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A look at the two first-round series in the WNBA playoffs. The league changed the format for this postseason with both the first and second round being one game each.---No. 5 Indiana (17-17) vs. No. 8 Phoenix (16-18)Season Series: Fever won 2-1.Indiana: Tamika Catchings will have at least one more chance to play in front of her home fans. The 10-time All-Star who is retiring after the playoffs had a wonderful celebration after her final regular season home game Sunday. Now shes trying to win a second WNBA championship in her illustrious career. The Fever have been up-and-down all season and will need to put together a strong effort for 40 minutes against the Mercury.Phoenix: The Mercury might have been the biggest disappointment in the regular season. Predicting by the leagues GMs to win the title, Phoenix had to make a push in the final few weeks to even make the postseason. Despite having Brittney Griner in the middle, the Mercury have been inconsistent on defense this season, giving up 83.3 points a game. Like Catchings, Penny Taylor has announced shell retire after the playoffs. The Australian guard has helped the Mercury win three championships.Prediction: Phoenix.---No. 6 Atlanta (17-17) vs. No. 7 Seattle (16-18)Season Series: Storm won 2-1.Atlanta: This is the Dreams seventh playoff appearance overall and first since 2014. The game will be played at Georgia Tech where Atlanta will play its home games for the next two seasons. Angel McCoughtry has led the Dream all season in scoring (19.5). The offseason additions of Elizabeth Williams and Layshia Clarendon really have bolstered the team this season.Seattle: The Storm are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2013 after going 7-3 since the Olympic break. Breanna Stewart has already had a rookie season to remember. She set the WNBA record for defensive rebounds in a season, had the third most points ever by a first-year player and was third in blocked shots. The Storm won in Atlanta on Sept. 4.Prediction: Seattle. Patrick Patterson Jersey .Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres have placed centre Cody Hodgson on injured reserve and recalled two players from their AHL affiliate in Rochester. Hamidou Diallo Thunder Jersey . Their 38th instalment is arguably their biggest fight card to date, including three-title fights and a main event which was selected by the fans. The promotion boasts 14-straight years of business and is operated by MFC president Mark Pavelich, who is often overlooked in this country for the foundation hes established for MMA in Canada. https://www.thunderrookiesshop.com/Detlef-Schrempf-City-Edition-Jersey/ . -- For the first time in two months, an opponent was standing up to Alabama. Kevin Hervey Jersey .Y. -- Sabres defenceman Tyler Myers had no intention of changing his hard-hitting style before taking part in a disciplinary hearing for his illegal check to New Jersey forward Dainius Zubrus head. Ray Allen Thunder Jersey . Ronaldo produced a spectacular individual performance on Tuesday, scoring all three goals and guiding Portugal into the next years World Cup in Brazil with a 3-2 victory in Sweden. The Real Madrid forward has scored 66 goals in 2013, but the last three may be the boost he needs to upstage Messi after FIFA unexpectedly extended the voting period for the Ballon dOr to Nov. Olympic and World Cup champion Carli Lloyd released her memoir, When Nobody Was Watching on Monday, detailing her early days as a player, the strained relationship she has with her family and her rise to the top of the sport with the help of trainer James Galanis. She talked to espnW about the book, and shared this excerpt about the day that led up to the 2015 World Cup final. In what would become the most memorable game of her career, Lloyd scored three goals and helped the U.S. team win its first World Cup title since 1999. But first, she had to make it to kickoff time.YOU KNOW HOW JAMES WOULD ALWAYS TELL ME, Play every game as if its a World Cup final? He doesnt have to say a thing on July 5, 2015, because I am in BC Place in Vancouver, and it is a World Cup final. The stadium is on the north side of False Creek, an inlet that separates downtown from the rest of the city, and it is inundated with true USA soccer fans who are hoping to see the first happy ending to a World Cup since 1999.I have my own room for the final, on the twenty-fourth floor of the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre, and everything is great the night before except that I keep waking up. I am thinking about the game, dreaming about the game. I dont visualize scoring five goals in the final, the way I did a few months earlier during a training session on Ark Road, but the game is in my head nonstop. I am so ready to play that my heart is racing, and I dont know how I am going to make it until the 5:00 PM kickoff. We have three team meals before the game, and each time we gather all I can think is, Cant we just play already?I have so much energy I dont know what to do with it. After breakfast I go for my fifteen-minute jog through downtown. Some people recognize me and wave and wish me good luck. I smile and wave back and keep going. I feel as though I could run for days. I organize everything in my room into tidy piles -- the keepsakes and the Player of the Match frames and the clothes I bought on the James-ordered shopping trip. I am the same neat freak on the day of a World Cup final as I was as a schoolgirl back on Black Baron Drive.One of our massage therapists stretches me out, and after a bite of lunch I hydrate and stretch some more and relax in the room with my headphones on. Ive done most of my visualization the night before, but I get some more done throughout the day, not focusing on results so much as the process of playing the game... tackling hard, sending passes near and far, being strong in the attacking third.Finally, it is almost time to leave for the game. I look down from my window and see a big crowd of fans lining the barricaded walkway well take to get on our bus. There are hundreds of them, waiting to give us a proper send-off. We meet in the lobby and then walk through a gauntlet of rousing cheers and waving flags and choruses of the I believe that we will win chant that has swept through our fan base. I am filming it on my phone, smiling as I go. It is a very cool spectacle. I board the bus and go to my spot, second row from the back on the right. Once again its time to cue up Dreamer on my iPod and reread Jamess final World Cup email.Heres what he writes:Ms. Lloyd, I have spent a lot of time reflecting and thee thing that sticks out the most to me is that you are once again going into this final as the best Carli Lloyd there ever was.ddddddddddddYou have broken barriers again and gone to a level that no one was expecting and are on the brink of shocking the world again. Today you will rise again because: 1) Apart from being the best Carli Lloyd ever, you are going into this game loaded with a mental state that no one else is carrying and the only player with a body that can carry an entire team. 2) Because you are going into this game knowing you havent achieved anything yet and you will once again fight like an underdog that never gives up and claws her way to the top. 3) Because tactically you are playing in a position that allows you to express yourself and get into positions to win the game all on your own. 4) Because the Japanese rely on shapes rather than pressure and this will allow you to showcase the marvelous skill you possess and stick a dagger into the folks that dared to call you unskilled. 5) Because you are the only player that can take a game and own it. 6) Because you are the most intimidating and feared player on the planet and the Japanese know it. Time to make this yours. Time to show the world that there is only one Ms. Lloyd. As usual start simple and build. Play your game and act like the midfielder that you are. Combine, dribble, shoot, get on the end of crosses and get back and admirably help out on defense. A fighting and involved Carli Lloyd will get to the Japanese. You will make them fold and take over. There will be no denying you if the underdog shows up again and owns this game. Go make this yours. You deserve it. Signed The Planner. Reading over it again, I am filled with fresh gratitude for what my mentor/friend/trainer has done for me. James believed in me long before I did.How do you thank somebody for that?[Coach Jill Ellis] sticks with the same lineup as the Germany game. I will be wearing the captains armband again, along with my usual Nike Mercurial Vapor Super Fly boots, with the words five pillars -- the motto of the University Soccer Academy -- written on the side of each. When we go over set plays beforehand, Jill says that the first corner will be one that has been designed for me. Assistant Tony Gustavsson is in charge of the set pieces, and he is the architect of it. We practiced it only one time, but it cleverly creates a formation that spreads the Japanese defense out. I think it has a real chance to work.Jill huddles us up before we take the BC Place field. One of her best qualities as a coach is how straightforward she is. Were grown women, and we know whats in front of us. Jill honors that. She says simply, We started this journey to get to this very point. You know what you need to do. There isnt much else to say. We are ready. Lets bring this trophy back home. Go out there, have fun, and enjoy it.Excerpted from WHEN NOBODY WAS WATCHING: My Hard-Fought Journey to the Top of the Soccer World by Carli Lloyd with Wayne Coffey. Copyright 2016 by Carlilloyd.com LLC. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. ' ' '