Nash is, man, whenever he runs that pick-and-roll, he

PINEHURST, N.C. -- In the midst of throwing away a four-shot lead, Michelle Wie never lost sight of the big picture at Pinehurst No. 2. The U.S. Womens Open rarely goes according to plan, and Saturday was no exception. Wie knows that from experience long ago, and she settled down with four important pars to wind up with a 54-hole share of the lead for the third time in her career. Wie was a teenager the other two times. Now at 24, she was one round away from capturing her first major. "Im just grateful for another opportunity," Wie said after salvaging a 2-over 72 to tie Amy Yang. "Tomorrow Im going to play as hard as I can and hope for the best." Yang, who earned a spot in the final group for the second time in three years, didnt make a par until the eighth hole in a wild round so typical of this day. Only a sloppy bogey on the final hole cost her the outright lead, though she was more than happy with a 68. They were at 2-under 208, the only players still under par. A pivotal moment for Wie came on the 12th hole. She reached 6 under for the tournament with back-to-back birdies at the turn. She made her first double bogey of the tournament with a tee shot she hooked into the pine trees on the 11th. Her next drive sailed well to the right and settled on a sandy path. Instead of punching under the trees and over the bunker to the green -- anything long is a tough up-and-down -- she pitched out to the fairway and made bogey. "U.S. Opens are tough," she said. "I feel like maybe on a different golf course, I would have taken that chance. You just dont want to be too greedy out here. Even though you make bogey, sometimes you just dont want to make a double out here. I felt like I made the right decision there." The USGA set the course up relative to what the men faced last Saturday in the U.S. Open when wire-to-wire winner Martin Kaymer had his only over-par round with a 72. It was short (6,270 yards) but tough because of the pin positions. That didnt stop Juli Inkster. The 53-year-old Hall of Famer, who has said her 35th appearance in the Womens Open will be her last, had a tournament-best 66 to get into contention. She will be in the penultimate group, four shots out of the lead, still dreaming of a third Open title that would make her by 10 years the oldest Womens Open winner. "You can think and you can dream all you want," Inkster said. "But the bottom line is youve got to come out and make the shots. And if Im tied for the lead coming up 18, then maybe Ill think about it. Ive got a long way to go. Im just going to enjoy the moment and hit a few balls and see what happens." Also remaining in the hunt was Lexi Thompson, who won the first LPGA major this year in a final-round duel with Wie, and pulled within one shot of Wie with a pair of birdies early in the round. It fell apart on two holes. Thompson missed the green to the left on No. 8 -- the worst spot at Pinehurst -- and her first chip fell down the slope, leading to double bogey. On the next hole, she went long over the green and chose to take relief she really didnt need from a white line marking the TV tower. Thompson went to the drop zone, and her ball rolled back into a divot. Worst yet, she still used her putter, and it hopped high out of the divot and had no chance to reach the green. She made another double bogey, then made three straight bogeys on the back nine. She birdied the final hole for a 74 that left over 3 over. Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., finished the third round in a tie for 18th place, while Sue Kim of Langley, B.C., tumbled to 56th. Na Yeon Choi had a 71 and was in the group with Inkster at 2-over 212 along with Stephanie Meadow (69) and 18-year-old amateur Minjee Lee of Australia (72). Another shot back were So Yeon Ryu, who played her final 10 holes in 3 under for a 70, and Karrie Webb, who went the final 12 holes without a bogey for a 70. "Michelle Wie has put a few of us back into the tournament," Webb said. "Two hours ago, I didnt think I had a shot. Im pretty happy about that." Wie hit 8-iron to 8 feet for birdie on the par-3 ninth, and then hit a beautiful lag from about 80 feet for at two-putt birdie on the par-5 10th to reach 6 under. One swing changed everything. The back tee on No. 11 was used for the first time all week, playing at 444 yards. Lucy Li, the 11-year-old who missed the cut as the Womens Opens youngest qualifier in history, walked the final 12 holes with the last group. "Man, that hole is like 10 times harder from there," she said. "Well, maybe not for them." Definitely for them based on their shots. Wie hit a snap-hook that rambled through the trees and left her no shot but to go sideways and slightly back. She hit her third in a greenside bunker, blasted out about 25 feet long and nearly off the green and made double bogey. "You cant be in the tree here," Wie said. "But I felt like I grinded out there." Thats what it usually takes in the U.S. Womens Open. Wie shot 82 in final round at Cherry Hills when she was 15. She missed a playoff at Newport by two shots a year later. She is back again, a 24-year-old former teen prodigy, 18 holes away and still a long way to go. Denis Potvin Jersey . "If we could score a six in every game, obviously I would be pretty excited," Jones said. "Its a long week but a short week. Its a pretty short round robin from what were used to so you dont want to get behind the eight ball early. Adam Pelech Jersey . Kyle Shanahan was hired as offensive co-ordinator Monday after spending the previous four years in the same role with the Washington Redskins. http://www.authenticnyislanderspro.com/Anders-lee-islanders-jersey/ . Al Horford said all he had to do was make the catch near the basket and then shoot a soft jumper. New York Islanders Jerseys . Jonathan Crompton led the team to a 40-9 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Crompton threw three touchdown passes - two to Duron Carter and one to Brandon London - and Sean Whyte connected on four field goals to power the Alouettes to the win. Robin Lehner Jersey . - Even with a new coach, the Denver Nuggets still love to push the basketball.LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Washington Wizards are in a great position to make the playoffs for the first time in six years, and John Wall has a lot to do with it. Wall had 28 points and 14 assists, leading the Wizards to a heated 117-107 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night. "Hes a competitor that comes every night," coach Randy Wittman said. "Hes obviously a big part that gets our engine running. So I want him to understand how important he is in continuing that." The Wizards are having their best season since 2007-08, when they ended a string of four consecutive playoff berths. Theyve already surpassed last seasons win total by seven with 13 games remaining, and are sixth in the Eastern Conference, with a seven-game lead over the New York Knicks for the final playoff seed. "The difference this year is just trusting each other," Wall said. "This is a group that enjoys playing with each other, and we know the one thing we can do is play hard for 48 minutes and trust any guy down the stretch. I give a lot of credit to our organization and our coaches for helping our second unit improve." Washington (36-33) is one of only six teams in their conference with a winning record. But if they were in the West, they would be in 10th place — 4 1/2 games out of contention. "Im glad Im in the East," Wall said with a grin. "But we still havent solidified a playoff spot, so we knew we had to get back on the right track — pushing the ball and playing team defence. When we get stagnant, we dont play great and lose a lot of games like that. So it was great to get to come back tonight and get back on the winning track." Bradley Beal added 18 points for the Wizards, who began this four-game western trip with back-to-back losses to Sacramento and Portland. Nene sat out his 13th in a row with a sprained left knee, but Marcin Gortat returned to the lineup with 13 points and 13 rebounds in 34 minutes after missing his first game of the season because of pain in his lower back. "Kudos to our guys and their connections out here on the coast to get him some treatment," Wittman said. "Last night we thought he was day-to-day, but he got here and he said: You know what? I feel pretty good. I wasnt anticipating that, but it was a pleasant surprise." Tempers flared with 2:14 remaining and the Wizards ahead 108-98, as Jordan Hill and Nick Young got into a scuffle with Gooden after a battle for a loose ball. Referees Scott Foster, Mark Ayotte and Nick Buchert went to the video monitor at the scorers table review, and Gooden was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul and was ejected. So was Hill, who received a technical foul. Young also got a technical, but stayed in the game. YYoung and Jodie Meeks each scored 21 points for the injury-jinxed Lakers, who welcomed Young, Hill and Steve Nash back into the mix and had 12 players in uniform for the first time since March 4.dddddddddddd Coach Mike DAntoni, unable to play Wesley Johnson because of an upper-respiratory infection, used his 30th different starting lineup with Robert Sacre at centre and Pau Gasol shifting to power forward alongside newcomer Kent Bazemore. Gasol had 14 points and 14 rebounds. Nash, who sat out the previous 15 games because of chronic nerve damage in his back that has limited him to 11 appearances all season, had 11 assists and five points in 19 minutes off the bench. On March 13, following an individual workout by Nash at Oklahoma City, DAntoni told the media that the two-time MVP was done for the season. But when Jordan Farmar was sidelined by a groin strain, all bets were off. "Steve always kept in shape," DAntoni said. "He wanted to play and he was getting there, so it made sense to go ahead and get him in there." Young sat out the previous 11 games and 17 of 18 with a sore left knee, and Hill was sidelined for eight games due to a sore right knee. All three of the returning Lakers ended up on the court at the same time when Nash and Hill reported in with 3:26 left in the first quarter and Los Angeles trailing 24-12. Trevor Bookers short running jumper gave the Wizards their biggest lead, 72-51, with 7:22 left in the third quarter. Nash reported back in with 3:44 left in the period and orchestrated an 18-7 Lakers run that included seven points by Sacre, whose dunk with 3.3 seconds on the clock narrowed the gap to 88-81. "It didnt look like he missed a beat to me. Thats how talented he is," Wall said. "No matter how old Steve Nash is, man, whenever he runs that pick-and-roll, hes efficient and one of the best at passing and getting his shot. A lot of people are writing him off, but when hes healthy, hes still one of the greatest all-time. So youve got to respect a two-time MVP in this league." NOTES: The Lakers failed to sell out for the fifth time, drawing 18,112 — 885 short of capacity. ... Nash has played in just three games since his 40th birthday on Feb. 7, when he scored 19 points at Philadelphia. ... C Chris Kaman and G MarShon Brooks suited up for the Lakers, but didnt play. ... Wall is the only player to start each of the Wizards first 69 games. No one has started all 82 for them since swingman DeShawn Stevenson in 2007-08. ... The Lakers have held opponents under 100 just 18 times. The only team that has done it fewer times is Philadelphia (nine). ... The Lakers only lead came after Meeks made a layup for the first basket of the game. ' ' '