More International Action

• Michael Redd and Team USA play Canada today in Vegas (2 ET/1 CT, ESPN2 / replay 10 ET /9 CTpm, ESPN Classic).
• Boeder Bucks has more details on the Celtics' reported interest in Ruben Patterson. Ruben had a career year last year amid the Bucks' injury chaos, which has made the Bucks' complete lack of interest a little interesting. The speculation is that "something" happened behind closed doors which might have shut the door on a possible return, though given Herb Kohl's usual philosophy of avoiding guys with rap sheets it might simply be a lack of interest in him for that reason. Of course the truth is that for as well as Ruben played, he's also a disruptive player on both sides of the ball, gambling defensively and needing post touches offensively. Those things work much better on an injury-depleted team that needs someone to step up, and less well on a young team that has offensive weapons but needs discipline defensively. Given the Celtics' depth issues, Ruben could be a valuable player off the bench.
  
• China dropped to 0-3 in the EFES World Cup with a 100-78 loss to Latvia today. Yi Jianlian scored 24 points (9/17 fg and 6/7 ft) along with 5 rebounds in 26 minutes. Andris Biedrins was the star for Latvia, dropping 29 points and 18 rebounds, while Wang Zhizhi had 28 for China. China was again dominated on the glass, 47-19. Watch first half highlights here. Yi finished with a tournament high average of 23 ppg along with 8 rpg on 58.3% shooting from the field (28-48) and 81.3% from the line (13-16). I'll be posting a longer review of Yi's summer performances next week.
  
• Croatia cruised into the tournament final with a 99-53 destruction of Poland in the first semifinal today. The Damir Markota Experience had its best game of the tournament, scoring 9 points (2/4 fg, 1/2 3fg, 4/4 ft) with 10 rebounds, two assists and a block in 26 minutes. Ersan Ilyasova's Turkish team takes on Serbia in the second semifinal.
  
• The legendary Ha Seung-Jin wants back in the NBA.