Bosh Sits for the States' First Scare...

I don't think it was a doubt in anyone's mind that Chris Bosh would gain more experience from just being around his teammates, than from getting actual playing time at the World Basketball Championships.

Most recently, Bosh learned what it's like to sit and watch, while his team overcomes early struggles. Sure, he did that in Toronto - but only at the end of the season, when his thumb injury kept him out. Otherwise, he was the hero.

But at the World's, he's not even a back-up... he's a third-stringer that, when the going gets tough, he keeps riding the pine.

Brad Miller was the only other American player that didn't see any game time against Italy... and for the first time this tournament, Coach K went away from his 2-squad system, and played his best players.

Carmelo Anthony eclipsed Kenny Parkers' former States record of 34 points (1990 worlds), with 35 (19 in the third), as team USA overcame an 12 point deficit to beat Italy, 94-85.

Dime Magazine printed a little excerpt where Kobe Bryant said that 'Melo is the hardest player in the league to stop... and it showed. (I'll save my ever-improving views on Carmelo, for when the Raptors play the Nuggets)

Dwyane Wade had 26 points, missing only 3 of his 13 shots, as the U.S. clinched first place in their pool.

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Before we go on to the other games of importance... I want to say that Fiba.com screwed me. Keep in mind, this site is considered the "official scoring" of the tournament. They had it listed that Bosh had 4 assists in 13 minutes... but as suspected, it turned out to be 4 FOULS in 13 minutes. I don't know when they corrected it, but I went to air with it - overnight - on the Fan.

Never a good feeling to broadcast a mistake.

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Ok, so back to the action...

Spain beat the tough Angolans, 93-83... Pau Gasol had a game-high 28 points, while in terms of the Raptors: the ever-steady Jorge Garbajosa had 15 points (4/7 3ptrs), to go with 4 boards. One game after Jose Calderon was on-fire offensively... he didn't even take a shot... 2 points, 2 boards, and 6 helpers.

Rasho Nesterovic had 12 points and 9 boards in Slovenia's 90-82 win over Puerto Rico. The effecient Uros Slokar had 5 points and 2 rebounds in 11 minutes.

Elsewhere...
Darko Milicic was ridiculous... 18 points, 11 boards, 4 helpers, and 6 blocks... Serbia-Montenegro beat up on Venezuela, 90-65...

Manu Ginobili had 20 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in just 17 minutes, as Argentina rocked Nigeria, 98-64...

Also... Greece upset Brazil, 91-80...

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that's it for today...