Category: NBA (Page 529 of 595)

Team USA has had a pretty easy go of it thus far in the World Championships, but they faced a test today against Italy, eventually prevailing, 94-85, over the silver medal winner in the 2004 Olympics.

The U.S. led by six after the first quarter, but had a miserable second quarter, as Italy outscored the U.S. 26-11 in the period to take a nine-point halftime lead. For those that watched the Olympic debacle, it was the same old mistakes that continue to plague the U.S. team in international play – stagnant, one-on-one offense; poor shot selection and sloppy defense.

But the difference in this year’s team is head coach Mike Krzyzewski. After halftime, the team put on a 32-19 run in the third quarter to take a four-point lead at the end of the period. Krzyzewski started the half with a different lineup that the one that started the game: Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Elton Brand. Clearly, he challenged the group, and they responded.

Anthony, whose game translates internationally better than James and Wade due to his ability to shoot from all over the court, caught fire in the third, posting 19 points in the period. Meanwhile, Wade chipped in 11 to help give his team a lead going into the final period. Slowly, the U.S. built its lead, and eventually put the game out of reach. Anthony and Wade finished with 35 and 26 points, respectively, while Elton Brand added 16 points in the win. Marco Belinelli led Italy with 25 points in the loss. The 20 year-old reminds me of a young Brent Barry, and it’s quite possible that we’ll see him in the NBA in the near future. For some reason, #1 draft pick Andrea Bargnani is not playing with his national team, even though he has been called the future of Italian basketball.

Italy’s style is similar to that of Spain, Greece and Argentina, three teams that many feel have a good shot to prevail this summer, so this was a good test for Team USA. Once the next round begins, it’s single elimination, so the U.S. will need to be on the top of its game if it hopes to re-establish itself as the premier basketball program in the world.

Well, it was months in the making, but the Indiana Pacers finally landed Al Harrington…again.

The Pacers acquired Harrington and center John Edwards in a sign-and-trade deal Tuesday for a 2007 first-round draft pick. ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reports that Harrington’s new contract is for four years and is worth $35.3 million. He has a player option in Year 4, meaning Harrington can return to the open market as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2009.

The Pacers were able to sign Harrington because they worked out a trade, which sent Peja Stojakovic to the Hornets and gave Indiana a $7.5 M trade exception in return. This gave the team the inside track to completing a sign-and-trade because the exception allows the deal to be structured in such a way that the Hawks don’t have to take on equal salary in return. The Hornets were going to sign Stojakovic outright, but instead agreed to the deal because they knew that they were likely keeping Harrington away from a possible playoff contender in the West. This was a very savvy move by both the Pacers and the Hornets.

In Harrington, Indiana has a versatile power forward that they can play alongside Danny Granger and Jermaine O’Neal. The backcourt is in flux, but if they are able to get that nailed down, the Pacers should be back in the thick of it in the 2006-07 season.

Team USA dominated the second quarter, taking a 66-49 lead at halftime and never looked back en route to a 114-95 win over Slovenia.

“We started off slow,” [LeBron] James said. “We have had a problem starting out slow lately and we have to get that situated. The second group came in, put extremely good pressure on and then the first group came back in and kept up the pressure. We got some easy buckets off our defense and took care of business. It’s very important to keep it up in the second half. Halftime is one of those times where you can get a letdown if you aren’t careful. Tonight we didn’t let that happen. We knew that Slovenia is a very good team, so we had to take care of business.”

Dwayne Wade led all scorers with 20, while James chipped in with 19. Chris Paul led the team in assists (9) yet again, and has done a terrific job running the offense.

Team USA faces their biggest test tomorrow when the face Italy, who is also 3-0 in the preliminary round. The game is on ESPN2 at 6:30 AM ET. See the entire schedule here.

The swarming defense of Team USA limited the effectiveness of China’s best player, Yao Ming, en route to a 121-90 blowout in the preliminary round of the FIBA World Championship.

“We wanted to play better than we did against Puerto Rico,” [Carmelo] Anthony said. “I think we took a huge step forward. We had to be about three times better than we were against Puerto Rico. I think we played better than we did last night. I’m not saying that Puerto Rico was a bad team. For us, we played a lot better than we did last night We knew that China was going to try to make a run.”

Dwayne Wade led the team with 26 points while Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony each added 16 points. Howard led all rebounders with 11, while Chris Paul once again led Team USA in assists, dishing out eight dimes in the game.

Team USA plays Slovenia on Tuesday at 6:30 AM on ESPN2. See the entire schedule here.