US Olympics Basketball (spoilers inside)

[lazarus]

US beats Spain!

Poor Spain. They go undefeated, then get booted in the first elimination game.

The US, especially Marbury, had a great game, finally figuring out how to shoot from behind the arc.

The Spanish coach was a very poor sport, refused to shake Larry Brown's hand afterwards.

Oh, the officiating was horrible. Both teams have plenty of cause to complain.

[mrboba1]

1. does this put them in the semifinals now?

I can't remember what's going on...

[lazarus]

5. Yup

This was the first elimination round. Next, they play in the semis. If they win that one, they go to the gold medal round. If they lose, they play again for the bronze.

Poor Spain. They go undefeated in prelims, in all 5 pool games, get the #1 seed, and end up losing to us.

For those who think the Americans are the only cocky ones there, check out this quote from Oscar Yebra, one of their players:

"It's going to be incredible to get into semifinals after crushing the Americans."

Oops.

[mrboba1]

6. Doesn't Spain play the same kind of game as the US?

Try to pound it inside and not so much outside shooting presence?
Or was that someone else?

If so, this was probably the best possible matchup for the US to advance...

[lazarus]

8. Yup

they used Pau Gasol as their Tim Duncan.

Oddly enough, we ended up playing great Euro ball, with lots of motion and incredible shooting from the outside. Really weird.

[mrboba1]

9. Did Brown play Melo and James?

Or did they just ride the bench?

[lazarus]

12. very little

James got a few minutes.

Melo got about 20 seconds, at the end of the first quarter or first half, can't remember. He took one shot, and nailed it (a three).

Brown mentioned in an interview that they never intended to play Melo and James much, they put them on the team to have them learn from the older players. James has dealt with it, and got playing time. Melo bitched and complained, and didn't.

Emeka Okafor has been getting nothing but garbage time, too.

Lamar Odom and Carlos Boozer have been a pleasant surprise, I must say.

[Torgo Johnson]

23. Darn,

I'm sorry but Boozer is the one player I wanted to stink up the joint. You probably don't need to guess why. Maybe I am being petty, but I feel
enticing a team to release you from your contract and then turn around, ignore cell phone calls from that team, and sell yourself to the highest bidder is spineless.

[lazarus]

24. Oh, I agree

I liked him, and thought he and 'Bron would be a great pair for the future.

Can't believe the way he treated Cleveland.

But he's been a real asset to the national team.

[Torgo Johnson]

25. I still think the Cavs will improve

They lost Boozer but I will Drew Gooden will surprise a lot of people. He might not get as many rebounds, but he will be more of a scoring threat. They drafted Luke Jackson, who will start and hopefully be a good shooter, and they got shooting help on the bench in terms of Sasha Pavolic and and Anderson Varejo. Their biggest acquisition of all was Eric Snow. This team was lost before they traded for Jeff Mcinnis, they struggled when he was not on the floor and they imploded when he got hurt near the end of the season. With Snow they have two starting-caliber point guards,so that will no longer be a problem. They still won't be quite as good as Detroit(not yet anyway).

[Cheswick2.0]

15. If we can keep up the good outside shooting

and guard theirs (whether it's greece or argentina) we will be okay.

[RivetJoint]

2. How close was it???

[mrboba1]

3. 102-94

[RivetJoint]

4. Great!

[HuckleB]

7. So are they finally learning how to play team basketball?

Or did their shooters just get hot for one game?

[RivetJoint]

10. We don't play team basketball in the US anymore

[bif]

20. Except for the Pistons

Now that's team basketball.

[lazarus]

22. Ahem

Has everyone forgotten the Spurs? They play some damned fine team basketball, as well.

[lazarus]

11. both

Actually, it's not that they got hot, it's that they're no longer cold. These guys, especially Marbury and Iverson, regularly shoot quite well from 20 feet. They've been unnaturally cold from the field while learning a very different game.

That's another thing people don't realise: The international game is substantially different. It's not just the weird lane, it's all kind of rules and play styles that catch them. For instance, only coaches can call time out. In the NBA, everyone goes for the block on drives to the lane. In international play, the defenders stand there to take the charge, because there's no protected area under the basket.

We pick up a lot of fouls on that one, btw.

Plus, these teams all play together regularly, while our guys are thrown together for a couple of weeks. That wasn't a big deal in '92, when we were substantially better than the rest of the world, but the world has caught up. We still have the best athletes there, but whether we're the best team is still to be answered.

[Cheswick2.0]

13. Marbury broke a record

for most points by an american in an olympics basketball game. He broke the record of Charles Barkley. He was way more than the margin of victory today.

[lazarus]

14. also

most three pointers in one game.

[Cheswick2.0]

17. yup, he was fun to watch

I wonder who will step up tomorow? Do you think Marbury will have the most points again?

[lazarus]

21. Probably not

Duncan's due a big game, actually.

It depends on the Argentina-Greece game. I've always felt that Argentina was going to be our toughest competition.

BTW, Bosnia-Herzegovina only won one game and didn't make the quarters. That's a bigger story than the US woes.

[bmbmd]

16. Was there anything in particular

that led to a confrontation between the two coaches?

[lazarus]

18. Yup

They almost came to blows, actually.

Popovich explained it. They were worried because Spain's pressure defense was quite good, and with the three point line so close, even a 12 point lead is meaningless with a full minute left.

So they put in for a time out (coaches have to file a time out with the scorer's table) so they could set the offense for the last minute. By the time a dead ball came along, they didn't need it, and tried to cancel it, but the refs gave it to them anyway.

The Spanish coach thought the timeout was in poor taste, trying to rub the defeat in their noses. And he was very passionate about it. He got in Brown's face about it, pointing a finger, etc. Brown got rather ticked, and eventually the assistants separated the two.

The Spanish coach was also upset at the loss in general, I imagine. This not only knocked undefeated Spain completely out of medal competition (they'll have to play one more game to determine if they're in 7th or 8th place), it also knocked them out of the next World championships unless they qualify again.

[Cheswick2.0]

19. The US called a time out but.........

they had to register it at the desk, so they weren't granted it until right before the end of the game. At that point when they were finally given the time out they were well ahead and obviously going to win. The US coach gave his team the thumbs up when they came off the floor and it seemed to the Coach from Spain that he took the time out just to gloat and humiliate team Spain. So he went all over the floor yelling at the refs (after the game was over) and refused to shake hands with the US.