During the course of USA Basketball training camp, players will be checking in on a regular basis to give you the scoop on what's going on in Las Vegas and in the minds of the team as they prepare for the 2006 FIBA World Championships.

Carmelo Anthony | Bruce Bowen | Kirk Hinrich | Amare Stoudemire
Previous Player Blogs: Week One from Las Vegas

I went back to Denver for a couple days, for the week. I took a day or two off. I played, worked out and came back to Las Vegas. That was my four or five days off.

It feels good to be back. This is probably the best pickup ball you’re going to play in the summer and at the same time, you’re learning about each other. Everybody is out here making each other better. It’s going to help us out for the Olympics and for our regular season, too.

Right now, we’re going to take the scrimmage against Puerto Rico as a real game, but at the same time, we’re just looking to get better at certain aspects of the game and hopefully tomorrow we’ll see how our chemistry is as a team.

The break was wonderful for me because it was a chance for me to visit with my family. My wife has allowed me to represent my country. And I say, “she has allowed me to,” because it’s a union that we have and it is not just about me. She understands that I want to represent our country, so we had to make concessions with our plans for the summer. It just so happens I’ve been working out a great deal the whole summer and our little break was a chance for me to get away and visit with her in the Bahamas. That’s what we did. I was able to work out in the mornings so I would have my total afternoons with the family. So, that’s what I did.

It feels great to be back. You kind of dread that first day because you haven’t been around the ball – as far as team ball. You’ve been working out or whatever, but that doesn’t amount to what you do when you get out on the court and you’re playing defense against somebody else and things of that nature.

You’re always going to be a little rusty, I think, any time you take time off because it’s a whole learning situation for everybody learning Coach K’s system and what he would like. So, it’s just a little learning curve, but you get over that and you move on.

It will be exciting to see different faces when we scrimmage Puerto Rico tomorrow. And just to see how we come together and guys really push one another to get the job done, as far as defensive pressure and getting out on the break and things like that.

The break went well. I think I just tried to get some rest and just get ready to come back out here. We’ve been gone for a long time. The break went well, I’m happy to be coming back and excited to be here.

I tried to get some rest over the break. I just tried to take care of my body and my leg and get ready. There really wasn’t much going on except for just hanging out. My hamstring feels good. It feels much better. I think the rest really helped it. I’m just excited about how good it felt today.

Today we revisited what we did during the first week – trying to just get better as a team. For us, organization has to come together quickly because we haven’t been together that long. I think guys are doing a good job of picking things up.

The communication between players is coming. It’s going to be another key thing for us: how well we communicate with each other because we’re not used to playing with each other. If we were able to play together, communicate together and play organized, I think we’ll be fine.

We’re real excited to scrimmage against Puerto Rico tomorrow. Practice has been good but I think any time you can face an opponent you could possibly face in the World Championships and just see somebody else and see how you stack up and where you’re at, it’s good for us.

My time off was well spent. I had a chance to really enjoy my time with my family and kind of relax a little bit and enjoy the city of Phoenix. Now it’s back to work. We didn’t really have too much time off and that’s understandable; we’ve got a goal at hand. So, it’s time to play.

The communication between players is coming along great. Sometimes you have to remind yourselves to talk. So, that’s one thing we’ve been doing as a team is talking more and better.

Today, we just kind of refreshed our memory on the plays, on the defensive schemes and what-have-you. Those are the things that we’re really focusing on. He’s doing a good job of teaching us the things that he wants done and it’s our job to do it. The purpose of practicing is to make the drills interesting so, that way, once we’re out there on the court, we don’t have to think about it. We just go out there and play ball.

I think the scrimmage tomorrow against Puerto Rico is going to be a wake-up call, for us to go play against another team. Whether it’s a dominant game or we have to fight to win, it’s still going to be a wake-up call for us. Either there’s going be some flaws or there’s going to be some great things during that game so, we’re just looking forward to the experience.