Für unsere Gäste » question lingers -- how much

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It felt like those old college days for Jeremy Lamb.Starting in the same backcourt as Kemba Walker for the first time since Connecticut beat Butler in the 2011 NCAA championship game, Lamb turned in one of his best games since joining the NBA.Walker scored 28 points, Lamb added 18 points and a career-high 17 rebounds and the Charlotte Hornets snapped a four-game losing streak with a 107-102 victory over the New York Knicks on Saturday night.Its always good to play with Kemba, Lamb said. Hes a great leader and carried us tonight. We definitely needed that win tonight.Lamb got the first start since joining the Hornets last season because Nicolas Batum was out with an eye injury. He made the most of the opportunity, joining Russell Westbrook as the only guards this season with at least 15 rebounds in a game.Lamb had missed 10 games this season dealing with a hamstring injury, which coach Steve Clifford said made his performance all the more remarkable.He literally hasnt done anything with contact for close to a month, Clifford said. His game is based on skill. Hes a skill-based player and he showed that tonight. Hes always been a good offensive rebounder. Tonight he was both.Walker called Lambs effort incredible.We needed rebounding bad and the bigs did a great job of boxing their man out and he came out of nowhere to snatch every rebound, Walker said. He played awesome.The Hornets (9-7) avenged an overtime loss to the Knicks on Friday night at Madison Square Garden in which Carmelo Anthony hit the go-ahead jumper with 3.1 seconds left and finished with 35 points.Anthony didnt fare as well the second time around, limited to 18 points on 7-of-24 shooting. Kristaps Porzingis had 25 points and Derrick Rose added 18 points, eight assists and eight rebounds for the Knicks.The Knicks battled back from a 21-point, first-half deficit to take the lead briefly with 7:36 left in the game when Anthony drilled a turnaround jumper from the baseline.But the Hornets regained control behind Walker, who made an underhand layup and two free throws to put the Hornets up 105-99 with 21 seconds left. Justin Holidays 3-pointer cut the lead to three with 11.2 seconds left, but Lamb made two free throws to help seal the game.We have to get off to better starts, Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said. That start, I think they had 24 points in the first six and a half minutes of the game. Thats kind of probably where the game was lost right there. We battled back, but it takes a lot of energy.TIP-INSKnicks: Porzingis has tallied 20-plus points in nine contests this season. ... Joakim Noah was held without a point in 13 minutes of action.Hornets: Forward Marvin Williams is expected to miss about a week after an MRI revealed a bone bruise in his left knee. ... Walker recorded his 13th game with 20-plus points this season. ... Marco Belinellis minutes were limited by a hamstring injury.CLIFFORDS COMMENTSClifford ripped into his players during a pregame press conference for a lack of hustle and his team seemed to get the message.Coach just really pushes us because he has high expectations for us, Lamb said. He just told (us) were better than how were playing and that if we played together and played like a team that nobody could beat us.SHOOT THE BALLHornacek was pleased that Brandon Jennings and Courtney Lee shot the ball more.Were trying to encourage them, `Hey, when you have the open shot, shoot it, Hornacek said. Both of them I think took a step forward at least with that tonight.FRANK THE TANKFrank Kaminsky added 14 points, including two clutch 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter as the Hornets snapped the Knicks three-game winning streak.POINT GUARDS UPAt one point, the Hornets had three point guards on the floor in Walker, Ramon Sessions and Brian Roberts to combat the Knicks small ball lineup.UP NEXTKnicks: New York returns home to host Oklahoma City on Monday night.Hornets: Charlotte heads out on the road to face Memphis on Monday night, a team it lost to earlier this season at home.Bernie Williams Yankees Jersey . Thousands of fans at Mosaic Stadium will be cozying up to each other in an effort to stay warm in chilly temperatures and block the Prairie wind that locals say can knock your socks off. Bill Dickey Yankees Jersey .com) - The Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks both take aim at their first wins of the season on Saturday, as the Canucks open their home slate at Rogers Arena. https://www.cheapyankees.com/ . Scott won the Australian PGA last week in his first event in Australia since winning the U.S. Masters in April. American Matt Kuchar, ahead by two strokes with four to play and even with Scott with one to go, double-bogeyed the 18th after taking two shots to get out of a bunker. Giancarlo Stanton Yankees Jersey . -- There were so many positives from the Orlando Magics first victory of the season that it was hard for coach Jacque Vaughn to stop praising his players. Mike Mussina Yankees Jersey . Breaking three of his own world records on his way to winning in Paris, Chan silenced the critics and left the audiences standing in appreciation and awe.It has been a long 21 months since former WWE superstar CM Punk announced his intention to fight in the UFC.After setting aside nearly a full year to perfect his craft, injuries twice forced Punk to delay his first bout inside the Octagon. Saturday marks go time for the 37-year-old, whose real name is Phil Brooks, in his debut against welterweight Mickey Gall (2-0) at UFC 203 in Cleveland.From the very first day his signing with the UFC was announced, Punk has had a great attitude regarding what he has gotten himself into, saying, I felt like it was now or never. I have a limited window most fighters dont have. Im either here to win or get my ass kicked.Along the way, as reports began to trickle out from Roufusport in Milwaukee, where he trains, the prevailing theory was that the latter of the two options Punk presented was most likely to happen. Las Vegas oddsmakers agreed, installing Punk as a heavy underdog.Whether it proves to be sideshow or the beginning of a second career, Punk has retained the respect of many for taking such an unnecessary risk, leaving behind millions of dollars by walking away from his pro wrestling prime. That respect has trickled down to his peers in the world of sports entertainment.Paul Heyman, who served as Punks on-screen manager in WWE from 2012 until Punk abruptly walked away from the company in January 2014, has no doubt regarding the intentions of the five-time WWE world champion.Any conversation that I had with CM Punk dating back, even when he was still in WWE and was dreaming of getting involved in mixed martial arts, is that he was doing a switchover of careers from becoming a sports entertainer to becoming a full-time, career-oriented mixed martial artist, Heyman told ESPN.com in June.With Punk currently being sued by a WWE doctor for defamation, it has been difficult for current superstars to speak publicly regarding Punks UFC debut. But?Seth Rollins, during an August visit to ESPN headquarters in Bristol,?Connecticut, admitted that hes excited to watch the fight.Rollins also cited Punk as a very influential wrestler who set the stage for WWEs current new era of superstars.Hes a guy who led the charge for a long time, Rollins said. Hes one of the first indie guys in a long, long time to really shake [up] the main roster in WWE and he paved the way for?Daniel Bryan, for myself,?Dean Ambrose,?Cesaro,?and those guys.Say what you will about his attitude and his relationship with the company right now, but I wish him the best and I hope that he is successful -- win, lose or draw.Ryback, who parted ways with WWE on his own terms in August, took offense in recent years to comments made by Punk that he was reckless to work with in the ring, which escalated a war of words between them. But Ryback, whose real name is Ryan Reeves, said it has no influence on him wanting to see Punk do well in the UFC.From a basic human being standpoint, he is showing courage doing something the majority of people on this planet will never do and that is step in a cage and fight in front of millions of people, Reeves told ESPN.com. I respect he wants to test himself and has the courage to do so. For that reason alone, while I dont condone him saying the things he said about me, I want to him do well. Any man can beat another man on any given night, so I just hope he achieves what he is looking for in this and I will leave it at that.Many pro wrestlers have tried their hand at MMA ovver the years -- and vice versa, to varying degrees of success -- creating a natural crossover between the worlds of scripted fighting and the real thing.dddddddddddd No one has been able to make the transition as prominently, and with as much success, as former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.The comparisons between Lesnar and Punk were inevitable, despite the fact that Punk enters MMA as a complete novice, one month shy of his 38th birthday. Lesnar, on the other hand, had a legitimate background as an NCAA Division I champion in wrestling, not to mention that hes simply a freak athlete with natural size and speed advantages over most opponents.Punk told ESPN Radio in June that Lesnar was excited for him in the beginning, offering his help.He said, Bug me any time you want, Ill answer all the stupid questions you got, Punk said. And then he gave me some advice. Brocks a nice guy when he wants to be.But Lesnar, during a visit to Bristol in June to promote his one-off return at UFC 200, downplayed the idea that his ability to float between MMA and WWE was opening doors for others, Punk included.There will never be another Brock Lesnar, he said. You can make all the correlations you want to the people you just stated but none of them have ever main-evented and sold pay-per-views and put asses in the seats like Brock Lesnar. There is nobody.When it comes to making the adjustment between the two platforms and quickly finding a comfort level, current UFC heavyweight Josh Barnett believes Punk will be just fine. A former pro wrestler himself in Japan, Barnett currently joins WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross as the voice of New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV.I think he has been in the environment long enough and he understands the difference between shooting and working, as we say in the business, Barnett told ESPN.com in January. The biggest thing for Phil is dont hold back, dont doubt, dont hesitate. Go out there and live your dreams. Youre in the UFC, youre here to be an MMA fighter. You put the time in, just go forward. Dont even bother looking behind you and just see what happens.Despite the UFC heavyweight championship being contested in the main event at UFC 203, as Stipe Miocic makes his first defense against Alistair Overeem, a great deal of the buzz entering Saturday has centered around Punk.The question lingers -- how much does it matter whether Punk is competitive, let alone victorious, in terms of justifying his placement on the card as more than just a curiosity to add PPV buys? WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall believes the UFC has promoted Punks appearance correctly by allowing his smirky personality to show while not misrepresenting what he brings to the table.I think people tune in to watch Brock win and I think they are going to tune in to watch Punk lose, Hall told ESPN.com. I think they employed that strategy in their marketing so if he does anything but get creamed I think he comes out OK. They are not building him up as a big hype or anything.They are taking the strategy like lets wait and see. They even showed him training in the cage and all the others guys were kind of standing around yelling at him because it is kind of like, Lets see what you got.After a long buildup to get here, Punk will finally get that chance, for better or for worse, on Saturday. ' ' '