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View Full Version : Great win by Team USA



adidas11
08-26-2004, 04:11 PM
It's good to see our Team USA win a big game today.

102 - 94

Marbury was on fire, and set a Team USA record for points scored in a single game.

I think our players are becoming more accustomed to international play. But there are still difficult games to come.

Tommy Duncan
08-26-2004, 04:15 PM
It seems to me (and I have not watched many of these games) that the major problem is that the US is not getting a lot of early offense. You don't want to give the opponents time to set up defensively.

Also, I haven't looked at the box scores but Boozer should be playing damn near the entire game. Duncan needs some muscle up front with him.

From Way Downtown
08-26-2004, 04:41 PM
You're right, Tommy -- Team USA isn't getting much early offense, but I think the bigger problem is that Team USA is really struggling to deny penetration to rather pedestrian points and wings. Early in the game today, the Spanish guards were making Marbury and Iverson look like laun jockeys on defense -- they were getting easy blow bys and creating havoc in the lane by both getting layups for themselves and creating mismatches for their bigs. With all of the penetration, stops have been pretty rare (opponents FG% is .468 -- abysmal defense, for this group) and so have running opportunities and the chances for fast break points and early offense. It's a chicken-and-egg situation in a sense, but if U.S.A. can do even a marginally better job of denying penetration (as they did in the 2nd half today), they'll get more stops and be able to run more.

I didn't have the feel that the Spanish guards are all that quick, which makes me wonder how much Team USA is dreading the spectre of facing Manu's slashing, should Argentina beat Greece. Given how easy its been for other guards to get to the rim, and given that Argentina has bigs who can present credible offensive threats (thus occupying the American bigs) Manu might have a field day in that matchup.

I'm torn on the Boozer idea. I think, for the most part, Boozer has looked more effective in box scores than he's actually been on the floor; though he played pretty well when the U.S. needed it today. I still like Odom in the starting lineup, though, given that he offers some possibility of spreading the floor and because he's better able to contest shots on the defensive end.

Spurminator
08-26-2004, 04:43 PM
I haven't been impressed with Boozer's play at all, from what I've seen.

baseline bum
08-26-2004, 05:23 PM
Boozer has been a total scrub from what I've seen, with the exception of today when he got a couple of big boards. Odom has looked 10x better on the floor, especially at the defensive end.