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SALT LAKE CITY -- Dennis Lindsey and Quin Snyder are doing their best to temper expectations, but recent moves to improve the Utah Jazz say plenty.The organization has been working toward this moment for more than half a decade. It drafted Gordon Hayward in 2010 and traded for Derrick Favors months later. Lindsey was hired as general manager in 2012, and he hired Snyder as coach in 2014. The first-time general manager then slowly built a young, talented roster and allowed it to grow.This offseason, Lindsey added veterans Joe Johnson, George Hill and Boris Diaw with an eye on reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2012.The time to reap the rewards of all that patience is now.Our goal is to make the playoffs, Hill said at Jazz media day Monday. Anything less is not a good season for us.Lindsey and Snyder werent quite that direct, but Lindsey has been adamant in the past about not adding pieces at the expense of internal development. The difference now is the Jazz have the core they need.Both Hayward and Favors are six-year veterans and borderline All-Stars. Center Rudy Gobert is healthy and one of the top defensive centers in the league. Dante Exum, fifth-overall pick in the 2014, is back after missing all of last season with an ACL tear. Rodney Hood enters his third season after averaging 14.5 points in 2015-16.The next step is a playoff berth after finishing a game behind eighth-seeded Houston in the Western Conference with a 40-42 record.Just in the playoffs, just out of the playoffs, I dont think it would have changed this offseason much, Lindsey said. We wanted to get experience, size, skill, physicality, shooting, passing. We were able to do so. Its very complementary to our younger veterans that have been here for a while.It was a natural step. I dont think we were skipping steps by any means.The front office may downplay expectations, but this is the simplest situation the Jazz have faced in years. No more waiting on young players to develop, and no more searching for an identity. Defense is the foundation, and some quality players are going to have to fight for their minutes.The fundamental approach that you have toward playing the game doesnt change, Snyder said. If that enthusiasm, comfort, fear, whatever emotional baggage you bring into a season that impacts your emotional state, that has to be supplanted by hunger, hard work, unselfishness, passion.Sometimes that enthusiasm is really good. Oftentimes its great. But that doesnt necessarily mean its channeled the right way. Youve heard people be too excited or too emotional. What that means to me is you just lost a little bit of focus on the things you need to do to be successful. We know what those things are. We just have to hold on to them and work toward them.Hayward and Favors have been in the Jazz program long enough to stick closely to the teams message, but this is a pivotal year for both. Hayward will likely opt out of his contract after 2016-17 for a much bigger deal. The 26-year old has repeatedly said hes not looking to leave, but Hayward is entering the prime of his career and wants to win.Favors has two seasons left on his deal and could sign an extension, but also wants to consistently play in the postseason.We have a lot of expectations of ourselves, Hayward said. For us, though, we dont want to get ahead of ourselves at all. We havent accomplished anything as a group yet.I think we hopefully play with a chip on our shoulder. Were starting to turn the corner as an organization.Favors tried to avoid saying playoffs when listing his expectations, saying the team hopefully improves and reaches its goals. He laughed when pressed to specify that goal.Just to win games, Favors said. Every teams goal is to get in the playoffs. Obviously, thats what we want to do. Thats what were going to try to do. Cheap Air Jordan 13 NZ . Perhaps Carroll was so prepared for a break because he believes there is very little the Seattle Seahawks need heading into the off-season. "I dont see anything that we need to add. We just have to get better," Carroll said. Air Jordan 13 Wholesale NZ . As he recorded his 23rd and 24th points of the evening, a segment of the sellout Air Canada Centre crowd expressed their appreciation for the Raptors point guard with a smattering of MVP chants. http://www.cheapairjordan13nz.com/ . Pierce was ejected in the third quarter of Indianas 103-86 win Monday. George Hill stole a bad pass and was going in for a layup, and Pierce hustled back and appeared to be trying to wrap him up. Air Jordan 13 NZ . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. Air Jordan 13 Online Shop NZ . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005. TWICKENHAM -- Four of Englands match day squad had not been born the last time they achieved a perfect year back in 1992 and a further three were yet to reach their first birthday. But win against Australia on Saturday and the class of 2016 will have written their own chapter in the national teams 145-year history.Talk of history, nationalism and a supposed ruined legacy have driven the narrative leading into Saturdays Test; Anglo-Australian relations have been strained, stretched and tested. But sideshows, pre-match verbal hostilities and allegations over illegal scrummaging will be parked for two hours on Saturday.England are on the verge of history as they chase the unbeaten year-- their first since 1992 when they won all six Tests -- and Eddie Jones has challenged his team to produce their Nadia Comaneci match, the perfect game.Englands 2016 saw them start with a grand slam, then a one-off Test win against Wales, a 3-0 clean sweep on Australian soil followed and now they are three from three in the November internationals. They hope Saturdays will be lucky number 13 this year under Jones.Jones has attempted to downplay the significance of their run, focusing on the long-term and ultimately the 2019 Rugby World Cup. But given where Jones picked up this England side at the start of the year -- one still wounded by their dismal World Cup performance and the fallout -- it is a remarkable feat.Back in January, Jones faced the press in the small media room in the heart of Twickenham and unveiled his first England squad. There was a post-World Cup cull and he talked of how England must transform their mindset into one of perennial winners. There were no grey areas.On Friday Jones stood in the same room, now with 12 wins under his belt and all manner of one-off gongs to sit alongside the Six Nations trophy in the Twickenham cabinet. But Jones is not retrospective, nor one for drifting into blissful nostalgia.I never really thought about it, Jones said when asked about whether he ever thought theyd go the year unbeaten when he took the job. All I thought about was getting better every day.We wanted to work harder and get the players to aspire to be better. Weve move along that track. If we win tomorrow we still have a long way to go and we know that. We want to be the number one team in the world and to achieve that we need to keep getting better every day.Saturdays Test against the Wallabies should be their hardest game this year. England are without seven frontline players and Australia will be channelling the hurt from their 3-0 series loss in the summer and will have taken notice of this weeks talk over their illegal scrum and what their coach Michael Cheika has had to say about Jones, Glen Ella and general Australian bonhomie.Jones hasnt taken the bait this week -- he even dodgged commenting on getting the clown treatment from one Australian newspaper -- but it has been cantankerous between the two camps this year.ddddddddddddBefore England arrived on Australian soil for their series in the summer, Jones had lit the blue touch paper saying he was expecting a coordinated attack on his side from the local media.The local customs in Brisbane gave him a going over but that was his only set back as he masterfully controlled the agenda, leaving a string of hushed pundits in his wake and Cheika uncharacteristically quiet as England stormed to a 3-0 win.Australian pride had been dented by one of their own but this weekends Test should be a different prospect. In the summer Jones talked of his England side adopting a Bodyline approach, but on Saturday he is expecting Australia to bring their own Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee-esque fast-bowlers.Look, to beat them weve got to break them mentally and physically, Jones said. We know theyre going to come out in the first 20 minutes like theres no tomorrow. Weve practised, were equipped to handle it and well win the game in the last 20.Jones is expecting an improved Australia side. He feels Stephen Larkham, the Wallabies backs coach, has learned from his mistakes in June and is happy again in his skin operating with a more Australian style of attack, focused around being flatter on the line and more options off either shoulder.But Cheika says any off-field sideshows this week will have no bearing on Saturdays match and it is down to the players to do the talking. All those fun and games [with Eddie] are over now, Cheika said. The game will be decided by the best team of players on the day.All the other bits are sidelines and weve been concentrating on making sure our players are in the best possible spot to play the best possible rugby on Saturday. The match is right in our sights and the real focus behind the scenes has been on making sure weve got the right tactics, getting the selection right and the other stuff is a bit of a laugh.When the dust settles on Saturdays match, Cheika will have holstered the machine gun Jones says he has unloaded this week and the England coach will be, in his own words, sad because the teams got a great spirit and were going to break up with their next match in February.But for two hours on a frosty, bitterly cold December afternoon everything will be on the line at Twickenham. England will be chasing their slice of history while Australia will be doing their best to ruin the party.Its their last chance of redemption because theyve had a tough year and if they win this Test, they can go home happy, Jones said. If we win this Test then we create history. ' ' '