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For weeks, U.S. players have been hearing about what they aren't. Not big enough. Not old enough. And maybe even not good enough. On Saturday, they finally got to show what they believe they can be: the team that ends a 16-year world championship drought. Kevin Durant scored 14 points and got the United States started on a dominant second-quarter stretch in a 106-78 victory over Croatia in its...

Aleksandar Rasic scored 22 points and Serbia, playing without two of its best players, routed Angola 94-44 on Saturday at the basketball world championship. Center Nenad Krstic was suspended for three games by FIBA and guard Milos Teodosic was suspended for two for their roles in a brawl against Greece in a warmup tournament earlier this month.

Linas Kleiza scored 27 points and Paulius Jankunas added 15 as Lithuania beat New Zealand 92-79 in the opening round of the world championships on Saturday. Lithuania (1-0) used a 10-0 run in the second quarter to take a 33-24 lead. New Zealand (0-1) scored just two points in the first 7 minutes of the second quarter, while Kleiza had nine straight points, most in the paint, the last two coming on...

Goran Dragic of the Phoenix Suns had 16 points and eight assists, leading Slovenia to an 80-56 victory over Tunisia on Saturday in its opening game of the world championships. Gasper Vidmar added 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting and Bostjan Nachbar finished with 14 points for Slovenia (1-0), which faces Group B favorite the United States on Sunday.

Nikolaos Zisis and Ioannis Bourousis both scored 21 points to lead Greece to an 89-81 victory over China in the opening Group C game at the world basketball championship on Saturday. Greece (1-0) led 47-37 at halftime, but China, playing without Houston Rockets center Yao Ming who is recovering from surgery on his left foot, got within 81-79 before Greece retook control in the final minutes.

Basketball's governing body has rejected Greece's appeal of two player suspensions stemming from a brawl in a game against Serbia. Patrick Baumann, FIBA's secretary general, said the punishment given to Antonis Fotsis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis will stand, and the players will miss the first two games of the world championships that open Saturday.

The Denver Nuggets have hired a man with global basketball experience to manage a team that's in a world of hurt: two big men sidelined, a player under police investigation and its superstar's signature missing from a contract extension. Former Nuggets international scout Masai Ujiri, a native of Nigeria, was appointed the team's new executive vice president of basketball operations on...

Patrick Ewing Jr. is back with the team where his father became famous. The team says the former Georgetown star signed with the New York Knicks as a free agent Friday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ewing was the 43rd pick of the 2008 draft by Sacramento, but wound up with the Knicks through a series of moves.

London will mark the two-year countdown to the homecoming of the Paralympics on Sunday, celebrating the growing prominence of the event and its start in England in 1948. More than 500,000 people have already registered interest in buying tickets on the London 2012 website for the 12-day event, and organizers hope to attract a global TV audience of 4 billion.

Brandon Rush of the Indiana Pacers was suspended for five games by the NBA on Friday for violating the league's drug agreement, while Tyreke Evans of the Sacramento Kings and Kenny Hasbrouck of the Miami Heat drew suspensions for driving offenses. Rush was suspended without pay for five games for violating the terms of the NBA/NBPA Anti-Drug Program.

Guard C.J. Henry has transferred from Kansas to Southern Nazarene University in the NAIA. The Oklahoma City school announced Friday that Henry was one of three players transferring in from Division I schools. Henry was the New York Yankees' first-round pick in the 2005 draft but returned to playing basketball after three years and signed with Memphis.

Illinois basketball coach Bruce Weber isn't quite predicting a Big Ten title, but he says his team could be "very, very good." Weber talked about this year's team Thursday night. He says he's seen his team picked as high as ninth in the country and he's more excited about Illinois' prospects than he's been in a while.

The man who managed the bobsled, skeleton and luge track at Utah Olympic Park for much of the last decade has died at 45. The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation said David Dinger died Wednesday from kidney cancer. Dinger's career in sliding started after a luge clinic, shortly before the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

LeBron James went back to school Thursday, working out against the Miami Hurricanes. The NBA's two-time reigning MVP and some of his new Miami Heat teammates made a surprise stop at the university's basketball facility for some informal scrimmaging against the Hurricanes. James, Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller, Patrick Beverley and New Orleans guard Chris Paul -- a close friend of James --...

LeBron James went back to school Thursday, working out against the Miami Hurricanes. The NBA's two-time reigning MVP and some of his new Miami Heat teammates made a surprise stop at the university's basketball facility for some informal scrimmaging against the Hurricanes. James, Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller, Patrick Beverley and New Orleans guard Chris Paul -- a close friend of James --...

Planners have given London 2012 Olympic organisers permission to build a temporary water polo centre with an inflatable roof.

A deal to sell a Chinese investment group a minority share of the Cleveland Cavaliers has collapsed. The partnership between the group headed by Chinese businessman Kenny Huang and the Cavs never materialized, a team spokesman confirmed Thursday. The sale had been expected to be completed last year, pending approval by the NBA's board of governors.

Police are investigating an alleged altercation between Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith and another person at the team's practice facility. Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said Thursday that officers went to the facility Aug. 13 after a report of an altercation involving Smith and another player in a pickup game.

Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers, who brought Hall of Famer Bob Knight to the West Texas campus and got caught up in the contentious final year of football coach Mike Leach's tenure, is retiring. The school said Thursday the former Red Raiders basketball coach will step down in May. "Together we have accomplished a lot since the Big 12 started in the fall of 1996 and it has truly...

Danny Ferry is returning to the San Antonio Spurs. The former general manager for the Cavaliers will be vice president of basketball operations for the Spurs. He will be reunited with coach Gregg Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford after leaving for Cleveland in 2005. Ferry led the Cavs through the most successful period in their history.