Smack / Sep 2, 2010 / 12:54 am

Team USA beats Iran, beats themselves; Celtics add wild card

By

Lamar Odom (photo. Jeff Forney)

If Fran Fraschilla said it once, he said it a thousand times: Team USA wasn’t playing against Iran yesterday, they were playing against themselves. (Only without the Jay-Z after-party.) So if that was the case, would we call the 37-point “victory” over the guys in the other uniforms a win or a loss? … Hamed Haddadi and Co. weren’t as terrible as you may have been led to believe, but they still weren’t on Team USA’s level. And yet if you wanted the U.S. to improve during this game, you had to be disappointed. Despite forcing 25 turnovers on Iran, the U.S. committed 17 flubs of their own, and in general didn’t tighten up any of their sloppy tendencies … No single player stood out on the American side. Kevin Love was the leading scorer with 13 points, Kevin Durant had 12, Derrick Rose had 11, and Danny Granger scored 10. Everything was pretty much equal across the boards stats-wise, good and bad. Russell Westbrook had the highlight of the day when he caught an ‘oop from K-Love and dunked it backwards with his head grazing the rim … Another point Fraschilla wanted to hammer home: Haddadi (19 pts, 7-22 FG) is a second-string NBA center at best. As much as Fran is all about pumping up internationl dudes, he didn’t seem much of a fan of Haddadi. In the nicest way he could put it, Fraschilla basically told us Haddadi only has a job because he’s tall, he moves slower than Dr. Dre‘s Detox album, he’ll suffer numb-butt on an NBA bench before he has a chance to hurt his ankle on the court, and he has cooties … Next up for Team USA is Tunisia, at 9:30 a.m. EST today. Once again we’ll have you covered on the Dime live blog … If you wanted an entertaining game, Slovenia vs. Brazil was the place to be. Goran Dragic‘s team was up 14 at halftime against a seemingly deflated group of Brazilians, and led by as much as 17 in the fourth quarter before Marcelinho Machado suddenly turned into Glen Rice on NBA Live 96. He scored 11 points and banged three triples during a four-minute stretch where Brazil cut the lead down to two, but then Slovenia PG Jaka Lakovic (20 pts) turned into Mark Price on NBA Jam: Tournament Edition and answered with two huge threes of his own and dimed Boki Nachbar for another three to give Slovenia the cushion back. Machado (20 pts) would hit another trey to make it a five-point game with 12 seconds left, but Dragic iced the W at the line … Other WC stat lines from Wednesday’s pool play: Spain bounced back to administer a 30-piecing on Lebanon, getting 25 points and 8 rebounds from Marc Gasol; Lithuania’s Janus Maciulis (nemesis of Rudy Fernandez) put up 19 points in a win over previously-unbeaten France; Olimpio Cipriano dropped 30 as Angola pulled the upset of the day by beating Germany; Luis Scola dumped 30 points and 13 boards on Jordan in Argentina’s win; Kirk Penney scored 18 in New Zealand’s win over Canada; Ante Tomic‘s 15 and 9 boards helped Croatia get past Tunisia; Ersan Ilyasova posted 13 points and 13 boards as Turkey beat Puerto Rico; Nick Calathes had 15 points, 7 boards and 8 dimes in Greece’s rout of Ivory Coast; Sasha Kaun went for 16 points and 14 rebounds in Russia’s win over China; and Nenad Krstic posted 14 points and 10 rebounds in his first game back from suspension to lead Serbia past Australia … Delonte West signed with the Celtics, and we’re not completely sure whny. He won’t be able to play for the first 10 games of the season, and Boston can just play Nate Robinson and Avery Bradley in whatever role you have envisioned for Delonte, but we do know this much: If he goes anywhere near any woman in Kevin Garnett‘s life, he’ll find himself fighting for elbow room with Jimmy Hoffa … Ex-Boston College and New Jersey Nets shot-blocker Sean Williams signed with a team in Israel. We thought for sure he was headed to Amsterdam. There aren’t any White Castles in Israel that we know of, so that could be a problem … We’re out like Detox …

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  • Mr.Wang

    plz no more delonte/lebron’s mom jokes, thats tooooo easy (like LBJ’s mom)

  • BRUCE

    Delonte! Delonte! Delonte!

  • kingralf

    germany is so bad without dirk, it´s ridiculous

  • EN FUEGO

    So he’s after Ray Allen’s mom now?

  • http://myspace.com/40sand9s Loc

    Deltone is a good look!
    Solid player, how can you even say Avery Bradley can do the same things? He can play the one or two, knock down open jumpers or create for himself and teammates. it is a great pickup IMO.

    Plus, it adds a great element to the Heat/Celtics rivalry.

  • Soopa

    The Cs having Delonte must play to LeBron on some level. Im thinking this is a move for the post season to f*** if James!

  • darkdefender

    Good pick up by the Celts. Delonte’s strength is his ability to penetrate.

    if ya know what i mean.

  • Hi, Jurg from Denmark

    Hi hi,

    @kingscruff you miss great chance too say German miss Dirk is ridirkulous and now you know cos I say it.

    From your jurgo

  • Chise

    Real talk, Ray Allen’s mom looks soooooooo good. She’s outta delonte’s league.

  • Chise

    I’m trippin. She doesn’t look as good as I remembered.

  • ab_40

    Sorry folks Amsterdam has no money this year to buy potsmoking yanks this year.

    Oh and if possible boston just got more cocky.
    Only doc rivers is sort of humble and maybe some rookies whom KG makes cry during preseason and practice. All the guys in the rotation are going to talk shit all game long.

  • darkdefender

    Delonte excels at taking it to the hole and finishing strong.

    if ya know what i mean.

  • ManilaFTW

    Delonte operates best when going for the back door, taking it strong and exploding to the hole.

    if you know what I mean

  • alf (from melmak)

    Off topic. And this is going to be a bit long, so please bear with me.

    I have been a loyal fan of Dime since the time it can still be read on Fox Sports. Dime to me had an unmistakable attitude, thinks out of the box, carried fresh ideas, funny, and witty.

    For the most part, Dime has held up in providing insights without holding its punches while also taking extra care not to be offensive on anyone.

    So it comes as a surprise why Andrew Macaluso has been allowed to post articles that in no way does Dime any favor.

    This person’s two poorly written articles (for lack of a better term) have lowered the standards with which we have loved Dime and yet he has the nerve to be cocky and arrogant to the readers.

    If he was a regular employee, such unprofessionalism would result in immediate termination. If he was just on internship, all the more that this person should be cut.

    Also, Dime, journalists should always do research to support what they are writing and do them without any bias. And old news should never be rehashed in whatever form. A newspaper editor once said that you are not a journalist if you cannot write two new stories a day. And please do not give me the argument about bloggers.

    There is an old IT phrase, garbage in garbage out. I hope Dime knows what to do with its garbage.

    I might be alone on this. But just in case, if any of you agree with me, I want you guys to shout: “Enough of Andrew Macaluso”

    Note: The top 100 reasons is suspended for today.

  • K Dizzle

    “Delonte West signed with the Celtics, and we’re not completely sure whny. He won’t be able to play for the first 10 games of the season, and Boston can just play Nate Robinson and Avery Bradley in whatever role you have envisioned for Delonte”

    Who been writin Smack lately?
    How you don’t get why a team with Boston’s veteran presence would bring a 6 year vet with career averages of 10,3 and 3 who can back up your point and offguard, makes plays and ds up off the bench? It’s called a calculated risk. High risk, really high reward. NBA is a 82 game season so who cares if dude misses 10 games?
    Do better…

    @ Alf – I was kinda hopin that if we didn’t talk about him, he would just go away…

  • Three Stacks

    I take Delonte and his shotgun over KG’s mean mug and bulging eyes anyday.

    It’s never a good idea to fuck with someone you already know is crazy.

    Whether he fucked Lebron’s mom or not, I don’t think Delonte West actively pursues going after teammate’s mothers.

    I say that Lebron’s mom is just a ho, and Delonte is just so ghetto that he doesn’t give a fuck whose mother she is or how old and ugly she is. If this rumor were actually true, don’t you think that would be the most likely scenario?

    Delonte West is a professional athlete with a multi-million dollar salary. Based ONLY on that small bit of information being public, I doubt he needs to be fuckin old bitches. A young man in general doesn’t fcuk w/ an with old bitch unless she throws herself at him.

    So I say Lebron’s mom is ho, and she was just doing what she does.

  • Three Stacks

    @ Alf

    Wow dude, are you just one of those crazy “hate on em for no reason” people or are you like some failed Dime reject upset he never got a byline? If the kid sucks, he’ll figure out he sucks eventually. Only White Chicks write letters of complaint.

    Besides, if facts were unchecked, I would say most of the blame lies in the editor. You can’t let some college kid write an article that’s gonna be read nationally by knowledgeable people w/o checking if all the facts are correct, that’s just careless. You kinda expect the kids to make mistakes, though.

  • Nigel

    Delonte i a good pickup for the C’s. I expected them to make this move a while ago. With Tony Allen gone, they had no guy who can do a decent job guarding Kobe. West should do just as good a job as Allen did on Kobe should these to teams meet in the Finals again.

  • Jdstorm

    If Corey Maggette is “bad porn”
    then delonte should be ” the rumor”

  • Captain Fantastic

    If D-West is going to the Celtics, where will Gloria James ride?

  • SJ

    Dwest is too high of a risk for the Celtics with all his off-court shit. Bad move IMO, but we’ll see how it plays out.

  • darkdefender

    FFS West did not sleep with Gloria James… Apparently lebron was actually happy to let Delonte F his mother.

    The problem was that Delonte thought F stood for “Fist”.

  • http://www.dimemag.com Celts Fan

    How dopnt you get the Delonte thing? He’s well-liked here and does all the things they HOPE Avery Bradley – who’s been hurt btw – can do in his ROOKIE YEAR, after just 1 in college. It’s solidifying depth if Bradley’s ready and, if not, it’s insurance to let the kid develop. Delonte can play and guard either guard spot and hit an open jumper. Also the deal’s nonguaranteed, so if there’s an issue, you just get rid of dude. Rondo, Pierce, and Doc all went to Danny and vouxhed for him as a teammate and it aint like he wasn’t bipolar 5 years ago when he was here.

    I LOVE this move. I’d dump Nate before Delonte.

  • schoops

    Holy shit, Alf you weren’t kidding. I thought you were being over the top, but then I read a few of Andrew’s “articles,” and just wow. I’ve accepted Dime isn’t what it was 4 years ago, but still, Andrew’s writing is a new low.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mr.brogden BERN BROGDEN

    WOW! So now Boston’s got a BOATLOAD of guards…aka The Expendables. hahaha

    RONDO – starting pg, gives dynamic production. aint goin’ nowhere

    RAY – starting sg, shuttlesworth needs no intro. aint goin’ nowhere

    AVERY BRADLEY – hmmmm, intriguing prospect. could be great pro. or really good…

    MARQUIS DANIELS – Q6 definitely has ability, and i’m not talking about his rapping skills. good utility guard.

    OLIVER LAFAYETTE – dont know too much about the d-leaguer.

    NATE ROBINSON – mini-bron. athleticism off the charts. despite his ego, he’s a gamer. and a keeper.

    VON WAFER – 1 thing we know, he can shoot his azz off. mercurial to say the least. attitude problem. even found himself in rick adelman’s dog house. never played for Carlisle even though Cuban gave him a contract. maybe he’s made some personal adjustments. but, and it’s a big one. he got cut by a euro squad

    DELONTE WEST – hard nosed, defensive minded, gritty baller. silky smooth midrange game. decent 3pt shooter. can put the ball on the floor. a relentless fan of milfs.

    If I’m Danny Ainge – who do I let go??

    VON ROLL, LAFAYETTE, and DANIELS

    I’m not the most certain about that though…intrigued by what Avery might be…

  • Claw

    Get off the Lebron’s mom jokes, need to get off Lebron’s mom, because Delonte just got off her.

  • LakeShow84

    I like Andrew..

    I think hes a Laker fan lol

  • That’s What’s Up

    Alf = Bitter Bridesmaid

  • LakeShow84

    Shit im just glad the top 100 reason is suspended until further notice..

  • http://www.gw2gold.org/ guild wars 2 gold

    yes,They need not beat for Iran, they just need beat for themselves, sometimes power can’t decide anything, if you want to success, you should have a good attitude and the activity.

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