Both Dwight Howard and Carlos Arroyo competed in FIBA action today and both played outstanding. In the gold medal game against Argentina, Dwight went seven for seven from the field and scored 20 points as Team USA easily took the FIBA title. He has been somewhat shaky throughout the tournament but he played great today and hopefully now he can come back to Orlando and focus on polishing his offensive game with Patrick Ewing. In the bronze medal game, Carlos Arroyo led Puerto Rico to victory against Brazil. Arroyo dropped 30 points while racking up 10 assists. This should be a great confidence booster for him and we all know how streaky he is. This can only be good for him and the Magic so hopefully it carries over to the regular season and he continues to perform well. One thing that surprised me though were the ten assists. When was the last time he racked up ten dimes for the Magic? If he can become a distributor, pass first point guard, then I could see him challenging Jameer for the starting job this season. I've said this a billion times and I'll say it again: we have scoring weapons, we just need someone who can get them the ball and limit their turnovers. Whether it's Carlos Arroyo or Jameer Nelson, someone needs to step into that role.
An article about this: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The United States jumped on Argentina for up to a 30-point lead in the first half and went on to a 118-81 victory in the gold-medal game of the FIBA Americas Championships in Las Vegas. The Americans finished the competition without backing off, remaining undefeated in FIBA play and keeping captain Jason Kidd undefeated in international play -- sending a signal to the rest of the world that they are determined to try to recapture the gold medal in Beijing in 2008. It's a shame for Magic fans that one of the ESPN networks did not broadcast this game so more of them could have seen it. The gold-medal game was center Dwight Howard's best of the tournament as he finished with 20 points and was very active. In the first quarter, especially, he got a hand on every loose ball near the basketball, and he finished the first half with double-digit scoring. It's tough to tell whether Howard was more aggressive offensively or his teammates were making a concerted effort to set him up, but Howard brought out all the tools offensively. He took passes from Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James for monster jams, converted a windmill dunk after catching a baseball-style pass from underneath Argentina's basket, tipped in a missed shot with his left hand for a dunk, caught a behind-the-back pass from Bryant for another dunk and grabbed a softly lofted pass just over his head as he was running toward the basket for a layup. Howard's dunks always bring the crowd to its feet, but the layup he scored moving toward the basket was nice to see, too. During the NBA season, it would benefit the Magic if he could get more opportunities for those shots instead of getting his attempts with his back to the basket so often. Howard was a perfect 7-for-7 on field goals, 6-for-8 on free throws, blocked 4 shots and grabbed 5 rebounds. He did, however, also have three turnovers. The past two games, Howard has been especially good from the free-throw line. It bears mentioning, though, that the basketball they are using in the FIBA competition is a composite ball, more like the ball that the NBA started last season with and later replaced because most of the NBA players didn't like it. Howard actually liked that composite ball, though, and had his free-throw percentage up to nearly 70 percent before the league changed back to the old leather basketball. You've got to wonder if switching the types of basketballs he is practicing and playing with so much in the past year hasn't contributed to his struggles at the free-throw line -- or at the very least hindered his ability to improve his percentage -- in the NBA season. The Magic and their fans also had to be happy with the outstanding finish of point guard Carlos Arroyo. The co-captain for Puerto Rico's team, Arroyo helped lead his team to a 111-107 victory against Brazil in its bronze-medal game. Arroyo had 30 points, 10 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals and shot 56.2 percent in 39 minutes. Since the quarterfinal round of the FIBA Americas tournament began, Arroyo has looked like a totally different player -- much more confident. Perhaps a fresh start with new Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy will help his confidence carry over into the NBA season.</div> Source Did I not say those exact things? Even down to using the same adjective, outstanding, to describe the performances. They even mentioned the confidence thing. Sounds like someone is stealing my ideas.
