It was a sweet day for team USA; they beat the Argentinian national team 118-81, and LeBron James scored 31 points; a new team USA record for an Olympic qualifier. Dwight Howard added 20 points on 7 of 7 shooting, and Carmelo added 16. It was a first for all three players to go up to the podium for a gold medal. Adrian Wojnarowski over at Yahoo Sports has some more thoughts on this years American FIBA tournament.

Puerto Rico kept it respectable in the first half, going into the third quarter only 15 points down. After that, team USA exploded offensively, scoring 78 points in the second half en route to a 135-91 blowout victory. The game was fun to watch, great passing, solid finishes, above the rim alley oops, and impeccable shooting by the US team in the second half. Michael Redd didn’t come into the game until late into the third quarter at which point he just lit up the scoreboard. He made the first 6 three pointers he attempted and then added 1 more for good measure late in the game. All in all they shot 23-36 (64%) behind the arc (which in international play is moved in to 20 feet and 6 inches), 17 of which can be credited to Redd, Anthony, and Miller.

With Kobe Bryant opening the first quarter with 15 points (and finishing with 27), Team USA quickly showed their dominance in a 91-76 victory over the previously undefeated Argentina. Carmelo Anthony added 18, and LeBron 15 for USA who will face Puerto Rico Saturday night.

Game Highlights

Some highlights of the game appeared on youtube a few hours ago. It’s not the best quality, has a glitch near the middle, and it’ll probably be easier to watch with the sound turned off. Be sure to watch Carmelo Anthony at 40 seconds in, now that’s a poster:

Reporter Elie Seckbach let’s Chris Kaman know just what Shaq thinks of him, while Marko Jaric gets a good laugh.

Well they aren’t going to be playing on the same team anytime in the near future, but they are working together for a good cause this September.

On March 12, 2007 the Houston Rockets played in Phoenix (Leandro Barbosa went insane, making 12-18 shots, and Phoenix won by a country mile).

Steve Nash had something on his mind. After the game, he went to talk to Yao Ming about it, in the tunnel under the stands.

The topic? Orphans.

Specifically, Chinese orphans.

Steve Nash is that kind of thoughtful.

And Yao Ming is receptive to that kind of thought. The two decided that night to try to do something to make the world a bit of a better place.

Source

Hoping to raise over a million dollars for Chinese orphans, Steve Nash and Yao Ming are organizing a charity game Beijing on September 14th this year. Some big names including Carmelo Anthony, Baron Davis, Leandro Barbosa, Derek Fisher, Greg Oden, Bonzi Wells, and Chuck Hayes should be there too. Read the whole story over at Truehoop; Steve Nash and Yao Ming, Making Something Happen