and Shiffrins race and season title victories. The Austrian anthem will dominate Sunday, when Hirscher and Fenninger get their giant crystal globes. Cheap Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Authentic China Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '

登录后才可评论.