Important Note: The merging of the old, original Simply American database with the new is still in progress. Contributor posts are all up, but user comments are not likely to return. Further, all intra-site links from the-amazing.us are yet to be converted to new links here. Lastly, the old topic system, including topic images, will never be ported over because the way it changed over the history of the site is never going to be replicated anyway.

Korea 2, Japan 1

By Neil Stevens (#1) at 08:34 AM PST on Thursday, March 16, 2006

This was an important game. Not only did Korea go 2-0 against Japan in the tournament, making Ichiro eat his words twice (he said before the tournament that he intended to show Taiwan and Japan that they could never beat Japan in 20 years), but the win ensured that the US would make it into the next round.

With all these close shaves, will the US fail now against the best teams? Or has the early part of the tournament served as a warm-up for the unprepared US team against the rest of the world who's either already been in spring training, or been playing winter ball? We'll see I guess.

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Timberwolves 89, Lakers 92

By Neil Stevens (#1) at 01:20 PM PST on Thursday, March 16, 2006

Last night the Lakers righted the ship. Still without Mihm, it was up to Odom to step up. With 20, 12, and 8, he helped keep it close. He needs to keep up this aggression if the Lakers are to be secure in their playoff plans.

So in the fourth, Kobe could finish it. He scored the Lakers last four points against a combined five defenders. What a sight it was, too. With a minute to go, he was double teamed. So, he ball-faked one defender, head-faked the other, then leaned right between the pair for the finger roll. With 20 seconds to go, he went up against a triple team (including Kevin Garnett), got blocked, and went between all three guys to recover the ball and score an easy layup. What a player.

Nash is great for his team, but Kobe has to get strong consideration for MVP.

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