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The Florida Panthers sent two players to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi but neither player will finish the tournament due to injury. cheap jerseys from china. A spokesman for the Slovakian team told the Associated Press on Monday that forward Tomas Kopecky will miss the remainder of the Games with an upper body injury. Kopecky took a hit to the head from Sabahudin Kovacevic of Slovenia in Saturdays 3-1 loss. Though Kovacevic was not assessed a penalty on the play, he was suspended one game by the IIHF. Kopecky has four goals and eight assists in 49 games with the Panthers this season. He had no points in two games for Slovakia. The Panthers other Olympian, Aleksander Barkov is expected to miss four to six weeks after suffering a lower body injury playing for Finland. nfl jerseys china .B. -- Canadas Rachel Homan had ideal preparation for the playoffs at the Ford World Curling Championships with a pair of hard-fought wins over tenacious opponents Thursday. cheap jerseys . -- The Los Angeles Galaxy have signed coach Bruce Arena to a multi-year contract extension.LOS ANGELES -- Pau Gasol and Steve Nash watched the entire fourth quarter from the bench. Kobe Bryant sat one row behind them in a black shirt and suit. The Lakers three veteran stars were spectators for one remarkable show put on by five Lakers reserves who werent ready to cede Los Angeles supremacy to their Staples Center rivals. Xavier Henry scored a career-high 22 points, Jordan Farmar added 16, and the Lakers surged past the Los Angeles Clippers in the final minutes for a 116-103 victory in both clubs season opener Tuesday night. By the time the Lakers reserves were done with Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, coach Doc Rivers Clippers debut was wrecked -- and so were many preconceptions about the Lakers prospects this season. The Lakers 76 bench points were the most in club history since March 1985. "Its not a bad thing to be the underdog sometimes," said Jodie Meeks, who scored nine of his 13 points in the fourth quarter. "No expectations. We go out there and play hard. Whats the worst that can happen? We lose, and people say were no good?" The Lakers 41-point fourth quarter was downright stunning, but the identities of the players responsible for this exciting, free-flowing opener were even more jaw-dropping. "Mike (DAntoni) did a great thing: He didnt bring his starters back in," Rivers said. "There was a point where I was thinking: Please bring them back in." A team that was 28th in the NBA in reserve scoring last season got outstanding bench play from a five-man unit, including three guys who werent even on the team last season: Wesley Johnson, two-time NBA champion Farmar, and Henry, the former first-round pick who burned out in Memphis and New Orleans. A new season is a chance for a fresh start, and Henry needs one just as much as the Lakers. He scored 12 points in the fourth quarter while leading a 28-8 run. "Were a deep team, and people dont think were that good," Henry said. "That always fuels us. People are saying were going to finish 12th or whatever, but we have a great group of guys who go out there and play hard. Were young. Were athletic. We get after it." The long-established hoops hierarchy in Los Angeles flipped earlier this year: The Clippers won a division title and became veteran championship contenders, while the Lakers lost their stars to injury or free agency and prepared for a long rebuilding process. cheap nfl jerseys. At least in the opener, the Lakers flipped it again -- and embarrassed Rivers in the process. "We were not ready tonight," said Rivers, the longtime Celtics coach who hopes to push the Clippers into title contention. "(The Lakers) have heard for probably the last two months how good (the Clippers) were going to be ... so you knew that they were going to play like this was the world championship -- with that type of energy. And I thought we never matched it. Everything they did was harder than us and more physical than us. They destroyed us on the glass and destroyed us in turnovers. So it was a good lesson for us." Griffin scored 19 points and Paul had 15 points and 11 assists for the Clippers, who beat the Lakers four times last season on the way to their first Pacific Division title. DeAndre Jordan added 17 points and 11 rebounds. "Youve got to give it to them. They outplayed us," Griffin said. "They did a good job. They were ready. They turned up the heat in the fourth quarter, and we didnt respond." Gasol scored 11 of his 15 points in the first quarter, and Jordan Hill added 12 points and eight rebounds as the Lakers improved to 42-24 on opening night, the best winning percentage in NBA history. After the off-season losses of Dwight Howard and Metta World Peace, not much is expected from the Lakers. Yet they thrived for a night without Bryant, who missed a season opener for the first time since 2006. The fourth-leading scorer in NBA history hasnt returned to practice this fall after tearing his Achilles tendon late last season. The Clippers led 57-55 at halftime while hitting nearly 59 per cent of their shots. They pushed their lead to eight points in the third quarter, but the Lakers went ahead 86-83 with 9:06 to play on Meeks three-point play. "Oh, man, it seemed like it just happened so fast," Paul said. "Those guys executed their game plan, and when youre missing somebody like Kobe, you feed off that energy." NOTES: The evening began with a moment of silence for Bill Sharman, who died last week at 87. He coached the 1971-72 Lakers to their first championship in Los Angeles, winning an NBA-record 33 consecutive games along the way. ... The Clippers won their final seven games of the regular season last spring. ... Floyd Mayweather Jr., Diddy, Yasiel Puig, Tommy Lasorda and Flea attended the game. cheap jerseys cheap jerseys from china ' ' ' |
