NEW YORK -- The new WNBA playoff format involving the top eight teams will set up an exciting last few weeks of the season when the league returns from the monthlong Olympic break.Los Angeles and Minnesota have already clinched playoff spots and look to be near locks for the top two seeds. With that comes a bye to the semifinals. New York is almost assured of the three seed, barring a major collapse in September. Those three teams have pretty much led The Associated Press WNBA power poll all season.The rest of the playoff picture is wide open with eight teams within 4.5 games of each other. Whoever finishes fourth will get a first-round bye along with New York, while the fifth through eighth teams will face off for one game in opening-round matches.Its definitely different and you want to at least get one of those first-round byes, Indiana Fever star Tamika Catchings said. Those last few weeks when we come back should be exciting.The league decided before the season to change the playoff format, getting away from traditional conferences and choosing the top eight teams by record to make the postseason among the 12 WNBA teams.---POWER POLL: Los Angeles, Minnesota and New York still sit in top three spots in AP power poll. A look at this weeks WNBA poll:1. Los Angeles (21-3): The Sparks will be well rested when the Olympic break ends with none of their stars playing in Rio.2. Minnesota (21-4): No rest for the Lynx, with four of their players in Rio along with coach Cheryl Reeve. The Lynx enter the break with six consecutive wins.3. New York (18-8): The Liberty may be the deepest team in the league and will most likely get Epiphanny Prince, sidelined with a knee injury, back after the break.4. Indiana (12-12): The Fever moved up to their highest ranking, winning five of their last six games, buoyed by the strong play of Lynetta Kizer.5. Atlanta (13-12): Dream got some good news about Sancho Lyttle, who may return near the end of the season after breaking a bone in her right foot.6. Chicago (11-13): Starting to get hot, winning four of its last six games.7. Phoenix (10-14): Just as it looked like the Mercury turned the corner, they slumped by dropping four of last six.8. Seattle (9-15): Its going to be a busy break for the Storm -- five players are headed to Rio.9. Connecticut (8-16): The Sun ended the break on the rise with consecutive victories.10. Dallas (9-16): The Wings have dropped six consecutive games. They hope to regroup and make a playoff push.11. Washington (9-15): The Mystics had a miserable West coast trip and it didnt get better at home, having lost seven straight games.12. San Antonio (5-17): The Stars have a lot of work to do during the break.---PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Chiney Ogwumike is rounding back into the form that helped her win 2014 rookie of the year. Connecticuts star forward averaged 18 points, 9 rebounds and 3.5 blocks to help the Sun win both their games last week. Others receiving votes included: Chicagos Elena Delle Donne, Minnesotas Sylvia Fowles, Indianas Lynetta Kizer and Los Angeles Nneka Ogwumike.---NO TIMEOUT: The WNBA and the players will use the Olympic break to keep up the dialogue on social activism. After originally fining three teams and their players for wearing black warm-up shirts, the league decided to rescind those fines over the weekend. Custom Mets Jerseys . It is a cliché dragged out by fans and pundits regularly when discussions take place around which teams are better than others. Wholesale Custom Mets Shirts . A big centre with all the tools to be an elite player, Johansen paced the Blue Jackets with a standout game Saturday night. He had a goal and two assists for a career-high three points as Columbus beat the New York Islanders 5-2 to snap a five-game losing streak. http://www.custommetsjersey.com/ . It was hard for Luck to pull off another comeback, or even get into the end zone, while standing on the sideline. Rivers threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to rookie Keenan Allen and Nick Novak kicked four field goals to give the Chargers a 19-9 victory against the Colts on Monday night. Mookie Wilson Jersey Large . If ever they start actually putting pictures beside words in the dictionary, the Blue Jays left-handers mug will appear beside “Consistency. Authentic Custom Mets Jersey . Having already announced that the race will start May 9 with three stages in Northern Ireland and Ireland and finish in Trieste on June 1, the rest of the route was unveiled Monday. MONTREAL -- The World Anti-Doping Agency has detailed serious failings of doping control management at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, saying the system was saved from collapsing only by the enormous resourcefulness and goodwill of some key staff.In a 55-page report from its independent observer team led by British lawyer Jonathan Taylor, WADA said the logistical issues, which put a strain on the testing process, were foreseeable and entirely avoidable during the Games in August.The report blamed a lack of coordination, budget cutbacks, tension between the local organizing committee and Brazils anti-doping agency, and inadequate training for the problems that included days when only half of the out-of-competition samples could be collected in the athletes village.Ultimately, many athletes targeted for testing in the athletes village simply could not be found and the mission had to be aborted, the report said. On some days, up to 50 per cent of planned target tests were aborted in this way.The report, which was released by the Montreal-based agency Thursday, said the sample collection process in the village was so strained that it came close to breaking point.Ultimately, it was only due to the enormous resourcefulness and goodwill of some key doping control personnel working at the games that the process did not break down entirely, the report said. Due to their initiative, tenacity and professionalism in the face of great difficulties, the many problems identified above were patched over and sample collection was conducted in a manner that ensured the identity and integrity of the samples.In another key failure, the report said no out-of-competition testing was conducted in soccer and that there was little or no in-competition blood testing in some high risk-sports, including weightlifting.Doping was heavily in the spotlight in the months leading up to the Rio Games, with allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia leading to sanctions against some Russian athletes and the retesting of 840 samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics barring dozens of other athletes from competing in Brazil.During the Rio Games, seven athletes in four sports -- weightlifting, cycling, swimming and track and field -- were sanctioned for doping offenses. The seven included one medalist -- weightlifter Izzat Artykov of Kyrgyzstan, who was stripped of a bronze in the mens 69-kilogram division.WADA said the role of its observer team is to help instill confidence in the quality, effectiveness and reliability of the anti-doping program for the Olympics and to make recommendations for improvements.Richard Budgett, the International Olympic Committees medical director, said the report showed the integrity of the program was ensured despite some challenges the organizing committee had to overcome ... such as a lack of resources and trained volunteers and sttaff.ddddddddddddHe said the reports recommendations would be studied by the IOC and passed on to a new independent testing body that is being set up ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.Many of the recommendations related to training and treatment of volunteers, proper attention to rosters and protocol, more lead-time for doping control officers in the venues, and better logistics and equipment to locate athletes for out-of-competition testing.Poor planning, transport issues and a lack of catering for chaperones resulted in a higher-than-expected rate of absences, adding to the burden on doping control officers and other delegates.A total of 3,237 athletes from 137 countries were tested during the Games, representing 28.6 percent of the 11,303 athletes who participated. Of those, 2,611 -- or 23.1 percent -- were tested once, 527 were tested twice, 81 were tested three times, and one was tested six times.Some problems outlined by WADAs observers:? There were almost 500 fewer tests conducted than organizers had planned during the Games. The samples taken included 4,037 urine tests, 411 blood tests and 434 blood plus ABP or ABP blood tests for a total of 4,882, significantly short of the 5,380 targeted.? Data entry errors led to nearly 100 samples analyzed by the anti-doping laboratory not being matched to an athlete. WADA said about 40 percent of those were because of the recording of an incorrect bottle code in the computer system but noted that Rio organizers assisted the IOC in correcting the errors so the samples could be matched to athletes and their testing histories could be updated.? The expected daily maximum of 350 urine samples was never reached during the Games. The highest daily total was 307 on Aug. 11, but on the majority of days, fewer than 200 urine samples were received.? Blood testing sections were underused, with some shifts at the laboratory having no blood samples to analyze at the beginning of the Games.As a result ... full analytical capacity was not exploited, which is disappointing, given that the latest equipment and best experts in the world were available, the report said.On a positive note, WADA commended the IOC for embracing new advances in the fight against doping, including the creation of the Pre-Games Intelligence Taskforce, which reported on July 24 that 4,125 of the 11,470 athletes on the entrants list for the Games had no record of any testing in 2016, including 1,913 from sports identified as higher risk.WADA also said the Brazilian anti-doping laboratory was superbly equipped and operated very securely and generally very efficiently, and now represents an outstanding legacy from the Games for the anti-doping movement in South America. ' ' '