Dein erstes Forum » tering Alexander Steen and Vladimir Taras

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies will renew their postseason rivalry Saturday night when the two squads meet at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Catch the game on TSN2 starting at 9:30pm et/6:30pm pt. For the third time in four seasons, the Thunder will face the Grizzlies in the playoffs. OKC dispatched the Grizz in the second round following the 2010-11 season, but Memphis evened the score one year ago. The Grizzlies eliminated the Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals last season. Granted, Oklahoma City was without the services of All-Star guard Russell Westbrook, but this seasons first-round battle will be the rubber match. "Its going to be a tough but fun series," OKC star Kevin Durant said. "We have a lot of history with these guys. Were looking forward to getting the opportunity to play for a championship." Durant will be the leagues MVP and carried a heavy load. Westbrook missed time with a knee injury and veteran starters Thabo Sefolosha and Kendrick Perkins both were shelved late in the season with various ailments. "Guys had to step up and I think we did a good job of fighting through it all," Durant said. "That shows the type of organization, the type of coaching staff and team that we have. Its been a fun season and up and down like any other season." Memphis overcame a hideous start to make the postseason once again. Injuries hit the Grizzlies hard as well. They were without All-Defensive guard Tony Allen for a long stretch, but the main setback occurred when they lost All- Star center Marc Gasol with a left knee problem. Once the reigning Defensive Player of the Year returned to the lineup, the Grizzlies clicked. The Grizzlies went 33-13 in games Gasol played after the injury. The heart of the Grizz rests in their big-man combo of Gasol, who averaged 14.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg and 1.88 blocks, and Zach Randolph, who continued to be a double-double machine. He posted marks of 17.4 points and 10.1 rebounds while tying for the fourth-most double-doubles in the league. However, the real star that emerged this season was point guard Mike Conley. He averaged 17.2 ppg and 6.0 apg all the while playing stellar defense, the hallmark of the Grizzlies. It all finally came together for Memphis over the final two games of the season. The Grizzlies road victory over the Phoenix Suns in the penultimate game earned them a playoff berth. Their win over the Dallas Mavericks in the finale got them the seventh seed. "Getting 50 wins is something you want on your resume as a player, and people remember those. Those are special seasons. Its a standard, a golden standard I think," Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger said. It will be a classic offense versus defense matchup. The Thunder were the fifth-best offensive team this season, while the Grizzlies ranked third in opponents scoring. Flip the script and the advantage swings to Oklahoma City. The Thunder finished a respectable 12th in defensive scoring and an impressive third in opponents field-goal percentage. Memphis ranked 27th in scoring The Thunder won three of four regular-season meetings against the Grizzlies. OKC is 7-4 all-time versus Memphis in regular-season games in Oklahoma City. Air Max 1 Clearance . - On the night Dirk Nowitzki overtook Dominique Wilkins on the career scoring list, Brandan Wright was a human highlight film all by himself. Air Max 1 Sale Ireland . Inter moved five points behind fourth-place Fiorentina and eight points behind third-place Napoli, which visits relegation-threatened Sassuolo on Sunday. http://www.cheapairmax1ireland.com/. Minutes after the previously winless Colts got their first win, 27-13 over Tennessee, team vice chairman Bill Polian said the four-time league MVP will not play this season though he has begun throwing to teammates at the team complex. Air Max 1 Sale Cheap . -- Coyotes coach Dave Tippett thinks of one thing when he watches Eastern Conference teams struggle against Western opponents before they get to Phoenix: His team must keep pace. Cheap Air Max 1 Sale . Louis Cardinals placed outfielder Allen Craig on the 15-day disabled list with a right knee contusion on Sunday.Alex Ovechkin’s slump, big nights for Abdelkader, Datsyuk and Smith; lineup news, fantasy tips and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. Held scoreless in Wednesday’s 4-2 loss to Detroit, Capitals LW Alex Ovechkin has now gone a career-worst five consecutive games without a point. It’s not burying Ovechkin to point out that he’s in a slump (and I’ve already been something of an Ovechkin apologist in the past), but it’s easy to see that Ovechkin is really doing a lot well right now, even if the points haven’t been coming as expected over this short span of games. In the first nine games of the Barry Trotz era in Washington, Ovechkin has posted a career-best Corsi% (measuring even-strength shot attempts) of 59.4%. OVECHKIN POSSESSION STATS YEAR CORSI% CORSI REL% 2007-08 58.1% +4.2% 2008-09 57.4% +4.2% 2009-10 57.8% +7.2% 2010-11 53.9% +4.0% 2011-12 47.4% -2.3% 2012-13 49.2% +0.7% 2013-14 49.3% +2.5% 2014-15 59.4% +5.0% What’s encouraging about these numbers is that Ovechkin is driving play like he did earlier in his career, and a far cry from his 2011-2012 season when his offensive production hit career-low rates (65 points in 78 games). Like last season, Ovechkin is not getting much help from linemates – his lone assist this year has come on the power play – but thanks to a recent decline in shots on goal, his 4.22 shots on goal per game ranks as the second-lowest of his career. In the first four games of this dry spell, Ovechkin had mustered just seven shots on goal and that’s some reason for concern, because he’s always been a high-volume shooter, leading the league in shots on goal in eight of his nine seasons but, let’s not overreact, it was just four games. Wednesday, against Detroit, Ovechin attempted 13 shots, with seven on goal, against the Red Wings, which is a good way to get out of a scoring slump. Because Ovechkin’s underlying numbers have been so good, there’s not so much reason to worry about this slump, because those signs point to goals and points coming back at a more regular rate soon. HEROES Justin Abdelkader – Hard-hitting winger who gets to play a complementary role with some elite players in Detroit and he scored two goals and an assist in Wednesday’s 4-2 win at Washington. He scored a career-high 28 points last season, but has eight points (5 G, 3 A) in nine games this year, riding a 22.7% shooting percentage that won’t last, but he is also playing a career-high 16:30 per game and generating a career-best 2.44 shots on goal per game. Pavel Datsyuk – The Magician tallied a goal and an assist, with a team-leading eight shot attempts (4 SOG) in the win at Washington. Datsyuk has five points in four games since returning from injury, and the Red Wings have eased him in, playing 18:42 per game.ddddddddddddThe last season in which he averaged less ice time per game (than this admittedly very small sample) was 2005-2006. Craig Smith – The Predators’ leading goal-scorer, with 24, last season, Smith buried a pair of goals on nine shot attempts (5 SOG), while posting quality possession stats (17 shot attempts for, 10 against, 63.0%) in a 4-1 win at Edmonton. ZEROES Niklas Kronwall – The Red Wings’ No. 1 defenceman had a rough night, possession-wise, on for five shot attempts for and 18 against (21.7%). His worst forward matchups, head-to-head, were against Capitals C Nicklas Backstrom (2 shot attempts for, 10 against, 16.7%) and RW Joel Ward (2 for, 13 against, 13.3%). Mark Arcobello – Despite not starting an even-strength shift in the defensive zone, the Oilers’ centre had his team’s worst possession stats (9 shot attempts for, 16 against, 36.0%). SHORT SHIFTS Red Wings C Henrik Zetterberg had a pair of assists…Predators D Roman Josi had two assists and blocked seven shots…Predators G Pekka Rinne stopped 26 of 27 shots for the win in Edmonton. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Capitals RW Eric Fehr was scratched from the lineup as second-year RW Tom Wilson was inserted into the lineup for his first game of the season after suffering a broken ankle in the summer. Predators C Calle Jarnkrok, still looking for his first point of the season, was scratched from the lineup in Edmonton Wednesday. Predators D Seth Jones played a season-low 14:46 at Edmonton, though had a solid possession game (15 shot attempts for, 9 against, 62.5%) in that limited role. FIRSTS Predators C Matt Cullen played his first game of the season, picking up an assist while playing 15:18. FANTASY FOCUS A few players, available in more than half of TSN leagues, to monitor on a busy 10-game night in the NHL: Jori Lehtera – Someone in St. Louis has to get the puck to the Blues’ scoring wingers and with injuries to Paul Stastny and David Backes, Lehtera is clearly the best option down the middle. He has six points in seven games and is centering Alexander Steen and Vladimir Tarasenko heading into tonight’s matchup with Anaheim. Michael Raffl – Getting moved to the Flyers’ top line with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek is working well for Raffl, who has four goals and five points in the past five games. Tonight, the Flyers go to Tampa Bay, which isn’t an easy matchup, but Raffl is still available in nearly 99% of TSN leagues. Seth Griffith – The rookie winger has emerged as the Bruins’ best option on the right side with David Krejci and Milan Lucic, scoring three goals and five points in the past four games. Really, anyone on the Bruins is worth a look since they are in Buffalo to play the Sabres. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca ' ' '