Here is your Suns-related FIBA Americas Championship game schedule for today:
- 12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern: USA vs. Canada Saturday on ESPN2 (after the WBNA playoffs looks like)
- 3pm Pacific/6pm Eastern: Brazil vs. Virgin Islands on NBA.com
#16-ranked Canada would seem to pose a slightly bigger challenge to #1-ranked USA than their previous encounters against #21-ranked Venezuela and the #38-ranked Virgin Islands. The USA should still come away with a solid win, though, if they play like they have the first two games (would predicting a 20-point blowout as opposed to Thursday's 60-point blowout make me sound too arrogant?). It would be nice to see Amare Stoudemire enter the game early enough to make a meaningful impact this time. In the first two games, the "outmatchedness" of the opponent (made-up word of the day) was far too obvious before he ever stepped on the floor.
For the second part of our Suns-related double-header, we have #17-ranked Brazil vs. the #38-ranked Virgin Islands. If Brazil plays like they did last night against Venezuela, it's hard to imagine they won't end up with their third straight victory, setting up a possible match of two undefeated teams tomorrow when the USA plays Brazil. Hopefully, Leandro Barbosa's late-game surge last night will carry over to today. For everyone else, it's just "pick up where you left off".
Check back after the Brazil-Canada game for postgame commentary on both games.