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The Olympic break could be just what the struggling San Antonio Stars need. Wholesale Pelicans Jerseys Free Shipping .The Stars (5-17) have the fewest wins in the WNBA and are on a four-game losing streak, heading into Wednesdays afternoon tip at Seattle.What you lack during a WNBA season is repetition, San Antonio assistant coach James Wade told the teams website. Because of the turnover with the games, youre playing every other the day, youre on the road, so you dont get a lot of chance to practice. And with a young team, they need practice time. They need repetition time. They need to see things get better.The Stars need to improve in a lot of areas. San Antonio is last in the WNBA in scoring, averaging 72.4 points per game, and saw leading scorer Kayla McBride go down with a season-ending injury in early July. The Stars are 0-4 since McBrides injury. She was averaging a team-high 17.1 points. Moriah Jefferson is the only other player averaging double-figures in points (11.6) for the Stars.The Storm (8-14) also are in need of a strong finish to the first half of the regular season. Seattle sits in 10th in the overall league standings. The top eight teams, regardless of conference, qualify for the postseason.Seattle has won only twice in its last seven games, but one of those wins came against the Stars, 78-68, July 8 in San Antonio. Storm rookie star Breanna Stewart, the No. 1 overall draft pick, scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the win over the Stars. Stewart leads the Storm in scoring (19.1) and rebounding (9.5).Seattle shot 50 percent from the floor against San Antonio, and Stars assistant coach Vickie Johnson believes any second-half turnaround will be built on defense.The most important thing is defense, Johnson told the teams website. Defense wins championship. Offense wins games, so its important for us to focus on our defensive schemes, rebounding the basketball and then attacking them in transition and making them defend usSeattle will wrap up the first half of the regular season Friday on the road against the defending-champion Minnesota Lynx.Wednesdays game will be San Antonios final game before the month-long Olympic break Cheap Pelicans Jerseys For Sale . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. DeMarcus Cousins Jersey . Those lessons were more than enough to overwhelm the Utah Jazz. Lou Williams scored 25 points and the Hawks continued their offensive upswing as they rolled to an easy 118-85 victory over the Jazz on Friday night, winning their third straight and for the fourth time in five games. www.wholesalepelicansjerseys.com/ . 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. SEOUL, South Korea -- South Koreas top female table tennis player, China-born Jeon Ji-hee, has an easy explanation for why she had to leave her homeland to compete in the game she loves.There are way too many good players in China, Jeon said after a pre-Olympics practice session. Its extremely hard to make it to the national team.This simple recognition has led to an exodus of Chinese talent -- and to worries that it will take more than the wanderings of Chinas second-tier athletes to save a sport so thoroughly dominated by one nation.At the Rio Olympics, China will not only have the worlds best table tennis players, but also will have produced the best players on the rosters of many other national squads.Unrelenting dominance by one country of a sport isnt unusual, of course, but Chinas table tennis supremacy is on a different level. Some believe that for the sport to thrive other nations must have some hope of winning on an international stage every now and then -- and not just with outside Chinese talent.Table tennis in China, despite what some see as a dip in its popularity, remains a source of national pride. A highly developed infrastructure scouts talented young athletes, often in kindergarten, and then grooms them into world beaters.The success of this system is reflected in Olympic gold: China has won all but four gold medals since table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988.Before the 2012 Olympics in London, a rule change allowed each country to only put forward two players for singles. China rolled on regardless, winning all the golds and silvers for singles, and leaving bronze for the rest of the world.The exodus of Chinese players is partly explained by the intense competition to make the national team. Current world No. 1 Liu Shiwen, for instance, didnt get one of Chinas two spots for singles.With so much talent, many Chinese players must contemplate a move abroad for a shot at the Olympics.The United States has two players who started their careers in China, including Yue Jennifer Wu. Three of the players on Australias six-person team were born in China and a fourth was born in Melbourne to Chinese parents.Only three nations in the womens competition in 2012 were without a China-born player, or a player with Chinese roots -- Egypt, North Korea and Japan.A major reason for Chinas success in table tennis is an intense, some might say obsessive, dedication to training; it also partially explains why some players leave.One of the Australian team members, Jian Fang Lay, used to run away after school to avoid her coaching sessions in China, according to the Australian Olympic Committees website.Kai Zhang, a China-born player hoping to mmake the 2020 U. Nikola Mirotic Jersey. S. Olympics team, said coaches in China required even the sick and injured to train.If you want to be a world champion, it is better to train in China, Zhang said in an interview posted on the USA Table Tennis website last year. But if you want to have a balanced life and want to be happy and free, then training in the U.S. is better.Chinas talent identification system is also more advanced than other countries.China trains a huge number of players from a young age. South Korea simply waits for a talented one to be found, said Kim Taeksoo, a South Korean former Olympic player. If there are no talented young players that are being nurtured, the chances of beating Chinese players are very low.China seems to recognize a need to help the rest of the world catch up.Officials have made efforts to try to nurture talent in other countries, allowing foreign players to attend table tennis schools in Chinese provinces, for example, and sending Chinese coaches abroad, Zhao Xia, a Chinese Table Tennis Association official said.Far from resenting the exodus of talented players, China encourages and supports them, said a national table tennis association official who would only give his surname, Wang, because he wasnt authorized to speak to the media.Its possible that those players might beat Chinese national team players, but still, it is in China that they acquired their skills and tactics, Wang said.From a purely athletic perspective, watching two world-class athletes compete in long rallies that often seem to test the laws of physics with chopping spin shots and powerful smashes can be entertainment enough, even if both players happen to be Chinese.But the Olympics are often a nationalistic affair, and many people wont tune in unless their country has a chance at winning.One country being far too good ruins the sportsmanship and the fun part of it, Kim, the South Korean Olympian, said. Most European and Asian countries are losing table tennis fans.For the players who leave China to compete for new countries, there can also be psychological strain.When you dont know the opponent, you dont feel anything emotionally, said Jeon, the China-born ace for South Korea. But because I know (the Chinese players) and have trained there ... my thoughts become complicated.---AP journalists Jungho Choi in Seoul, Dennis Passa in Australia and Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.---Foster Klug, APs bureau chief in Seoul, South Korea, is covering table tennis and badminton in Rio. Follow him at www.twitter/apklug Youth NFL Jerseys Cheap Cheap NFL Womens Jerseys Youth NFL Jerseys Wholesale Youth NFL Jerseys Cheap Cheap NFL Black Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys From China ' ' '