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at 11:10 AM 0
(C)mcal

Darrun Hilliard, the former basketball star at Liberty High and Villanova, has signed his second European contract. Hilliard will join CSKA Moscow, the most dominant team in Russian basketball and the 2019 EuroLeague champ.
CSKA Moscow signed Hilliard to a one-year contract, according to a news release. Hilliard played last season with Baskonia of Liga ACB, Spain’s top level for professional basketball. He averaged 9.4 points and 2.9 rebounds in 34 games with Baskonia.
“From the first moment we contacted him, Darrun was very thrilled and enthusiastic about the opportunity to play for CSKA,” Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA Moscow’s head coach, said in a news release. “In his first year in Europe, he showed that he is a good creator, executor, defender, a team player. Now I don’t need to say much. The rest should be proven on the court. We are happy to have him on the team.”
With CSKA Moscow, Hilliard is joining Russia’s most successful franchise. The team has won 25 consecutive Russian championships and four EuroLeague titles, including two in the past four years.
"When the opportunity to play for one of the most prestigious clubs in the history of Europe was presented to me, I felt like this was just too good of an opportunity for me to pass up,” Hilliard said in a team statement. “It’s an honor to play for Coach Itoudis, and I can’t wait to get to Moscow to experience the incredible tradition of CSKA basketball. My only agenda coming in is to help CSKA win games and win more titles. I will give my heart and soul in every practice and game to do what I can to contribute to that winning.”
Hilliard, 26, played in Spain last season after spending three NBA seasons with Detroit and San Antonio. Before leaving for Europe in 2018, he helped lead Austin to the NBA G League title. Austin is the Spurs’ affiliate in the NBA’s minor-league organization.
“You’ve got to love the game,” Hilliard said during a 2018 visit to the Boys and Girls Club of Bethlehem. “If you don’t truly love the game, it’s going to eat you up. Some things are going to be thrown at you, some things are going to happen. You’re going to bounce around the league, you’re not going to play, and this and that. But you must stay true to the game.”
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at 10:54 AM 0
BIG3 action continued Sunday as six teams faced off at Liacouras Center in Philadelphia to conclude Week 2 play.
The Ghost Ballers improved to 2-0 thanks to a 51-46 win over the Bivouac, while the 3 Headed Monsters overcame a 38-27 second-half deficit to defeat the Aliens 50-44. The Power also joined the 2-0 ranks with a 51-43 victory over Tri-State.
You can find recaps of all three games below.


   
Ghost Ballers
51, Bivouac 46
Jamario Moon dropped 21 points and added nine rebounds and Ricky Davis scored 20 points as the Ghost Ballers beat the Bivouac.
Mike Taylor added 10 points, meaning the aforementioned trio accounted for all 51 points.
The 6'8" small forward averaged 6.3 points for five teams from 2007 to 2012.
Davis, a 6'6" wing who posted 13.5 points for six teams over 12 NBAseasons, has formed an excellent starting trio alongside Moon and Taylor, who played one NBA campaign in 2008-09. Based on the first two games, the Ghost Ballers may be hard to beat.
The Ghost Ballers also feature a few notable names from the 2000s, with power forward Carlos Boozer and point guard Mike Bibby receiving some playing time off the bench. Neither scored, but they don't have anything left to prove after stellar careers. Each won an NCAA championship, and they played a combined 27 NBA seasons.
The expansion Bivouac side has showed promise with a 1-1 mark. Bynum led the Bivouac with 22 points in a Week 1 win over the Enemies. The eight-year NBA veteran, who primarily played with the Detroit Pistons, looks like the team's star so far. The 6' guard averaged 8.1 points during his career.
The Ghost Ballers will face the Enemies in Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday in Week 3. The Bivouac will take on the Triplets on Sunday in Atlanta.
   
3 Headed Monsters 50, Aliens 44
Rashard Lewis posted 18 points and eight rebounds as the 3 Headed Monsters overcame an 11-point deficit to defeat the Aliens

The 3 Headed Monsters trailed 38-27 and 44-36, but the Monsters ended the game with a 14-0 run to stay undefeated. Lewis capped the run with a three-pointer from the top of the arc as he got fouled.
The 3 Headed Monsters' depth proved tough, as all six players made contributions. Reggie Evans posted a near double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds, and Larry Sanders was in the same boat with eight points and 10 boards.
Tre Simmons scored seven, Mario Chalmers added four, and 50-year-old Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf had three.
Brandon Rush led the Aliens with 15 points, and 2007 NBA draft No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden pitched in five points and four boards. Ryan Hollins and Andre Owens each scored eight.
The 3 Headed Monsters will battle the Killer 3s in a matchup featuring two of the four remaining undefeated squads Sunday in Atlanta. The Aliens will face the Ball Hogs in a battle of winless teams Saturday in Birmingham.
   
Power 51, Tri-State 43
Cuttino Mobley keeps dropping buckets better than anyone in the league. The ex-Houston Rocket piled up 23 points to lead Power over Tri-State.
Mobley scored 28 in his season debut last week. He also added seven boards, four steals and three assists.
Glen "Big Baby" Davis scored 10 points, and Julian Wright had eight. Mychal Thompson led all players with 11 boards.
Amare' Stoudemire led Tri-State with 18 points, and Nate Robinson scored 12. Yakhouba Diawara added nine points and nine boards.


The story of the game was Mobley, however, as the lefty looks like the early MVP. The Philadelphia native dominated in his hometown and punctuated the win with a turnaround bank shot in the lane.
The Power look as good as any team in the league, and a back-to-back championship isn't out of the question.
They will look to keep it going against the Trilogy on Sunday in Atlanta. Tri-State will visit Birmingham on Saturday to play 3's Company.
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at 10:02 AM 0
INDIANAPOLIS — Bankers Life Fieldhouse is where Greg Oden grew up watching the Indiana Pacers. It’s where he helped Lawrence North win three state titles and earned his Indiana Mr. Basketball and Mr. Basketball USA titles in 2006.
It’s where Oden still calls home and the fans Sunday welcomed him back with open arms.
Sunday’s Big 3 action was the first time the former No. 1 draft pick stepped on the floor at Bankers Life since March 26, 2014, when he played against the Pacers as a member of the Miami Heat during his final NBA season.
Oden announced his retirement from basketball in 2016 after a one-year stint in the Chinese Basketball Association. His only other playing experience came last summer during The Basketball Tournament 2018 – a $2 million winner-take-all single elimination tournament.



Following the Aliens' 10-point loss Sunday in Ice Cube’s 3-on-3, halfcourt league, where Oden finished with eight points and six rebounds, he was asked about his perspective being able to play basketball again.
He paused.
“I saw my daughter walk down the stairs with my wife and it put a big smile on my face,” he said. “That’s my perspective. All this stuff is just extra.”
Quite a bit has changed for Oden in the past three years.
He’s stayed close to the game, finishing a stint as a student coach for the Ohio State men’s basketball team, who he helped lead to a national championship game appearance in 2007, earlier this year. He graduated, earning his degree in sports industry in May. He had his first child, Londyn, in 2016, and married his wife Sabrina in 2017.


Oden climbed his way out of alcoholism and has worked on his physical and mental health. That’s why, even after playing basketball against professional-level competition for the first time in years, he took some time to reflect. 

“It’s more about my mind and perspective of life and what I’m doing and what I spent most of my time with. That’s what’s changed for me,” Oden said. “I started thinking on the up and up and being better in the mental space a couple of years ago.”
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at 10:35 AM 0
LOS ANGELES • Golden State Warriors mentor Steve Kerr began his b-ball playing profession in 1988, and started training in 2014.




However, just on Friday night in Los Angeles did he guarantee that he has seen one of the really extraordinary exhibitions, originating from none other than his forward Kevin Durant.

The 30-year-old scored a play-off profession high 50 points as the Warriors shot their way into the second round of the National Basketball Association play-offs by clobbering the Clippers 129-110.

Durant left a mark on the world by equalling the most focuses scored in the main portion of a play-off diversion, with 38 of his 50 coming in the opening half.

He tied previous Phoenix Suns star Charles Barkley, who scored 38 of his 56 in the principal half of an arrangement securing prevail upon Golden State 25 years back.

"I've seen some great ones, been around some tolerable players," said Kerr. "What's more, that was one of the incredible exhibitions I've at any point found in my life.

"He just conveyed us these last couple of rounds of the arrangement. He's a definitive weapon in light of the fact that there's no barrier for Kevin.

"Regardless of what anyone does, he can get a decent shot. What's more, he realized we required him seriously, and he just assumed control over the diversion in the principal half and set an extraordinary tone."

The Warriors, who secured the first-round arrangement 4-2, advance to confront the Houston Rockets, starting today in Oakland.

Durant cautioned that the Rockets will be an entirely different test.

"They are a capable ball club with a great deal of high-IQ players that shoot well and enter well, so we got a difficult, but not impossible task ahead," he said.

Stephen Curry had 24 while Monday Green scored 16 for the Warriors, who won three street play-off amusements in a similar arrangement for first time in establishment history.

Brilliant State put the brakes on Lou Williams and Montreal Harrell. The pair came in driving Los Angeles in scoring amid the arrangement at 24.4 and 20 individually.

Williams scored eight on an awful three-for-21 shooting, and Harrell was restricted to only 10.

Williams portrayed Durant as "a unique player" who is unguarded when he is on his amusement.

"In some cases you run over extraordinary individuals and there's no other option for you," he said. "We had a go at everything. It didn't work... He's an overall expert and he demonstrated it."
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