“I don’t know if I was born for it, but I definitely worked my butt off to get to this point….I mean, I guess you I could say i was born for it.” – @KlayThompson 😎 pic.twitter.com/IetVo9UsJO
Stephen Curry scored 35 points in 34:21 in Game 3, the 4th time he had 35+ PTS in 35 min. or less of a postseason game. That's the most playoff games of that kind in the shot-clock era; Curry breaks a tie with Shaquille O'Neal (three such games). @EliasSportspic.twitter.com/lTnJGFz65s
"I don't know if it'll be a career highlight for him, but maybe it will be for me for the pass."@kevinlove on his backdoor dime to LeBron 🤣 pic.twitter.com/TC1nfNFau7
US Basketball just announced the 35 Player roster for this year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup Americas Qualifiers, the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Here are the 35 players and their respective NBA team;
Harrison Barnes – Dallas Mavericks
Bradley Beal – Washington Wizards
Devin Booker – Phoenix Suns
Jimmy Butler – Minnesota Timberwolves
Mike Conley Jr. – Memphis Grizzlies
DeMarcus Cousins – New Orleans Pelicans
Stephen Curry – Golden State Warriors
Anthony Davis – New Orleans Pelicans
DeMar DeRozan – Toronto Raptors
Andre Drummond – Detroit Pistons
Kevin Durant – Golden State Warriors
Paul George – Oklahoma City Thunder
Eric Gordon – Houston Rockets
Draymond Green – Golden State Warriors
Blake Griffin – Detroit Pistons
James Harden – Houston Rockets
Tobias Harris – Los Angeles Clippers
Gordon Hayward – Boston Celtics
Kyrie Irving – Boston Celtics
LeBron James – Cleveland Cavaliers
DeAndre Jordan – Los Angeles Clippers
Kawhi Leonard – San Antonio Spurs
Damian Lillard – Portland Trail Blazers
Kevin Love – Cleveland Cavaliers
Kyle Lowry – Toronto Raptors
CJ McCollum – Portland Trail Blazers
Khris Middleton – Milwaukee Bucks
Victor Oladipo – Indiana Pacers
Chris Paul – Houston Rockets
Isaiah Thomas – Los Angeles Lakers
Klay Thompson – Golden State Warriors
Myles Turner – Indiana Pacers
Kemba Walker – Charlotte Hornets
John Wall – Washington Wizards
Russell Westbrook – Oklahoma City Thunder
The 2017-20 USA Basketball National Team coaching staff features USA head coach and San Antonio Spurs mentor Gregg Popovich.
Not to scare the competition but here’s some trivia about the 35-man team pool of the US Basketball;
The 35 players represent 20 NBA teams, with NBA champion Golden State Warriors featuring four players (Curry, Durant, Green and Thompson), while the Houston Rockets (Gordon, Harden and Paul) boast of a trio of players, and nine teams feature two players, including – Boston Celtics (Hayward and Irving), Cleveland Cavaliers (James and Love), Detroit Pistons (Drummond and Griffin), Indiana Pacers (Oladipo and Turner), Los Angeles Clippers (Harris and Jordan), New Orleans Pelicans (Cousins and Davis), Oklahoma City Thunder (George and Westbrook), Portland Trail Blazers (Lillard and McCollum) and Washington Wizards (Beal and Wall).
Eleven players were members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic gold medal team (Barnes, Butler, Cousins, DeRozan, Durant, George, Green, Irving, Jordan, Lowry and Thompson); seven were gold medalists on the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team (Davis, Durant, Harden, James, Love, Paul and Westbrook); two were members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic gold medalist team (James and Paul); and one was part of the 2004 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist team (James).
Eight national team players were part of the gold medalist 2014 USA World Cup Team (Cousins, Curry, Davis, DeRozan, Drummond, Harden, Irving and Thompson) and five players were members of the 2010 USA World Championship team that won the title (Curry, Durant, Gordon, Love and Westbrook).
The roster includes the last two FIBA World Cup MVPs – 2014 MVP Irving and 2010 MVP Durant.
The 2018 NBA All-Star game featured 17 USA National Team players, including starters Curry, Davis, DeRozan, Durant, Harden, Irving, James and Westbrook; and reserves Beal, Drummond, George, Green, Lillard, Lowry, Oladipo, Thompson and Walker. Four additional players — Butler, Cousins, Love and Wall — also originally were selected to play in the ’18 All-Star game but were unable to participate due to injury.
Four members of the national team pool have won eight of the last nine NBA regular season MVP awards – Westbrook (2017), Curry (2015 and 2016), Durant (2014) and James (2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013).
Durant (2017), James (2012, 2013 and 2016) and Leonard (2014) have won five of the last six NBA Finals MVP awards.
Six USA National player have earned nine NBA All-Star MVP honors, including Davis (2017), Westbrook (2015 and 2016), Irving (2014), Paul (2013), Durant (2012) and James (2006, 2008 and 2018).
NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards have been presented to two USA National Team members – Green (2017) and Leonard (2015 and 2016).
McCollum (2015-16), Butler (2014-15), George (2012-13) and Love (2010-11) have collected NBA Most Improved award honors.
Introducing the 2018-20 USA Basketball Men's National Team pool:
1⃣7⃣ Olympic gold medalists 3⃣0⃣ returning members of the USA Men's National Team pool 3⃣5⃣ athletes in all
China had to muster all the strength they had to survive Kai Sotto’s monster production and prevail over the Philippines in today’s last Semi-Finals match.
Kai Sotto tallied his second straight outrageous stat-line, putting up 26 points, 21 rebounds and 6 blocked shots, but even that was not enough to upend the hosts, who leaned on their offensive rebounding and the clutch shooting of Sun Haoqin to win the contest and earn their place at tomorrow’s Final.
It was a monster from Sotto but he got a big help from Terrence John Fortea, despite the absence of RC Calimag, who was nursing a sore knee. Fortea contributed 18 points and started the started the Gilas run with his two-consecutive 3-points that cut China’s lead to just 2-points.
Batang Gilas will face New Zealand, to decide who will take the 3rd place.
After absorbing a 31-pts loss in the hands of the Australians, Batang Gilas bounce back and defeated Hong Kong in the quarter finals of Fiba Under-16 Asian Championship, in Foshan, China.
The game was actually decided in the first half, where Batang Gilas are enjoying a 25-points lead. You can watch the reply from the video above.
King Balaga lead Batang Gilas is scoring by contributing 12 points, while Kai Sotto grabbed 12 rebounds, 9 of those rebounds are on the defensive end, this is in addition to his 11-points. Rence Keith Sean Padrigao dished 6 assists to help the team.
Batang Gilas next assignment will be Japan this Friday.
THE Philippines could not sustain an early run, absorbing a 52-82 loss to Australia on Wednesday in the Fiba Under-16 Asian Championship in Foshan, China.
I was not able to watch their first game against the Malaysian but this game was a indication that Kai Sotto has a lot of work to do. If he is aiming to be an NBA player or at least be recruited by top US universities, then this is the best place to show what he can do.
The scores:
Australia 82 – Rantall 15, Williamson 14, Travers 11, Capetola 9, Herbert 8, Wigness 8, Sawaka Lo 7, Jackson 6, Meakes 2, Madden 2, Tsapatolis 0.
The result spoiled a triple-double performance from Scottie Thompson, who poured in 10 points, 16 boards, and 16 assists, on top of two steals, and one assist in 42 minutes.
Japeth Aguilar also put up another offensive outburst with 32 points, along with four boards, two assists, one block, and one steal that went to waste.
Despite having monster game from Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar, the Gin Kings still came out short to close out the game.
This will be the fourth straight PBA Philippine Cup Finals appearance by the Beermen. They will face the winner of the NLEX – Magnolia series, which from the looks of things will be a long series.
Inspired by the ancient Pi equation of “squaring the circle,” the UA Curry 5 was designed with one thing in mind—to continue helping Stephen achieve the impossible on court. To celebrate Pi Day and Stephen’s birthday, we’re releasing 314 pairs of the UA Curry 5 “Pi Day” colorway.
“Squaring the circle” is a design inspiration that functionally & aesthetically frames the upper of the Curry 5, with a circular construction built through the framing of the 90-degree angle of the foot.
Containment areas in the forefoot lateral wall & the heel lock in the foot, enabling Stephen to play his game on his toes.
The Pi theme is echoed throughout the shoe design for this specific Black/Metallic Iron colorway. The symbol is featured in the knit of the shoe, 3.14.18 is printed on the lace aglets, numbers of Pi can be found on the sole & the Pi number sequence will be scripted on an exclusively designed shoe box.
UA Curry 5 will have a retail price of $130.
Of all the Curry shoes that UA released, Curry 5 has the best design and will probably the first UA Curry shoes that will put on my sports shopping list. You can visit sc30-v5.com for the shoe’s mini-site.
Trivia: Under Armour Curry 5 debut on Stephen Curry’s 30th Birthday.
.@StephenCurry30 shook up the status quo — smaller, quicker, and shiftier, with range that turned the court into a 40-foot playground. Like Stephen, the #Curry5 is wired different. 314 pairs available for the 3.14 anomaly himself. Shop now. https://t.co/9knykeRzsgpic.twitter.com/pOva8sl4Zq
SMB did not steal game 2, it was given to them by the Gin Kings in the form of miscommunications and turn overs, specially the one that Devance made late in the over time and cost them the game.
It’s a tough loss, specially if you saw that the Gin Kings played their hearts out, only to see them collapse in the end. It’s a good thing that this is a best-of-seven semifinal playoff and the Beermen will need to win two more before they can advance to the Finals. On the other hand, the Gin Kings will be playing a must-win game 3 to avoid the 0-3 hole.