Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Kleiza ready for matchup with Anthony

Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 8, 2006 at midnight

Text size  

More Denver Nuggets

More stories »

They love basketball in Lithuania. There are advantages to that, but also disadvantages.

Linas Kleiza is finding that out.

"This country lives on basketball," Kleiza said Monday by telephone from Lithuania. "Everybody is so excited about the World Championship. But everybody expects medals. Everybody here is a coach. We've got 3 1/2 million coaches."

The Nuggets forward admits to feeling some pressure representing the Baltic nation that is a basketball hotbed. Kleiza officially was chosen Monday to the Lithuanian team that will compete in the World Championship, Aug. 19 to Sept. 3 in Japan.

The announcement was no surprise. Kleiza has been starting for the team in exhibition games and figures to do so again when Lithuania plays Team USA in an exhibition Sunday in Seoul, South Korea.

"We'll both be going against each other at small forward," Kleiza said of facing Nuggets teammate Carmelo Anthony, a likely Team USA starter. "It's going to be a lot of fun. We've talked a lot of trash. I let him know that they lost to Lithuania in the Olympics (in the 2004 opening round). But he lets me know they got us (in the bronze medal game)."

The 6-foot-8 Kleiza, who averaged 3.5 points last season as a rookie, has averaged about 15 points in eight Lithuania exhibitions. The team also includes Washington forward Darius Songaila and Arvydas Macijauskas, a guard who played last season for New Orleans/Oklahoma City.

Lithuania leaves Thursday for South Korea. After two games there, it's on to Japan.

"It feels good to make the team," said Kleiza, who began training camp June 24 in Lithuania. "We've got such a great history, and to be able to make the team being just 21."

As long as he listens to the right coaches, Kleiza figures he'll do just fine.

ETC.: Reggie Evans appears to have an important supporter with the Nuggets. "Carmelo wants the Nuggets to re-sign Reggie," said Anthony's agent, Calvin Andrews. "He loves Reggie's game and he thinks Reggie Evans, in order to win, is a good piece of the puzzle." Evans is a free agent after playing the final two months of last season with the Nuggets. With Evans seeking a salary around the midlevel exception of $5.2 million and the Nuggets $3 million from the luxury tax, negotiations have gone slowly . . . Nuggets big men Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby joined forward Eduardo Najera in playing in Najera's charity game Saturday in Chihuahua, Mexico. Also playing were Nuggets free agent guard DerMarr Johnson, former Nuggets forwards Rodney White and Nikoloz Tskitishvili and forward Ricky Sanchez, whose rights the Nuggets hold.

or 303-892-5125