i agree the path is right
but the head coach isnt what he should be
That was beautiful basketball from Greece. It was a clinic, and was inspiring to watch. USA played incredibly good and disciplined defense in the first quarter and Greece just found a way to beat it over and over. Great game to watch. Just a dismantling of team USA.
I agree.
Another bronze after the landmark third in Athens 2004 would be extremely gratifying.
And one last thing:
Will those in charge, please scrape that last zero on paychecks?
What pay checks?
and people call us bad sports.I agree.
Another bronze after the landmark third in Athens 2004 would be extremely gratifying.
And one last thing:
Will those in charge, please scrape that last zero on paychecks?
It's strange on a team with Lebron and Wade that Carmelo became the go to guy. He isn't even an allstar and the two best young allstars in the league were asked to be his side kicks.
Carmelo may not be a better all around player than Wade or James, which is arguable, but he is probably the best scorer of the three. Carmelo wasn't handling the ball or bringing it up. Their problem was allowing a team that was averaging 80 ppg to score over a hundred anyway.
Amen to that.
USA over Argentina by 20.- Argentina has no legs right now.
Almost every team scored around 100 against US team. That is not because they play bad defense, it's because they play much faster game, and scores are higher because of it. Defending P&R was just one problem today, even bigger problem was offense against settled Greek defense. Team USA simply sucked at that.
The US allowed 75 ppg over the last five before today. Greece averaged about 80 before today. Today's game was not up-tempo, so by your logic the fact that they allowed 100 points is further proof that their defense was abysmal.
My predictions right now
1.- Greece
2.- Spain ( without Gasol they have no chance )
3.- USA
4.- Argentina ( Argentina won't have the legs to beat USA )
Gus
If you watched US games against Puerto Rico,China and Slovenia you could see that Amercan team was able to enforce their game to the opponents. Today, after quick start and a lot of ines at time outs (James was saying something about "They don't know what to do") Greece was able to take the game to the pace they liked. When they got comfortable the whole broke loose for team USA.
1.- Greece
2.- Spain ( less than 5 points diference )
3.- Argentina ( Easy )
4.- USA
None of which supports your earlier contention that the USA's offense was the reason they lost. The USA couldn't hit free throws, took bad shots and passed up good shots. All that pales in comparison to the fact that they allowed 87 points in three quarters to Greece.
You lost me there. The Greece players were celebrating immediately after the game and continued to do so for awhile. It was nice that some of the US players stayed and waited for them to finish their victory dance to shake hands, but I'm not knocking the US players for not waiting around for the Greek players to be ready.
Uh I would have left and still had my balls intact to do it.
I thought it was classy of Carmelo to stand there and wait for them to finish celebrating to congratulate them.
Props to the Greek team and fans. They played a good game and deserved the win.
Even though Team USA lost I am still proud of how they represented us. No one can say that they didn’t give 100% effort or that they didn’t care.
It was a huge upset. I thought Team USA was ready to go for the gold but seems like they can't handle crunchtime. I hope they realize that Bowen should be in the team and Battier should be cut. Have you seen Greece do the three pointers? And we nned a bigger man to handle Baby Shaq.
USA will never win jack as long as they focus the team roster on jersey sales.
How can you preach defense and team unity, then appoint the GM of a team who lobbied the NBA to change the rules to limit perimeter defense to build it, and fill the staff with coaches who are offense first types?
Stupid.
Personally I'm glad that the mighty saviour's coach K and Colangelo got their asses handed to them.
I gotta agree with Hoopsfan.....
This team lacked the 'fundamental' basketball skills of playing REGULAR basketball.
As long as you haven NBA players on this roster, they will continue to play the NBAE style of ball, i.e. entertainment style instead of compe ive style.
This team made some horrific mistakes in the tournament that weren't capitalized on by their opponents but Greece saw them and they did capitalize. The main problem for Team USA is that they can't hit an outside shot to save their lives nor do they know when to take a three and manage the game.
These teams are forcing Team USA to use what they think is a strength (i.e. dunking) and turning it on them as a weakness.
We simply don't get it...it's not about the dunk at this level; it is all about the team play, shooting and not letting your opponent set up in a zone defense.
ARGENTINA: hey Greece how do you beat Team USA?
GREECE: Play a zone defense.
I totally disagree. Battier proved his worth last night and for the WC for that matter. But you could make a case that Bowen would've have been a better player to have on hand than Brad Miller.
Totally disagree with the Bowen take. It's not about defense for Team USA; it's about offensive punch and the ability to not let the opponent set up zone defenses. Even though Team USA won all their games but this one so far, look at the games in which they struggled from the field. More than likely the opponent implemented a zone defense and forced the slashers and drivers into jump shooters. American basketball players do not have the art of the jump shot in their arsenal any more.
Team USA did not play team ball. Too many isolation plays and LeBron, and Wade dribbled the ball too much and did not pass that often to open players. I haven't looked at the box score yet but it seemed like Wade, James and Anthony took the majority of the shots. Anthony was shooting better than the other two but when Howard was in there he was getting dunks and getting rebounds. He would have also helped on defense by blocking shots and clogging up the lane so they would not have had a layup drill on the USA. Freethrows were horrible, if they would have let Joe Johnson drive to the basket or even allow him to shoot it more than they did at least he would have most likely made his freethrows. Bad coaching decisions by Coach K on the players he played in this game. LeBron and Wade do not play well in the international game. Too much one on one play by these two and running the clock down so there is not much of a shot selection left except desperation. Just my two cents.
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