Good morning, it turns out Team USA is pretty good
That and more in Thursday’s NBA newsletter.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
BROKEN RECORD: Team USA wins by 35, Kenneth Faried does awesome things in the course of the rout. Rinse, repeat.
FIBA UPDATE: We’ve reached the final day of group play, with six spots in the knockouts still up for grabs and only two teams (Egypt and the Philippines) formally eliminated. The key matchups on Thursday, all with berths in the Round of 16 on the line:
France vs. Iran
Croatia vs. Puerto Rico
Turkey vs. the Dominican Republic
Finland vs. New Zealand (assuming Team USA beats Ukraine and dependent on the TUR-DOM final)
Australia vs. Angola (the Aussies are already in, but ANG can clinch with a win)
Mexico vs. South Korea (Mexico is in with a win, South Korea needs Angola to lose too)
Here’s today’s schedule and our big results post.
THE BOOK CLUB MOVES WEST: The Clips signed Ekpe Udoh. Welcome back to California, friend. They brought in Chris Douglas-Roberts, too.
INTERESTING: Jason McIntyre reports that Fox Sports wants to do a big weekly Monday night NBA game on FS1 in the new NBA broadcast contract. Monday is typically the softest day of the week on the NBA schedule. It appears the Saturday plan might not be hatching.
A BLEDSOE WRINKLE: Marc Stein writes about how Goran Dragic’s 2015 free agency is affecting the Eric Bledsoe negotiations.
BASKETBALL! Zach Lowe on the B.S. Report.
THE MAZE RUNNER: Navigating the positional maze with Anthony Bennett.
BAD DOG: Dog eats 44 socks, has them removed from his stomach in a 2-hour surgery. Small socks, big socks, frilly socks, business socks. Dogs: stop eating socks!
Happy Thursday. See you next time.
