Liverpool midfielder Lucas has been ruled out for up to six weeks with a thigh injury sustained during the Capital One Cup final loss to Manchester City. The 29-year-old hurt his thigh while taking a penalty, which was saved by City goalkeeper Willy Caballero, in Sundays penalty shoot-out at Wembley.Lucas played no part in the convincing 3-0 Premier League win over Manuel Pellegrinis men at Anfield on Wednesday and his injury is now worse than first feared. Ive never heard of an injury like this, after taking a penalty, manager Jurgen Klopp told reporters ahead of Liverpools trip to Crystal Palace this weekend. Its a quad injury, hell be out for five or six weeks. Lucas had his penalty saved by Willy Caballero in the shoot-out Lucas, who was deployed as a makeshift centre-back by Klopp last weekend, has featured in 30 matches for Liverpool this season, starting 17 in the Premier League.Klopp also revealed striker Daniel Sturridge and defender Mamadou Sakho had returned to training after missing the midweek win over City. Daniel Sturridge played a full part in training on Friday The German confirmed Sturridge was fully involved in Fridays training session after struggling with cramp towards the end of extra-time on Sunday, while Sakho, who was substituted in the first half at Wembley after taking a blow to the head, took part in a light session. Liverpool head to Selhurst Park, live on Sky Sports 1, desperate to avenge the 2-1 defeat they suffered against Palace at Anfield in November.Victory over the Eagles would make it three league wins in a row for the Reds, who beat Aston Villa 6-0 prior to their win over Manchester City. Also See: Klopp: CL not the world away FSG: Liverpool squad was poor Utd v Liverpool kick-off moved Henderson demands consistency Vapormax Uomo 2020 . The lawyers filed a 33-page amended complaint Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, expanding on the suit originally filed Oct. 3 in New York Supreme Court. Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz last week refused to compel Selig to testify in the grievance, and Rodriguez then walked out of the hearing without testifying. Vapormax Scontate . Now tied for second in the league in shootout goals, the 24-year-old likes to see what the opposing goaltender has in store before he ultimately lands on a move. http://www.vapormaxscontateoutlet.it/vapormax-bianche-scontate-outlet.html . Its 1987 and a Brazilian playmaker, known as Mirandinha, is being paraded around St James Park to the passionate Newcastle fans. Vapormax Saldi . As he recorded his 23rd and 24th points of the evening, a segment of the sellout Air Canada Centre crowd expressed their appreciation for the Raptors point guard with a smattering of MVP chants. Vapormax Flyknit Scontate . The catch: It needs a lot of money, and it needs it fast. Ben Gordon will spend the next few weeks playing for Great Britains mens national basketball team -- with an eye on an NBA return.Gordon, 33, will suit up for Britain for the first time during qualifiers for Eurobasket 2017 next month. The 11-year NBA veteran hopes to help the British qualify for Europes biggest tournament while showing talent evaluators that he can still play at an elite level.Gordon, who did not play last season after appearing in training camp with the Golden State Warriors, spoke recently with ESPN.com about his decision to suit up for Great Britain and his hopes to land back in the NBA.The conversation with the veteran shooting guard has been edited for length:Q: What are you looking forward to about suiting up for Great Britain in the Eurobasket qualifiers? A: Just getting back into a competitive atmosphere like that. I was supposed to play a couple of different times throughout my career. But things always popped up in the summer. But there really hasnt been a better time [than now] for me to play because Im not with a team. Its just an opportunity for me to get out there and finally play with Great Britain. I just look forward to that opportunity being that Id never gotten that chance.Q: Are you still looking for a chance to return to the NBA?A: Yeah, definitely. I would definitely love to get back in the league after being out for a year. Just watching the way the game is being played, up and down. Obviously, the 3-point shot is always a big deal but it seems like just now, more than ever, that shot is being used more and more. So I feel like I can still play at a high level and shoot that 3-ball and add that kind of depth to a team that may be looking to fulfill that need. So yeah, I definitely have hopes of making a return with an NBA team or just playing period, wherever that may be.Q: Youve been training over the past year. How would you describe your game right now?A: I can still hit [the 3-point] shot with consistency. My shot hasnt left me. Im still a good shooter. Thats one of those skills that, you put so much time in over your career, after practice, before practice, thats not something that leaves you easily. Im still honing that skill. Its still a very important part of the game obviously. Its still something I love to do. So the shot is still there.Q: What was last year like for you while you were waiting for another chance to play?A: It was tough man,, I was training.dddddddddddd But it was the first time where I was training but it wasnt for a team. I was training to stay in shape and waiting for a call from your agent to see what happens. It was very different. I went through a period when I was training and I took time off, and started training again. It was a long year. I did get a chance to spend more time with my family, so that was very rewarding. But I look forward to getting back on the court this year, hopefully its with an NBA team. If not, I have to see what my options are. But I definitely look forward to continuing my basketball career, to continue playing.Q: How was being in camp with the Golden State Warriors?A: Getting a chance to see how a team coming off a championship prepared, it was rather different. I think that their team in general had probably the best chemistry Id ever seen. I know that might sound cliché on a championship team. But just to see how well all of those guys got along and how well their games complemented each other was really, really interesting. Also, just seeing how carefree they were, how much joy they practiced and played with every day. That was different as well. Just how Professional sport is far richer than it has ever been, and yet all sports seem united by a desire to generate even more cash. The motivation is the same, whether it is in FIFAs wish to expand the World Cup beyond 32 teams, India playing West Indies in a T20I series in Florida, or in the NFL playing three games in October in London.While cricket attempts to take hold in America, so Americas game attempts to grow in England. This year is the tenth consecutive one in which regular season games in American football have been held in London. What began as an idiosyncratic novelty has gradually become an accepted part of the British sporting calendar. The number of games per season in London has risen from one to three and will rise further, to four in 2018. Even as the number of matches has swelled, it has not been able to keep pace with demand.Of the 15 NFL matches that have been played at Wembley Stadium to date, only one has not been a sell-out. Sky Sports now televises more than 100 live games a year, and the average audience has doubled in the past decade. Meanwhile the BBCs highlights show, which launched last year, now receives a total audience of one million. The BBC also shows four live games every year - the three in London and the Super Bowl, the NFLs annual championship game.Games in London are a deliberate loss leader, Alistair Kirkwood, head of NFL Europe, explained earlier this year. The matches make a loss for the NFL because of the costs of paying for the clubs to relocate for a week, and compensating the home club for losing revenue. But the NFL sees this as a short-term investment and envisages matches in Britain ultimately helping to make all 32 clubs richer through more lucrative sponsorship, merchandise sales and commercial rights.Perhaps the most important part of the NFLs approach to growing the game in England is that it is about more than just monetising Americans who have settled across the pond. It is about developing new fans too.For the last two years, the NFL has organised a fans day in Regents Street, central London, using everything from inflatable tackling dummies, cheerleaders and American food and drink to show off the sport to new fans. About half a million people showed up. Most stumbled across the event rather than sought it out, yet in many ways that is the point. It was designed to increase awareness of the NFL among those who knew and cared little for it.Here there are many lessons for cricket. The raft of high-profile cricket events in the USA in the last year - the Warne-Tendulkar Legends series, the staging of Caribbean Premier League games and the West Indies-India internationals - seem to have been designed squarely to make cash out of the expat market. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that. But there is a problem when a bunch of 1990s stars slugging it out in a baseball stadium is seen as a substitute for a meaningful development strategy.Getting the NFL shown on free-to-air TV - through the BBC highlights show, which is designed for the non-hardcore fan - is central to the sports approach to Britain. Yet so far there have been no attempts to get cricket on free-to-air TV in the States. Indeed, the India-West Indies T20Is were not shown on any TV channel in the USA at all.Nor has there been a substantive attempt - Courtney Walsh bowling to the mayor of Indianapolis doesnt really count - to make cricket accessible, relevant or even known beyond those who already follow the game. Sadly, this is in keeping with the history of the sport in the USA.A lot of focus does tend to go on to the commercial side of things, an ICC source said of those in charge of US cricket two years ago. And when marquee matches have been held in Malaysia, Singapore and even the United Arab Emirates, organisers there too have rarely used them to win new converts to cricket.The most successful sport yet at entering a new market has been basketball in China. It has done so through an enlightened, long-term approach, focusing both on the grassroots and professional game, and the fortuitous emergence of the superstar Yao Ming. The NFLs approach to Britain and elsewhere is being governed by this template.Yet such sophistication has long been absent in crickets approach to growth, which has been impatient and top-down, seldom recognising the importance of engaging children without a national affinity to the sport or the sheer time such expansionism requires before it yields financial rewards.Cricket in the US hasnt developed the same kind of commercial or managerial sophistication as the NBA in China or the NFL in the UK, says Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports enterprise at the University of Salford in England. Cricket needs pitches, players and points of engagement, not just Warne and Tendulkar. The sport needs to give people in the US reasons to watch and reasons to play.The historic failure of those running US cricket is borne out by the terrible participation rates for junior cricketers. There were only 1230 junior cricketers playing in the US in 2014, according to the ICC census. In contrast, there are now 6000 junior players in American football in Britain, plus another 5000 players at universities. This is not just vindication for a decade of matches in London, but also the work that American football has done in establishing itself at grassroots level.Osi Umenyiora, a former NFL star who was born in England, is paid by the NFL to help identify athletes in their late teens and early 20s who could take their skills to American football. While the ICC has taken some important steps to reform American cricket over the last two years - like suspending USACA, whose leadership stymied US cricket for many years, and creating an ICC Americas team to compete in the Caribbean domestic 50-over tournament - transforming grassroots cricket and ending the exclusivity surrounding the sport will take many years.The most important lesson that cricket can learn from this NFL story is that other sports are coming into crickets traditional territories - from the NFL in Britain, to European club football in India - while making a concerted effort to grow in the most lucrative untapped sports market of them all: China.There comes a point when the growth of sports is a zero-sum game. Someone choosing to watch the NFL in Britain or the Premier League in India is doing so instead of watching cricket at that time. Other sports increased popularity could thereby undermine the commercial value of cricket.This is why crickets approach, in the US and beyond, must be about long-term development more than short-term profits. Expanding the sports global footprint is ultimately an insurance policy, a way of reducing a financial over-dependence on India and guarding against a drop in interest in crickets traditional powerhouses. Best Site Buy China Jerseys . LOUIS -- Mike Smith is used to facing plenty of shots, so this was nothing new. Wholesale Jerseys Online . -- Former San Diego Chargers safety Paul Oliver was found dead at his Atlanta-area home Tuesday night, and a medical examiner said Wednesday that the ex-player committed suicide. https://www.cheapjerseysreview.com/ . Barcelonas entertaining victory ensured the defending Spanish champions retained their share of the league lead with Atletico Madrid two rounds ahead of their meeting in the capital. 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Were trying to do a good job of leading this second group, bringing the energy, scoring the ball, pushing the pace, Clarkson said. Coach (Luke Walton) gave that to us. Thats our role and thats what were going to do.DAngelo Russell scored 22 and Nick Young added 15 points for the Lakers, who shot 55.3 percent (52 of 94) overall and made 16 of 30 3-pointers.Combined, Lakers guards scored 84 points.It just shows how much firepower weve got and how deep we can go, Clarkson said. Weve got so many options, its crazy.Anthony Davis scored 34 for New Orleans, but left the game for a pivotal stretch with lower back pain after his layup had cut Los Angeles lead to 63-62 in the third quarter. Davis, who crumpled to the court after his shot fell, went to the locker room and was out of the game for four-plus minutes while the Lakers went on a 14-0 run.It just locked up on me, Davis said of his back. I hate being out, so I tried to do whatever I could to come back.Davis added nine more points after he returned, but New Orleans never recovered, losing for the ninth time in its first 10 games and dropping to 0-5 at home.New Orleans has been without three top players -- guards Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans, and forward Quincy Pondexter -- so far this season. The lack of depth caused by those absences stuck out against a Lakers second unit that has demonstrated exceptional chemistry lately.Their bench totally dominated the game, Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said. We couldnt get Lou stopped. I thought Clarkson pretty much scored at will.Rookie Buddy Hield scored 18 points and Langston Galloway added 12 for the Pelicans.Young was 5 for 7 from 3-point range, while Clarkson went 4 of 6 and Russell 4 of 77.ddddddddddddRookie Brandon Ingram scored 10 points for the Lakers. He left the game in the second half with what team officials said was a sprained left ankle, but Ingram said he might have returned if his team hadnt built such a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter.TIP-INSLakers: Julius Randle had 11 rebounds to go with eight points. ... Williams entered the game as one of the top scorers in the NBA in a reserve role, averaging 15.9 points. He scored 14 in the first half, hitting six of his first 10 shots, including a 3-pointer. His 21 points tied a season high. ... Young, who entered the game 22 of 22 on free throws this season, did not attempt a foul shot -- nor did any Lakers starter. ... The Lakers 53.3 percent shooting from 3-point range was their best since hitting 14 of 25 (56 percent) in a 111-103 win over Denver on Dec. 30, 2014.Pelicans: Davis reached 30 points for the seventh time in 10 games this season. ... Hield reached double digits in scoring for the fourth time in six games, scoring no fewer than nine points in a game during that span and as many as 18 twice.REMINISCINGWalton and Gentry hugged in the hallway outside the locker rooms before the game. They also reminisced about their time as assistants on the same staff with Golden State during the 2014-15 season, when the Warriors were NBA champions. Gentry said he was not at all surprised to see Waltons early success as a first-year head coach of a young team that won only 17 games last season.Hes got a great feel for the game, but I think more so than that, hes got a great feel for people. He can relate to anyone, Gentry said.Gentry also alluded to a couple of Lakers players whove said they would run through a wall for Walton. In our profession, Gentry began, laughing as he spoke, youve accomplished a lot when an NBA player says something like that about his coach.UP NEXTLakers: Visit Minnesota on Sunday night.Pelicans: Host Boston on Monday night. ' ' 'effortless their practices were. That was different to see. I didnt really know what to expect. It was kind of like a bunch of guys who played pick-up for years together and knew each others games really well and they just were coming out to compete. That was something that was cool to see.Q: How are you feeling physically?A: I feel pretty good, man. I feel pretty good. I didnt play last season, didnt have a contract with anybody. After not playing last season and kind of getting back to the swing of things, Im looking forward to this opportunity to just go out and play and have fun and play with some of those guys that I never got a chance to in Great Britain. So like I said, I feel good and Im just looking forward to it.Q: Do you have a sense of pride playing for Great Britain? A: I think theres a sense of pride being born there, having family there. It feels good to be able to have that opportunity to play where I still have family at and more so just to have a chance to put that jersey on because I never really had a chance to fulfill that commitment. So Im definitely looking forward to it. ' ' '