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and also Cenk Akyol
on ESPN2 at 8am ET. it'll be like 5am over here on the west coast. mehmet okur and hedo turkoglu are the only players i recognize on the other team.
and also Cenk Akyol
USA up 74-49 in the third quarter. Lebron leads the way with 20 points on 8-9 shooting.
haha and LBJ is playing the 5
80-55
USA is shooting 30-43 for the game.
Big slam by Dwight!
Wade bites on fakes too often.
So Wade. Bryant and James are the 3 best players in the NBA with Paul a close 4th.
Ummmm.........NO
Bryant
Duncan
James
Pierce...........with Paul somewhere 5-10.
haha yer tell the commentators that.
They are dumbasses........
I guarantee 99% of all coaches would take Duncan before all of them right now.....except for Lebron and Kobe. Duncan would be taken third.
Rick Kamla shouldnt even be considered ad a media person... just some scrub who disrespects the Euro teams any chance he gets.
pierce #4....drink the koolaid
I am off work today, so I got to watch almost all of this game. Before I say anything else I need to give anyone who looks at the score and makes any judgments about our team a reality check. Turkey is terrible. They didn't even qualify for the Olympics. They would have been beaten by the Bucks, Knicks, Bobcats or any other bottom of the barrel NBA team you could name. OK...got that off my chest. Here's my thoughts.
I am still worried about this team in a lot of areas. If they had played against Greece or Spain the same way they played early in this game they would have probably been down by 15 at the half. Perimeter defense is still a major issue. They routinely did not close out on shooters, something that has plagued us throughout the past few Olympics and still seems to be an issue. Kobe, who is supposed to be one of our better perimeter defenders, was one of the major culprits. He did not close out a few times and when he did he fouled a jump shooter, one of the cardinal sins of perimeter defense. When he was out on the perimeter he let his man just blow by him more than once. Most of the other players weren't any better either. It got better in the second half, but that is not good enough. We do not need to rely on "turn it on when we have to" defense. There is no guarantee we can climb out of a double digit hole against one of the better international teams. Some of this is because we have a minimal paint presence on defense. Again, I would trade Wade for Tyson Chandler without hesitation. He played well but he is just not needed. Lebron and Kobe have the same game as Wade except better..and they are enough. I would also get rid of Boozer and bring in Josh Smith. Boozer just doesn't seem to fit, and Smith has the length to be a paint rover in the international game. He and Chandler could really help keep our perimeter defenders on the perimeter rather than having them collapse and not get back to the shooters in time.
Figuring out what we are trying to accomplish on offense has been an adventure. Does Krzyzewski have a real offensive plan? There is still a lot of freelancing and isolation...and we have seen where that has gotten us in the past. They showed some flashes of an inside/outside game later in the game but it was very inconsistent. I have always thought Krzyzewski was overrated and had the benefit of good recruits at Duke to make him look good. I am wondering if his inep ude will show in these games as the USA plays teams that are closer to their level. They need to move the ball better and create better opportunities. That being said, the USA could make up for a lot of Krzyzewski's coaching deficiencies by playing Paul a lot at the point. He has the overall play making/decision making ability to lead this team offensively. Surprisingly, he and Deron Williams on the floor at the same time was incredibly effective. This could be a nice change up pitch for Krzyzewski to throw against the better teams to catch them off guard. I would like to see Tayshaun Prince get more burn too. He has good length and I think he could be good defensively on the perimeter against the shooters. Paul, Kobe, Lebron, Prince and Howard would be our most effective lineup IMO. That way you have a super athletic big, good perimeter D with Lebron/Kobe/Prince, a decision maker/play maker in Paul(who can bring the most out in Howard) and two impact scorers in Kobe and Lebron.
Overall the jury is still out. It looks like a good team on paper but I wonder if they are going to be well coached enough with Krzyzewski and Dantoni(at him being on the staff) to overcome the more seasoned teams like Greece and Spain. Hopefully they get serious about what needs to be improved and commit to doing the little things that need to be done to bring home the gold.
i watched the entire game and i thought USA did a decent job. definitely a lot of areas can be improved. i was sad that turkoglu didn't play because the commentators were all talking about how kobe's defense will be put to the test.
defensively, USA can use a lot of work. on pick and roll sequences, the defenders still seemed confused on switches, thus resulting in open players. i saw a lot of open shots by Turkey that should not have happened. sometimes it seems that the players didn't even bother to fight through screens and just lazily called the switch. i think i saw chris pual having to guard the center/pf a few times. the higher caliber teams will take advantage of open looks and mismatches.
offensively, not a bad job. kobe took some bad shots. the team needs to realize that the team should limit itself to a few main scorers. it seems that lebron, wade, and carmelo are the most effective. taking the open look is always the best thing to do but everyone forcing the basket would only result in nuggets style basketball. also, it seems that krzyzewski probably only drew a few plays and mainly let the point guards control the pace. paul continued to dominate and deron williams can always carry the point. jason kidd didn't play much in the second half.
replay is on ESPN2 right now. i probably should not have watched it at 5am...
WTF? David Jones is a FIBA ref, too? Has David Stern no shame? I gotta watch him duck waddle up and down the Olympic court, too?
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