August 31, 2010

Carlos Arroyo has not played since suffering an injury against Russia in Puerto Rico’s Group C opener on Saturday and will not be back until at least Thursday, the final day of Preliminary Round play.

Arroyo took a knee to his left quadriceps area, very close to his hip and had some internal bleeding.

Puerto Rico head coach Manolo Cintron confirmed his star guard’s condition is improving but that no precise timeline could be set for his return.

“We take it day by day. If you ask me, he’s not ready yet. I think he can be ready for Thursday’s game,” he said.

Canada has once again given up a fourth quarter lead to suffer their third consecutive defeat, falling out of contention for the FIBA World Championship after their 68-63 loss to France.
 
Free throws proved the difference in the final period, where neither France nor Canada could create open shots. Canada hit 7/10 for the term compared to France’s 8/8, with the North Americans hitting just 3/6 in the final five minutes.
 
While Canada’s effort was tremendous, pulling in four offensive rebounds in the final term, they could not hit the open shots those boards created.
 
For France, Nicolas Batum (24 points, 7 rebounds) was superb, making big shots throughout the game, including 17 points in the second half. Canada’s Levon Kendall – who missed two wide open three pointers to tie the game deep in the fourth - finished with 15 points, while Kelly Olynyk made a sparkling FIBA World Championship debut with 13 points on 4/5 shooting.
 
Canada started strongly, with Kendall scoring five quick points to set up an 8-3 lead. In a physical struggle, the Road Warriors held that lead until a 6-2 France run in the final minute tied the scores at 15-15 at quarter time.
 
The arm wrestle continued in the second term, with Canada pushing the ball but struggling to break the French transition defence, while France had no answer for the tough interior defence of Joel Anthony and Kendall. A 28-28 deadlock at half time was the result.
 
France threatened to slip away in the third term when they led by four, but Kendall and Olynyk – Canada’s captain at last year’s FIBA U19 World Championship – strung together important buckets to give their country a 48-46 three quarter time lead.
 
France play Lithuania Wednesday night in a game that could decide first place in Group D. Canada faces New Zealand but in reality have little more to play for than pride.

It was certainly a welcome sight for Rockets  fans last week—Yao Ming, moving confidently, working up a sweat, banging around in one-on-one situations with teammate Chuck Hayes. Last year, Houston put up a valiant effort in trying to slip into the playoffs in the West, but came up just short. But there was a general overall confidence when it came to the Rockets, because this year, Yao was expected to return to the court after missing the entire season because of foot surgery.

Now, doctors have declared Yao’s left foot 100 percent healed, and he has been cleared to work his way up to 5-on-5 practices. Expect to see Yao suiting up for training camp, and expect to see him on the floor for Houston’s opening night game on October 26 against the Lakers. But just how much of Yao we’ll be seeing, at least in the season’s early going, remains a mystery. He has averaged 32.7 minutes per game over the course of his career, but probably isn’t going to approach that kind of court time this year.

“He is fully healed, and that is great news, of course,” Rockets GM Daryl Morey told SN. “But the doctors are still evaluating everything. There is no question we are going to have to be very cautious with his playing time.”

The Rockets haven’t figured out exactly what that will mean. But the team has some different options when it comes to keeping Yao healthy. “He is going to be more limited, it is just a matter of how you get to that point, how you limit him,” Morey said. “Obviously, you start with less minutes per game. He won’t be out there for 35, 40 minutes per game, we know that. But then, things like back-to-backs, you might see him not play in the second part of those or something. Practice time, he might be limited. There are different ways to keep his minutes down. No one knows exactly right now.”

“He is such a competitor, there are going to be times when he absolutely won’t want to come out,” Morey said. “I know the first game that is close and he is playing well but his minutes are up, we will have to have (trainer) Keith Jones go on the floor and tackle him and drag him off. We have to look at the big picture here.”

Puerto Rico registered their first win at the 2010 FIBA World Championship by getting the better of China 84-76 in a fast pace game.

Angel Vassallo had 22 points and JJ Barea added 13 to go along with nine assists.

Wang Zhizhi and Yi Jianlian combined to account for all 21 of China’s first quarter points as they held a one-point lead.

Bob Donewald’s side were up 19-12 but Puerto Rico scored eight unanswered points to edge in front 20-19 on Renaldo Balkman’s lay-up before Zhizhi hit a turnaround shot from the baseline at the buzzer to put China back in front.

Manolo Cintron’s men got back in front as David Huertas and Nathan Peavy each connected from beyond the arc and Balkman converted a three-point play that made it 32-26 midway through the second period.

Carmelo Lee and Vassallo closed out the first half for a 44-37 advantage.

China scored the first eight points of the third quarter to take a 45-44 lead on Sun Yue’s three pointer.

But Puerto Rico were soon back in front as they scored almost at will in transition, Lee hitting from beyond the arc before Barea fed Peter John Ramos inside and then the point guard kept the ball the next time down to knock down a deep three-pointer that made it 62-53.

The Chinese rallied back once more and were within 67-64 when Sun Yue buried a corner three with 7:51 left to play.

But Barea continued to run the transition game to perfection, feeding Vassallo for a dunk and later fed a cutting Nathan Peavy for a powerful slam over the Chinese defense to make it 77-69.

Balkman’s lay-up with 4:45 remaining gave Puerto Rico their biggest lead at 80-69 and they held trigger-happy China in check the rest of the way.