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The Los Angeles Sparks will try to generate momentum heading into the playoffs when they close out the regular season against the San Antonio Stars on Friday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif. Jose Ramirez Indians Jersey .Los Angeles (25-8) is second in the WNBAs Western Conference and will be the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, but the Sparks have struggled at times in recent weeks. They have lost three of their last four games and five of nine since returning from the month-long Olympics break after going 21-3 before the break.San Antonio (7-25) is last in the Western Conference. The Stars have the worst record in the WNBA. They have lost six of their last seven games and 12 of 14.Los Angeles is coming off a 90-85 victory over the Phoenix Mercury. That win snapped a three-game losing streak. Nneka Ogwumike finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds and Chelsea Gray came off the bench to score a career-high 23 points. Jantel Lavender added 17 points for the Sparks, who shot 47.9 percent from the field.The Sparks elected to rest Ogwumike and fellow starter Kristi Toliver in their previous game, a 78-60 loss to the Seattle Storm. Toliver was held to five points on 2-of-11 shooting in her return to the lineup against the Mercury.San Antonio is coming off a 71-67 victory over the Atlanta Dream, a rare win that ended a six-game losing streak. Astou Ndour had a career-high 20 points after scoring 10 of San Antonios last 14 points, including a big 3-pointer with 35 seconds remaining. Moriah Jefferson added 19 points for the Stars.Ogwumike is third in the WNBA in scoring and rebounding, averaging 19.8 points and nine rebounds per game. Toliver is third in 3-point shooting at 42.7 percent.Kayla McBride was leading San Antonio in scoring at 17.1 points per game before she was lost for the season with a fracture in her right foot in early July. The Stars are 3-12 since McBride went down. Jefferson is averaging 13.7 points per game and Monique Currie chips in 10.3. Kenny Lofton Indians Jersey . Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, announced Wednesday that the team would assign Swedish forward Elias Lindholm to his nations team for the upcoming tournament. Dan Otero Indians Jersey .Y. -- Knicks coach Mike Woodson said Wednesday that J. https://www.cheapindiansonline.com/1388u...ey-indians.html .S. hockey team after paying his dues as an NHL general manager for more than three decades and giving up a lot of his free time to help USA Hockey. The influence of manager Joe Maddon has spread well beyond Wrigley Field now that he has pulled off what many Cubs fans thought theyd never see and led the team to the World Series.In a city where Jordan is still revered, the mantra of wanna be like Mike might soon be replaced by Joe Knows.At Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Business, where an MBA will cost you well over $100,000, theyre teaching Maddon. Harry Kraemer is a professor of strategy, the former CEO of pharmaceutical firm Baxter International Inc., and a Cubs fan. He can fill an hour with animated talk about Maddon.My whole lecture the other night was literally on how Joe Maddon is a perfect example of a value-based leader, Kraemer said. Ive got 80 students who are into this in a big way.Going back to his Tampa Bay Ray days, Maddons reputation as an off-beat leader has gotten a lot of headlines. Hes a no worries kind of guy who shrugs off any trips to negative town.During last seasons pennant race, when the Cubs ultimately fell short, he was a leader trying to keep a very young team loose. There was Maddon on the field petting a flamingo named Warren , one of the zoo animals he had brought to Wrigley in August 2015 for the Cubs and their families. A few weeks later, the Cubs wore onesie pajamas home on an overnight flight from Los Angeles. Every player was part of it and, if the team photo of the odd moment is proof, most if not all had fun.There are also the Maddon-coined slogans, like Try not to suck, that have found their way to T-shirts seen around town.`Control the controllable, that has been my mantra ever since he said it a few weeks ago, said Elaine Maimon, Cubs fan and Governors State University president who wrote an article in early October on Maddons managerial gifts.Its not just the sloganeering and the funny stuff that Maddon gets right, admirers say. He trusts his players and assistants to do their job, understands how they fit into the team and finds a way to get value out of a guy like light-hitting, 39-year-old catcher David Ross.Maddon himself couldnt play it straight when asked about his management style and who he has learned from.Michael Scott, probably the biggest influence, Maddon said Friday before Game 3 against the Indians, referring to the less-than-gifted manager from The Office portrayed by actor Steve Carell.Tom Gimbel, the CEO of the recruiting firm LaSallle Network and a Cubs fan, said the Series is a showcase for good management -- Maddon, well-respected Indians boss Terry Francona and the man who at different times has hired both. Yu Chang Indians Jersey. Cubs executive Theo Epstein hired Maddon, and he hired Francona in Boston when he was with the Red Sox.Its in the off-beat gestures where a lot of managers and business leaders hope theyre a little like Maddon. During one bad stretch of business at LaSalle, Gimbel said, he decided on a particularly miserable day that everyone needed a milk shake.It was crappy weather in Chicago and things were terrible, he said. Youve got to get people out of their own heads.Kraemer knows the value of such gestures. He said he spent hours sitting above dunk tanks at carnivals for Baxter employees so their kids could drop him in the water again and again. Nothing like dunking the boss.You end up finding ways to relate to people so you can influence them, Kraemer said. Hey, hes kind of crazy, too. Youre human like everybody else.Maddon worked in the shadows for years, first as a minor league player who never made the majors, then as a scout, coach and in other roles for 31 years before he became the Tampa Bay Rays manager in 2006.They dont see the amount of work (he) put in, Gimbel said. He wasnt a good professional player, he was a good student of the game.And without wins, the managerial tricks would soon look a whole lot less fun to the people he works for.If youve got a boss, and youre not delivering and your people are running around in pajamas, youve got a bigger problem, Kraemer said. Youre going to be fired.Not this year, and Maddon is quick to credit his former coaches for imparting common sense wisdom over the yearsAnd then beyond that, I think you take bits and pieces away from all the guys that you had, but theres a lot of guys you had that you thought did poorly, and you take a lot from them, also, because you never want to be that way, Maddon said. You gain experience, and you gain your ability or your ways in regards to doing things from those that are good, but you can really learn from the guys that you think do it poorly, too.---AP Sports Writer Andrew Seligman contributed to this report.---Follow David Mercer on Twitter: (at)davidmercerAP ' ' '