When Linas Kleiza was last seen in the NBA, he was hanging out beyond the arc. In the 2009 Western Conference finals for Denver against the Lakers, 19 of his 30 field-goal attempts were three-pointers. But then Kleiza went to Greece for a season to play. He got stronger. He got smarter. He grew a scraggly beard that makes him look tougher. Like an advertisement for a laundry detergent, Kleiza can claim to be new and improved. But the truth is he is. This refined version of Kleiza was on display Tuesday in a knockout round game in the World Championship at the Sinan Erdem Dome. The forward scored a game-high 30 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Lithuania in a 78-67 win over China to advance to a Thursday quarterfinal against Argentina, which beat Brazil 93-89 later Tuesday. Most interesting was that the 6-foot-8 Kleiza, who has developed into more of an inside presence, didn't make a single three-pointer in scoring all those points. Perhaps there were some knots in the stomachs of those at Nuggets headquarters 6,500 miles away. It was Denver that let the restricted free agent go for nothing when it elected in July not to match a four-year, $18.8 million offer sheet Toronto had put down, and Kleiza became a member of the Raptors. http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/09/07/new-and-improved-linas-kleiza-looking-forward-to-nba-return/
