Gasol, Rubio face elimination at Worlds; Who starts for the Cavs?
Ricky Rubio, Dime #43
Everybody had the day off at the World Championship, as pool play is wrapped and we move to the knockout round. Today it’ll be Serbia vs. Croatia, and Spain vs. Greece in a matchup that is happening way earlier than anyone expected. After losing two games in pool play (to France and Lithuania), Spain can’t pretend like they haven’t gotten their wake-up call. Marc Gasol put up 25 points and 8 boards in what was basically a must-win against Lebanon, and is averaging 15.4 points and 7.2 boards in the tournament. Rudy Fernandez (shooting), J.C. Navarro (scoring) and Ricky Rubio (dishing) are doing their thing, and even Fran Vazquez showed up the other day (more than can be said about his Orlando Magic career). But Spain could really use Pau Gasol right now. There’s no more room for them to come out flat, or to overlook any opponent … Not that anybody would overlook Greece. Since Linas Kleiza just signed with the Raptors, Greece has to be the best team in the world that doesn’t have a current NBA player on its roster. Vassilis Spanoulis (14 ppg) is shooting at a Steve Nash-like clip, hitting 52% from the field, 46% from three and 84% at the line, and now that Baby Shaq (11.6 ppg, 5.0 rpg) is back in the fold, they’ve added a stronger inside presence. This game really could go either way, but we’ll take Spain in a close one … Meanwhile, how often does an NBA guy develop a reputation as a goon during the offseason? Nenad Krstic (16 ppg, 9 rpg) seems to have a little extra goonishness about him ever since the brawl, and Serbia is looking real good after beating Argentina the other day. Plus, you know the results of today’s games could lead to a Greece/Serbia rematch. Extra security, please … As for team USA, they play Angola on Monday for the right to play the winner of Russia/New Zealand. There was a lot of talk about how Brazil would give the U.S. problems with their big men, but Russia has a decent crop of bigs, too. Timofey Mozgov (7-1) should get significant playing time for the Knicks next season, and Sasha Kaun (6-11), who was part of the ’08 NCAA championship team at Kansas, is one of the better centers in Russia’s pro league … If NZ survives, American fans will get a look at Kirk Penney. Remember how guys like Sarunas Jasikevicius and Oscar Schmidt used to give Team USA ruthless buckets? Expect the same from Penney. The 6-5 guard is dropping 25 ppg in the WC so far, including a 37 against Lithuania. He might shoot the chinstrap off Eric Gordon‘s face … On the same day we learned Lance Stephenson — who’s very likely looking at an NBA suspension — has been barred from working out at the Pacers’ facility while his assault case goes through the legal process, we learned NFL commissioner Roger Goodell dropped Ben Roethlisberger‘s suspension from six to four games. Has David Stern ever gone back and reduced a suspension that significant? Like if we’d found out the guy who provoked Ron Artest had pissed in that cup, would Stern have given Ron a lighter sentence? … Byron Scott is shaking things up in Cleveland. According to Scott, every starting spot on the Cavs is wide open going into training camp — which could be cliche, but may actually be true for everybody Mo Williams. During summer league, Scott said he would consider starting J.J. Hickson at the four and bringing Antawn Jamison off the bench, so not even a 20-and-10 guy is secure. If you’re in Scott’s shoes, who do you start? … If you’re in the L.A. area today, stop by the famous Venice Beach courts, where the semifinals of the VBL summer tournament tip-off at 1 p.m. You probably remember the Venice courts as those from the first basketball scenes in White Men Can’t Jump (“I took ‘Air’ Michael Jordan to the hole!”), but it’s not all Hollywood out there. The best players in L.A. go there to be tested. Check the video below for the Top 10 Venice Basketball League plays of the week … We’re out like Jasikevicius …
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September 4th, 2010 at 1:09 am
bobby stew says:
Mo, Parker, Jamison, Hickson, Verejao
September 4th, 2010 at 1:13 am
quest??? says:
LMAO look at carlos’s arroyo new music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slsNUqOJqUc&feature=player_embedded
September 4th, 2010 at 2:50 am
Young Gunner says:
I really need to hit up the basketball courts in Venice and Rucker one of these days and see how I fare. Most likely ill hold my own against prime competition they have there
September 4th, 2010 at 5:42 am
K Dizzle says:
LMAO @ the announcer on the Venice Beach hilights…..
Corny, dog.
Cavs can go Gibson, Enenga, Hickson, Powe and Varejao.
Youth is served and Harrison Barnes is on the way lol
September 4th, 2010 at 5:48 am
J says:
Gibson can’t pg, Hickson can’t guard 3′s and does not possess the skillset to play that position, Powe is fairly undersized for a starting 4 and Varejao is best paired with an offensive post player. Don’t know who Enenga is. The only thing this lineup is good at is getting the experience and tanking.
September 4th, 2010 at 6:33 am
K Dizzle says:
@ J
Exactly.
Call it the Miami school of tanking.
Cavs ain’t competin or goin anywhere. Might as well get a high draft pick and play the kids…
September 4th, 2010 at 6:34 am
sans says:
Christian Eyenga jumped (literally with his legs) from Africa to the US for the upcoming season…..as a Cavs fan I’d go: Mo, Parker, Twan, JJ, Varejao….and that ain’t pretty….I’m out, twisting my arms, having caught the holy ghost from watching Bone collector work.,.
September 4th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Smitty012 says:
Annoucer is soooo corny
September 4th, 2010 at 7:25 am
porkpiehat says:
Williams, Parker, Moon(don’t laugh, he’s productive), Jamison and Varejao…Sessions backs up at the one and occasionally the two, Joey Graham as the primary wing backup(ouch!), Leon Powe at the 4 and JJ Hickson doing his Udonis Haslem as a little big. That’s a nine man rotation, and there’s almost no way they make the playoffs with it. 30-35 wins maybe.
The best thing about Cleveland’s roster is that a lot of those guys are pretty good defenders, and they’re veteran enough to know how to act. They are going to struggle mightily to score, though, as they have no post scorer and a bunch of trigger happy streak shooters on the perimeter. Good luck, Coach Scott.
Also, Greece over Spain, and over everybody. That’s a good team with five or six NBA quality guys (Diamantidis is my favorite) and a lot of cohesion. Greece is the word.
September 4th, 2010 at 7:28 am
MJ3008 says:
I just love seein dudes play ball in some Tims haha
September 4th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Kyle says:
Greece will not beat Spain unless Linas Kleiza gpes insane(he’s had a few NBA games for the Nuggets when allowed to take shots he has shown what a star he could be.)
Now if he pulls a 38 point, 9 board, 2 block game out of nowhere… Greece easily wins. But everyone wants to see Rubio(is he a poor man’s Nash without a true jumper?) Or is he the second coming of Pistol Pete? I’m sick of waiting, and want to see if he can hold his own in the NBA(sure, he played well with only his left hand against USA while they were missing Calderon), but the NBA is an 82 game grind against real athletes every night.
September 4th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Kyle says:
As for the Cavs, they should let Jamison take 20-23 shots a game like the Wizards did with his whole team injured and he put up 32 points a game. Sure, they got swept, but he kept them in a few games while Barkley said, “they should triple-team him since he’s the only real scoring threat.”
Oh, and maybe they should try to get some of these Greek/Spanish stars to come play for them…
September 4th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Promoman says:
The announcer is just plain garbage. I had to mute less than halfway through.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:39 am
KingOfTheRinGZ says:
Linas Kleiza is not from Greece, He is from Lithuania
Im hoping for a rematch of Spain vs USA…That’ll be good
Greece is also a legit squad…either team will pose a big threat for Team USA
September 4th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Shiptar says:
@Kyle: hahaha, man get your facts straight… and Lebron is probably from Virgin Islands, right?
September 4th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Chicagorilla says:
@DIME,
Nice video but the announcer was lame as ish even lamer than the #1 play with the guy overracting to a simple alley-oop.
Starting 5 for CLV
Pg – Garbage
SG – Garbage
SF – Garbage
PF – Jamison
C – Garbage
Harrison Barnes, Tyler Honeycutt(don’t sleep) or Brandon Knight will be suiting up for them next year. If they get barnes, it could start another revolution as I believe that kid is the “next”.
September 4th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Atom says:
You got to put the best guys out there so Im going with my man Sans’ lineup above: Mo, Parker, Twan, JJ, Sideshow. The lottery is calling gentlemen.
September 4th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
K Dizzle says:
Cleveland needs to man up and just tell their fans, “Look y’all, we had Lebron for 6 years and that didn’t do shit so we just gonna tank a season, find out which of the youngins can play. Let’s face it, Moon and Parker ain’t part of future plans. So we’re gonna tank this season, blame it on Lebron, and then get Knight or Barnes in the draft. We could play Mo, AJ, Moon and Parker and be “competitive”n but why? We ain’t goin nowhere. So why play for the 5th pick when we can go for #1.
Peace”
September 4th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
hohum says:
Why is streetballers get so excited about putting the ball through the hoop, that they clown around afterward? Is it because its so rare they actually make a basket?
September 5th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Karonte says:
“porkpiehat says:
Also, Greece over Spain, and over everybody. That’s a good team with five or six NBA quality guys (Diamantidis is my favorite) and a lot of cohesion. Greece is the word.”
Greece is B.llSh.t. After letting themselve loose against Russia cause they were afraid to play against USA, they got lost against a Spanish team without Pau&Calderon. They got as far as Angola…what a shame of a team..