Three of the four Americas teams have punched their tickets to the 2010 World Championships to be held next year in Turkey.

At an undefeated 7-0, Brazil has already earned a spot in the World Championships by dominating their competition, and are now looking for gold with a stacked

Argentina and Puerto Rico are the two other teams that have also qualified.

After starting the tournament with two losses,  Argentina (5-2) has now won five straight games, handing the Puerto Ricans (6-1) their first loss, 80-78, of the tournament yesterday.

Must Win Situations
The fourth and final spot will be determined today in the last day of the quarterfinals between three teams: Dominican Republic, Canada, and Uruguay.

If the Dominican Republic (4-3) can record their fifth win of the tournament by defeating Canada today, the race is over and the Dominicans will move on based on overall record.

But if Canada (3-4) can pull out a win against the Dominicans, and Uruguay loses, the North American country will qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship.  This all-important game between DR and Canada is set for 6:30 local time (Puerto Rico).

The third scenario involves Uruguay (3-4) forcing a three way tie between the teams.

If Uruguay can win their last game over red hot Argentina, who may rest their key players against their neighbors to the east. Uruguay can clinch a spot with a win coupled with a Canadian win over the Dominicans.

San Juan, PR - Mexico and Uruguay, two teams that got into a bench-clearing fight leading up to the FIBA Americas, will face off again today.

The match will kick off the fifth and final day of the preliminary round of the 2009 FIBA Americas tournament. Coming into the game, Mexico (1-2) and Uruguay (2-1) have advanced into the quarterfinals round.

Uruguay is led by former NBA player Esteban Batista’s 20 points and 11 rebounds. Uruguay has surrounded the big 6-10 Bastista with solid players, such as Leandro Garcia Morales who is second on the team in scoring at 14.3 points, as well as point guard Martin Osimani, and naturalized center Reque Newsome.

Mexico’s top-scorer, surprisingly not Romel Beck, is Noe Alonso Chavez at just 12.3 points per game.

After scoring 26 points in the intial game, Beck, who was one of the main attractings during the brawl, has reportedly has some disagreements with his coach. In Mexico’s game against Puerto Rico, he scored just three points in 18 minutes and played only five minutes in Mexico’s sole win against the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Going into the last day, only Brazil and hosts Puerto Rico are undefeated at 3-0. Since both Mexico and Uruguay have moved onto the next round, perhaps both teams will rest their players to avoid any problems. Or maybe not.

Follow the game in our forum and find out where to watch Mexico-Uruguay live.

Here we go again.

In another boxing match, a basketball game broke out between Mexico and Uruguay Saturday night when both teams competed in a preparation game for the 2009 FIBA Americas tournament.

(Discuss the Mexico-Uruguay fight in our forum)

Tensions came to a head when Mexico’s star player Romel Beck got into the face of Uruguayan guard Emilio Taboada after a foul call.

From there, it was mayhem as players faced off, not knowing where to turn, they punched, grabbed, and kicked at each other, throwing chairs and anything else they could get their hands on.

Eventually the Uruguayan players sought refuge in their locker room as many of the Mexican players followed looking to continue the fight.

The game was called after the tussle. Mexico was up at that point 68-60 with 46 seconds remaining in the third period.

This is the third all-out brawl in the last month. In late July Iran and Jordan went at it during the Jone Cup. The Jordanians forfeited the game that eventually cost them the tournament title.

Then in early August, Canada and Italy brawled in a preparation game during a four-nations tournament.

Mexico and Uruguay are both in Group A during the Tournament of the Americas, and are set to play again in the final game of the qualifying round Sunday, August 30th, 2009.  The tournament starts Wednesday.

The Boston Celtics continue to fill the spots around their new trio of superstars Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. On Thursday, they added Esteban Batista and Dahntay Jones to their training camp roster that will be touring Italy this month. Both signed non-guaranteed contracts.

Esteban Batista had a fantastic performance in the recent FIBA Americas tournament, averaging 20.8 points and 12.4 rebounds a game, and was garnering interest from several teams including the Charlotte Bobcats, Indiana Pacers, and Phoenix Suns.

The 6-10, 270lb Batista has spent the last two seasons on the Atlanta Hawks bench and was hoping to catch on with an NBA team this season. Though Batista turned the Celtics down earlier last week, the Celtics were the most excited to have Batista on their roster.

“Doc (Rivers) and Danny (Ainge) really pursued him and made him feel wanted,” said Batista’s agent, Mark Cornstein. “I think he’s a great fit for that organization. What he wants and needs is an opportunity, and I think they can provide him with that.”

The Celtics hope that Batista’s summer performance will bleed into this upcoming tournament in Europe. If the Uruguayan star can continue to grab offensive rebounds (he led the FIBA Americas tournament in both offensive rebounding) to give Pierce, Ray Allen and Garnett extra shots, and show the scoring touch he displayed this summer, Batista may prove invaluable and force Boston into a guaranteed contract for the 2007-08 NBA season.

Related: Celtics hope new star trio of Garnett, Allen, Pierce will return team to glory days

Puerto Rico 97: Brazil 75
The answer to the question: What’s Up with Puerto Rico? may have been answered. Maybe they needed something to wake them up. Just yesterday, they were only two minutes away from being eliminated and leaving Las Vegas for good.

Puerto Rico’s future depended on the outcome of the Argentina-Panama game and things weren’t looking good. With over two minutes remaining and Panama up seven points, it looked as if Puerto Rico wouldn’t be able to sneak into the second round of the FIBA Americas Tournament which meant no chance to redeem themselves from an embarrassing 1-6 record (including the Tuto Marchand Cup), but when Argentina stormed back to eventually blow out the Panamanians in overtime. The Puerto Rican team got an injection of new life.

“We definitely have a second chance and we understand that. It’s a chance that the sport’s given us and we have to take advantage.” Said Carlos Arroyo.

Take advantage they did as they opened the game on a 14-4 run. The Puerto Ricans would lead by 11 at halftime and would see that lead swell to 25 points. Elias Ayuso scored 24 points for Puerto Rico. Peter John Ramos (!) and Filiberto Rivera both had 14 points, Arroyo finished with 11.

Brazil on the other hand, went from being an undefeated powerhouse just two days ago, to being blown out by 37 points by the Americans and now defeated handily by a Puerto Rico team that wasn’t even supposed to be there. How quicky fortunes can change; Puerto Rico looks like a team to be reckoned with and Brazil’s luster has definitely been muted.

There was some good news for Brazil though – Leandrinho Barbosa shook off his awful performance against the Americans and a rough first half against PR, finishing with 34 points, 26 in the second half, on 10-for-20 shooting and 12-for-13 from the free throw line.

Argentina 86: Venezuela 63:
With the absences of Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto, and Walter Herrmann, no one was sure how Argentina would fare in this tournament. Yes, they still have Euroleague superstar Luis Scola and Carlos Delfino, but could those two prop up the defending champions? Keep in mind that Delfino has played only sparingly for the national team and only this year started getting playing time in the Piston rotation.

Carlos Delfino continues to answer the critics. The Toronto Raptor had 19 points and 11 rebounds and Argentina hit 14-26 three-pointers in an 86-63 victory over Venezuela. Argentina continues to fill the holes left by their NBA counterparts with lesser-known players; particularly one of the best Euroleague point guards Pablo Prigoni, as well as Diego Logrippo, and Paolo Quinteros.

However, this time it was Roman Gonzalez. The 6-11 center contributed 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting to lead Argentina, who remains as the only other unbeaten team besides the USA. The two teams will meet Thursday to close out the second round.

Canada 95: Uruguay 88
It goes without saying that when you come across upstart Uruguay in this tournament, you’ll have to deal with Esteban Batista, their physical yet mobile 6-10 center who came into the second round as the leading scorer and rebounder (23 and 14.5) of the tournament.

Canada decided to fight fire with fire as they used their size to physically battle Batista – limiting him to 16 points on 6-15 shooting and more importantly, only 6 rebounds. In the previous four games, Batista was averaging five offensive rebounds a game, against Canada, he only had one.

Big respect to the trio of Canadian frontcourt players that kept Batista in check while still contributing offensively – 6-10 center Jesse Young had 22 points, 6-9 Levon Kendall had nine points and nine rebounds and 6-11 Samuel Dalembert had 10 points, five rebounds and three blocks for Canada.

[official site] [related thread]

USA 113: Brazil 76
What was supposed to be the United State’s toughest test turned into another blowout. Team USA continued their dominance of group B by manhandling Brazil last night 113-76.

Brazil did hang tough for about one quarter and a half, but was eventually overwhelmed by Team USA’s offensive prowess and fantastic defense. The Americans would expand their lead to as large as 49 points, while keeping tournament leading scorer Leandro Barbosa from getting any type of rhythm. Barbosa shot 1-8 from the field and scored well below his tournament average of 27. Carmelo Anthony again led the US in scoring with 21. And that was matched by LeBron James. Kobe Bryant added 20 and played a large part in suffocating Barbosa. Tiago Splitter led the Team Brazi with 13 points.  However, it wasn’t all smiles for the Americans as their leading rebounder Tayshaun Prince went down with an ankle injury in the second quarter.

Argentina 109: Panama 92 (Overtime)
It was experience vs. novice when Argentina found themselves down 7 points with just over two minutes to play and Panama primed for the upset. The Argentines made a furious comeback thanks to consecutive miscues on Panama’s end, eventually tying the game and sending the game into overtime. Panama looked deflated and the experienced Argentinians took over from there, going on a 41-15 run the last 9 minutes of the game and overtime. Paolo Quinteros led Argentina with 22 points. Luis Scola added 20, Carlos Delfino 19 and Diego Loggripo 15. Gary Forbes, who plays for Massachusetts, had 29 points for Panama

Uruguay 91: Mexico 82
Uruguay continued their great play in finishing up the first round with a 3-1 record. This time they used a tournament-record eight three-pointers (8-13) and 36 points from Nicolas Mazzarino in defeating Mexico 91-82. Odd that Esteban Batista‘s 25 points and 15 rebounds performance would have to take a backseat. It was Batista that would once again give Uruguay the lead for good when he hit a free throw with 5:31 left to give Uruguay a 72-71 lead. Mexico didn’t do itself any favors by missing six of 10 free throws over the final 3:26. Romel Beck led the Mexican National Team with 28 points. Uruguay will face Canada to start out the second round Monday.

Venezuela 100: US Virgin Islands 90
It was a contest of the two 0-3 teams. Venezuela squeezed into the second round by defeating the Virgin Islands. Hector Romero scored 29 points and Manuel Barrios added 18 for Venezuela.

USA 123: Canada 59 After demolishing the Virgin Islands 123-59 on Thursday, the United States used a balanced offensive attack and strong defense to rout Canada 113-63. Again, the Americans were led in scoring by Carmelo Anthony with 25 points and sharpshooter Michael Redd with 19 points (5 three pointers). Olu Famutimi scored 17 points for the Canadians, who played without their star Steve Nash and finished the preliminary round at 2-2. Levon Kendall, whom played for the University of Pittsburgh from 2002-2006, added 10 points and nine rebounds.

Brazil 93: US Virgin Islands 89 As expected the Brazilians also went undefeated. Though it wasn’t as easy against the U.S. Virgin Islands as would be expected, in fact, the USVI took a 45-33 lead with 2:10 left in the second quarter, and was still ahead 48-41 at halftime before Brazil rallied in the third. Leandro Barbosa continued his torrid scoring pace when as he went for 36 points against the Virgin Islands 93-89 Saturday. Marcelo Machado added 16 points. Cuthbert Victor’s 25 points led the Virgin Islands

The wins set up the showdown between the unbeaten Americans and Brazilians when they meet each other Sunday in the final game of the first round. T he winner if that game will be the top seed heading into the four-game second round. The top two finishers in the 10-team tournament earn automatic berths to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Argentina 104: Mexico 83 Not to be outdone, Argentina also remained undefeated as they hit 15 three-pointers in defeating Mexico 104-83. Carlos Delfino had 20 points and 11 rebounds and Paolo Quinteros added 18 points for the Argentines. Romel Beck had 24 points for the Mexicans. Argentina has clinched the top-spot in their group even though they have only played 3 games because Uruguay (2-1), which plays Mexico on Sunday, is the only team in the group that can reach three wins and Argentina beat them for the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Uruguay 82: Puerto Rico 79 Esteban Batista continued his stellar play as Uruguay improved their record to 2-1. The Uruguayan center poured in 36 points and had 15 rebounds leading his national team to a tight 82-79 win over Puerto Rico. Uruguay never looked back after Batista’s second straight putback off an offensive rebound gave them a 78-76 lead with 1:02 left. Jose Juan Barea had 18 points to lead Puerto Rico. Larry Ayuso had 15 points and Carlos Arroyo added 14.

[related thread]

USA vs. Venezuela: 112:69
Carmelo Anthony and Michael Redd each scored 17 points as the United States defense forced Venezuela into 19 turnovers. Amare Stoudemire added 16 and 14 points for the US. Greivis Vasquez, an incoming freshman at Maryland, scored 12 points for Venezuela on 3-11 shooting. The US will face the Virgin Islands today.

Brazil vs. Canada: 75:67
Leandro Barbosa scored 30 points, including a floater with about 2 minutes left to give Brazil the lead for good. Brazil would go on to win 75-67. Tiago Splitter added 12 points and 9 rebounds for Brazil. Juan Mendez scored 18 points and Carl English had 12 for Canada. Philadelphia 76ers center Samuel Dalembert added 10 points and 10 rebounds. With the win over Canada, Brazil is 2-0 after defeating Venezuela last night in the opening game. Marcelo Machado hit five 3-pointers and finished with 20 points to lead the Brazilians to a 101-75 win.

Uruguay vs. Panama: 88-84
As expected, Esteban Batista was pivotal for Uruguay. He scored 26 points and pulled down 19 rebounds against Panama last night. With 2 seconds left, Batista powered his way to the basket to force overtime. And in overtime, the Atlanta Hawk gave Uruguay the 81-79 lead with 1:54 left in OT. Jaime Lloreda scored 21 points and Danilo Pinnock, who played at George Washington, had 16 points. Uruguay will face Argentina tonight. Click here for Esteban Batista’s thoughts after the game.

Mexico vs. Puerto Rico: 100-89
Following the exciting overtime battle between Uruguay and Panama. Victor Mariscal scored 22 points for Mexico as they upset the spiraling downward Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico made it a game in the third by decreasing their deficit, even taking a small lead during the fourth quarter, but when Horacio Llamas nailed a three with just over one minute to play, Mexico had stretched its lead back to double-digits at 98-86 and chants of “Mexico! Mexico! Mexico!” filled the arena. NBA player Carlos Arroyo went 0-10 from the field and scored 4 points, all from the free-throw line.

[related thread]