OAKLAND, Calif. -- Damian Lillard makes the first of his two annual trips to his hometown on Saturday night when the Portland Trail Blazers visit the Golden State Warriors.The goal: Set the stage for closing down Oracle Arena for the summer with a return visit in the playoffs.The Trail Blazers had a chance to do just that last May but lost three straight in Oakland in a 4-1 defeat in the Western Conference semifinals.Those were three of seven straight losses that Portland has endured in Oakland since Nov. 23, 2013.And those games -- especially the four in the regular season -- havent been close.The Warriors put a 128-112 and 136-111 thumping on the Trail Blazers in their two regular-season visits last season. Overall, Golden State has averaged a 16.8-point margin of victory in its four-game regular-season home run over Portland.If any player is capable of turning that around, its Lillard. After all, he had 20 points and nine assists as a rookie in the 2013 win, and he crushed the Warriors with 51 points in a 137-105 home win over Golden State last January.Unfortunately for the Trail Blazers, it seems recent wins over the two-time Western Conference champs have only inspired them to greater things. The Warriors responded to the 32-point shellacking last season with the subsequent 16- and 25-point home wins, followed by the 4-1 playoff triumph.Lillard often hasnt been at his best in front of family and old friends in Oakland. He did have a 38-point outing in his most recent regular-season visit last April, but that followed a 5-of-19, 17-point dud a month earlier when he missed nine of his 10 3-point attempts.The point guard enters Saturdays visit on a bit of a roll. Hed already had three 30-point games this month before exploding for 40, two off his season high, in Thursdays loss at Denver.Portland was coming off a 114-95 thrashing of the Oklahoma Thunder two nights earlier.We werent the same team that we have been the last few games, Lillard told reporters after the Denver loss.Warriors coach Steve Kerr, meanwhile, wasnt happy with his teams play Thursday night, either. But his team was good enough to win anyway, 103-90 at home over the New York Knicks.The game featured 36 consecutive Warriors baskets on which they were credited with assists. They finished with 41 assists on 45 hoops, the first team this season with an assist on more than 90 percent of its shots.That was the lone bright spot of the game, Kerr said to reporters afterward. They really look for each other. Thats a theme almost every night. Thats such a great quality to have as a team.The Warriors had 45 assists on 50 baskets in their 127-104 win at Portland last month.Lillard was the games top scorer with 31 points but missed 11 of his 19 shots from the field and registered a minus-29 plus/minus in his 32 minutes. Rod Carew Jersey . 9. Price, heading to the 2014 Olympics for Canada, was named the First Star after posting wins in three starts with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .971 save percentage. Jose Berrios Jersey . Kyle Denbrook, a soccer player from Saint Marys University, took the CIS male athlete of the week honour. Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday. http://www.authentictwinsgear.com/twins-kennys-vargas-jersey/ .C. -- Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Bobcats got off to a fast start, and the Sacramento Kings were never quite able to catch up. Phil Hughes Jersey . With his new coach and six-time Grand Slam singles champion Boris Becker watching him during an official match for the first time, Djokovic appeared tentative early against the Slovakian player, who often appeared content to keep the ball in play. Byron Buxton Jersey . Laudrup revealed Thursday he was notified of his dismissal in "the briefest of letters which gave no reasons why such hasty and final action was deemed necessary. When you think of grit in the NBA, you probably think of big men setting hard screens and battling for position in the paint, or players hitting the ground to secure a loose ball.A lot of times its being ugly, not pretty, Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts says.Your mind immediately goes to Memphis, adds Los Angeles Clippers guard J.J. Redick, referring to the grit n grind moniker the Grizzlies have adopted to describe their defensive-minded style of play.You probably dont think of two-time reigning MVP Stephen Curry making 3-pointers for the Golden State Warriors. But based on the research University of Pennsylvania professor Angela Duckworth has done on the topic, maybe you should.I think the word grit sounds like when you grit your teeth, Duckworth says. I think its less about that than the day-in, day-out dedication and resilience.If you look at Steph Currys career, there were lots of times where you could have counted yourself out. Weak ankles. Whos going to be the best player in the league on 3-point shots? Theres nobody in the league I can think of thats grittier than him.Redefining gritA former consultant for McKinsey & Company, Duckworth became intrigued by the notion of grit when she was working as a math and science teacher and trying to figure out why talented students didnt always succeed and seemingly less-talented kids sometimes did.Duckworths answer, eventually arrived at while working toward a graduate degree in psychology, was grit. Her version of the term, summarized in her recent New York Times bestseller Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, isnt quite the same as the one used traditionally in sports. Instead, Duckworth defines grit as passion and perseverance for long-term goals.The concept gained scientific rigor when Duckworth tested West Point cadets using the grit scale she created. Despite not having a relationship with academic achievement in high school or SAT performance, grit proved a better predictor of which cadets would drop out of grueling basic training.The definition translates well to sports, where all athletes are going to have to persevere through setbacks at some point in their careers because of their passion to compete.I do think that sometimes the narrative with athletes is we want this linear [progression], says Redick, who read Duckworths book during training camp. It doesnt always work that way -- and not only on the outside and kind of what the public sees and the media talks about, but the internal battles that every athlete faces. There are obstacles and maybe even moments of self-doubt.Its little surprise, then, that Duckworth hears regularly from coaches interested in how they can use her research. While the concepts of hard work, dedication and resilience that are encapsulated in Duckworths version of grit are nothing new for coaches, her research into how grit translates in other fields of high achievement, how to measure it and how to build it provide helpful coaching tools.She gave a greater clarity to the word grit for me, says Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown, who invited Duckworth to speak to his young team. I think that through her examples of what her version of grit was, it resonated with me more clearly.Both of my parents are schoolteachers, and her examples of different practices in different school systems and the different economic situations relative to some of her areas that displayed the most grit -- and the people who were able to overcome different socioeconomic barriers or boundaries or obstacles and still persevere -- that interested me a lot, as well as the coaching side of it.Brad Stevens of the Boston Celtics?is one of a handful of coaches, including Pete Carroll of the NFLs Seattle Seahawks, who have built more lasting relationships with Duckworth. She spoke to the Celtics last season before a game in Philadelphia, and Stevens endorsement appears on the back of her book, alongside those of authors such as Malcolm Gladwell.One of the aspects Stevens likes about grit is that it can apply equally to a player or team that has experienced success and one that has dealt with adversity.Ive always felt like the best players have these attitudes and the best players are able to bounce back from a tough night, he says. The best players are able to handle success. Certainly the best players always get better.I learned it at Butler when we went to the national championship twice. Obviously we were hurt because we didnt win it all, but a lot of people treated us like we had. It was fun to watch those kids just move on to whats next and try to do it again and try to be a little bit better next time and not rest on what was already achieved. I think thats a big part of mindset or grit, just as recovering from a tough day is.That sounds a lot like an MVP and champion coming back even better the next season.A new grit paragonTelevision writer and producer Michael Schur, the co-creator of Parks and Recreation and the creator of new NBC sitcom The Good Place, has spent enough time thinking about grit that he calls it one of my favorite topics.Under the pseudonym Ken Tremendous, Schur wrote about baseball -- and more specifically about writing about baseball -- on the influential blog Fire Joe Morgan. One of the blogs favorite hobby horses was how writers lionizedd the grit of white players who had average or poor statistics, like former St.dddddddddddd Louis Cardinals shortstop David Eckstein. (Later, Schur paid tribute to this relationship by giving a law office on the show Parks and Recreation the name Fwar, Dips, Winshares, Gritt, Babip, Pecota, Vorp & Eckstein.)Grit is a catch-all term for any baseball action writers deem hard-nosed, or physical, or dogged, Schur observed in an email. Grit is crashing into walls, sliding hard, hustling on an infield grounder, diving for a line drive. Grit is Aaron Rowand breaking his nose on the wall, or Dustin Pedroias always-dirty uniform, or Paul ONeill smashing a water cooler after a strikeout. Which reminds me -- grit is also nearly always a term used to describe white players.In 2014, Deadspin parsed online NFL draft scouting reports, allowing readers to look up how frequently different terms were applied to white and black prospects. Grit or gritty appears nearly twice as frequently in scouting reports for white players (1.9 times per 10,000 words) as black players (1.1 per 10,000).In the NBA, there may not always be the same element of racial coding. After all, African-American Tony Allen coined the grit n grind moniker that has come to define the Grizzlies run of contention in the Western Conference, as well as their relationship with a diverse Memphis fan base. Still, even grit n grind reinforces the notion that grit is the domain of less-talented athletes.I think partly it indicates that a guy is playing hard to compensate for having less natural ability than other guys, Schur writes. Which is not to say those players actually do have less natural ability -- just that they are perceived as having less natural ability.In the common usage, players can be either talented or gritty. By Duckworths definition, players can -- and should -- have both traits.One thing that surprised me when I started doing this research, she says, is if youre really talented, why arent you the hardest-working, longest-trying player? Because rationally speaking, youre getting so much out of every moment on the court. You should be the one! Why wouldnt you be the one to show up early and stay late because every moment youre there, youre getting this huge return?Ive wondered whether its partly because to pass some threshold of good enough, you can kind of trade off talent with grit. If youre trying to get to a threshold, you can be talented or gritty. I think one of the things about the players that I most admire is theres no ceiling on what they want to do.I dont know that Steph Curry goes to bed and says, Ive reached it. [If Im Curry] I just want to continually get better. If thats true, rationally, analytically, then you dont trade them off against each other. You just try to maximize both.I think Steph is gritty, Redick concurs. I would put him in that category. As many superlatives as you can talk about with him, hes definitely gritty.Currys progression demonstrates how he has epitomized grit in multiple ways. As a prep player, he had to ignore doubts about his ability to overcome a small frame to be a contributor in college -- famously not getting a scholarship offer from an ACC school -- let alone in the NBA. Having established himself as an NBA player, Curry subsequently had to deal with the setback of recurrent ankle injuries, resulting in surgery that limited him to 26 games during the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season.All the while, Curry kept improving his shooting, ballhandling, finishing and defense. As I noted during the 2016 NBA Finals, Curry has developed more late in his career?than any other superstar in league history.Even after hed reached the pinnacle as a champion and MVP during the 2014-15 season, Curry came back better in 2015-16. Last year was Currys sixth consecutive season of improving his win shares per 48 minutes, according to Basketball-Reference.com, tied with role players Jay Humphries, Thabo Sefolosha and Sedale Threatt for the longest streak ever to start a career.During the media conference honoring Curry as MVP last season, Warriors coach Steve Kerr highlighted Currys work ethic.I think what makes you special, Steph, is obviously youve got a lot of God-given talent, but its the determination, its the love for the game, Kerr said. There is no agenda, and every day you come in and you work.Later in the media conference, Currys advice to kids hoping to learn from him sounded a lot like Duckworths definition of grit.Find what youre passionate about in this life, Curry advised. Everybodys given a certain skill set, a certain talent, a certain passion. To hold on to that and work as hard as you can to being the best that you can at what you feel like your place in this world is and what your role is.I learned at an early age that basketball is something Id love to do every single day. But like every single person -- theyre a great journalist, theyre a great commentator, there are great doctors -- everybodys great at something, just to find that and to work as hard as you can.I dont think its as simple as that, but its something that you can hold on to. Find what youre passionate about in this life and just work at it. 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