In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

The Suns
Another good game! I mean, it was against the Grizzlies--but it was a big forceful follow up to Sunday's win. Now they need to keep it going.

Recaps: Associated Press, East Valley Tribune, Arizona Republic.

According to the Republic, the Suns have been improving on both ends of the floor.

Grant Hill is doing better on defense. I guess he feels like he has something to prove. (Also in that first link, how cool is this? Phoenix recorded its 1,800th victory in club history in its 3,229th game [against the Spurs]. Only the Celtics, 76ers and Lakers won 1,800 in fewer games.)

Shaq has to resort to hitchhiking, because he can't park his huge truck anywhere. Thank goodness he's flexible. (More pictures here.)

Other NBA News
Caron Butler has returned to practice. Antawn Jamison is like a kid at Christmas.

Nellie's been asked back, now it's up to him to decide what he wants.

Pat Riley has decided that the Heat's season is over, and has shut Wade down to recover from his injuries. This makes me feel bad for Marion. He's going to really end up appreciating what he had with the Suns. Or he's going to be happy being the number one guy for the first time in his career. It's a toss up.

FIBA and Other International Stuff
What the Olympics mean to players in the NBA. The article mostly looks at international players (I'm not complaining on that count), and mostly at the Lakers (blah).

After reading this article, I really want to go to games in other countries. It reminded me strongly of watching the Mexico v Argentina game at the FIBA Americas.

The WNBA
Becky Hammon from the San Antonio Silver Stars has generous and thoughtful fans.

WNBA Moves:
* In a move that shouldn't surprise anyone, the Detroit Shock re-signed their big three.
* The Silver Stars re-signed Becky Hammon ( to a contract extension through 2011) and Ruth Riley (to a two-year deal).
* The Phoenix Mercury re-signed Tangela Smith to a three-year contract.
* Connecticut Sun forward Nykesha Sales is taking a year off to recover from injuries. She should rehab with Dwyane Wade. Or not.
* The Washington Mystics signed Amber Jacobs (of the Minnesota Lynx) to an offer sheet. The Lynx have until Saturday the 15th to match or beat the offer. I know this one isn't too big a deal, but I'm a Mystics fan, so I'm putting it in here.

I just realized that Ray Allen is going to Boston, where there is no WNBA team for his daughter and him to support! And here I was all excited for him to be on a team with Allan Ray. Basically for no other reason than the symmetric silliness.

But I guess that he has more than enough money to go down to Connecticut (or anywhere else he wants to go) for a game. So that's something.

In international basketball news, I'm going to go to an entire day's games of the FIBA Americas! I get to see Brazil, USA, Argentina, Canada, Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. It was affordable too.

Brazil has almost all of the major players accounted for. Nene has decided to stop being an ass about Team Brazil, and should be playing this summer. Tiago Splitter isn't yet playing for Popovich (who has a reputation for convincing his players not to play for their national teams), so he'll be there. Anderson Varejao is his usual excited self, and seems to be completely committed to the team.

Barbosa is a different story. He seems committed to the team, but I'm not sure if he'll be able to act on that commitment this summer. I was angry about how he was playing in the Spurs series, but as it turns out he was injured and in need of surgery. So I guess I owe him an apology.

The recuperation might interfere with the tournament, and also he has problems with insurance. I love the fact that he's made this a public issue in the press. Now granted, that article came out almost three weeks ago, but I haven't heard anything new on this subject. (Although FIBA is terrible at all things internet-related and it's not like the American press cares about international teams, so anything is possible.)

This all means that if insurance gets dealt with and he recuperates well, I could be seeing Leandrinho in August. Which, y'know, is all that really matters. Right?

(Also interesting, at least as a footnote, is his work with the college basketball system in Brazil. This is in huge contrast with Nene, who basically said, "fix it yourself.")

I need to figure out pithy ways to name my posts

Well, even if the rest of the day sucked, we got another satisfying win tonight against the Kings to help wash the taste of last week out of our collective mouths.

Again D'Antoni went 10 deep on the bench again, albeit barely. Stat had an amazing game. 33 points and 21 rebounds? When the man puts his mind to it, he's unstoppable. Yeah, the Kings were missing Ron Artest, but I have little sympathy around that. Diaw's double double was also nice to see.

I'm very glad to find out that Leandro Barbosa is doing alright. I was watching the play-by-play and box score, so I didn't actually know that he was hurt, but I have a soft spot the size of Brazil for the guy and would have been worried had he needed to miss a game.

I'm curious about Marcus Banks. I honestly don't think that he has much of a role to play on the team. I feel like D'Antoni has all but given up on him (and I would not blame him if I were to actually hear that that's the case). But I've both read and been told about his prowess on defense. So, a. Why are we not using him more for that, and b. Why does he seem to collect so many fouls? Is he that much of a hustler? It seems as though someone who was good at D (like Shawn Marion) would be quick enough and savvy enough to rarely pick up fouls (unlike Banks' two in three and a half minutes). Or maybe that's just me.

I am so excited about the FIBA Americas Championship this summer. I'm going to one game, and I think I have them ranked in order of preference. From highest preference to lowest, I want to see Brazil v Virgin Islands, Brazil v Canada, Brazil v Venezuela, and Brazil v USA.

I really like Argentina, but otherwise couldn't care about Group A. I also like Team USA alright, but I don't think I really want to go to that game. For one thing I like Brazil more, and I don't think they have a big chance. For another, well, hubris. Also I don't think I'm likely to score tickets, and I don't want to go and be fussed at for liking the "wrong" team. I had enough of that rooting for Portugal in the World Cup.

I hope Raja Bell plays for the Virgin Islands, because that would make it very fun to watch.

Next up for the Suns, oddly, it's Sacramento again. This time it's in California and it's actually going to be on national TV. ABC Sunday at 330pm EST.