USA Basketball thread

[KeepinThatFunkAliveV4]

There is a good note in the loss.

Carlos Arroyo = player on my fav. NBA team. Woohoo, the Jazz are on the way back up!

[sahyder1]

******Game against Greece******

Team USA is taking on Greece right now on USA Network. They're leading at half time but this Greece team doesn't look like it's just gonna lie down. Greece has a nice touch on their jumpshots but need to bring the zone a bit more to force the US to the outside in the 2nd half.

Edited August 17, 2004 by sahyder1

[Guest Bluesman]

USA? I was wondering why it wasn't on ESPN

It looks like right now we're finding out why it was a bad idea selecting a bunch of 2/3's who can't shoot, without actually selecting any point guards. Please do not try and include Marbury, AI, and Wade in the "point guard" category.

I must say though, I've never felt better about my jump shot than watching Team USA so far this summer...

[sahyder1]

ESPN doesn't have Olympic TV rights. Olympics are on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, USA and Telemundo.

**********Spoilers from the US/Greece Game****************

They ESCAPED with the one win they really needed. Being down 0-2 would've been big time trouble epsecially having faced two of the easiest teams in the tournament. The win today wasn't convincing but they gotta take what they can get. Greece was without their starting PG but you couldn't tell that from the way they were distributing the ball. Comments like "We gave it our all" from Lamar Odom have to be quite disturbing because if giving it their all they were in danger of losing to Greece.....what are they gonna do against the stronger teams in this competition? Great game from Iverson today. He seems like the only guy giving 110% on the court non-stop. Duncan isn't too far behind though. As much as I don't like him Odom saved the US in the final 5-6 minutes of the game.

[EWRFan]

Yep...saw the game and I have to admit that the USA sucks ass. They lost to my beloved Puerto Rico by 19 points and barely escaped with the win aganist Grece. I think that if they play like that all the time , Argentina , Spain and Serbia are going to kill them.

Damn, my team lost 98-90 to Lituania , but I am happy with the effort. The thing about Lituania is their three point range. They have 12 guys on the team and all 12 are above average shooters. Puerto Rico had like 15 three pointers in the game, enough to beat any team , but the Lituanians had almost if not 20. It seemed everytime we made a rally , they started shooting 3's. It was not a single player , it was the whole damn team.

Another problem is our size. We have 4 talls guys (7 feet , 7"2 , 6'11 and 6'10) and nothing else. The rest of our guys are small and when you have people 6'3 and 6'4 playing foward spots aganist bigger teams , you cant rebound or block shots. That was a problem aganist the US , which dominated us in offensive and defensive rebounds even when they lost.

We also depend too much on the backcourt. Santiago and Peter John Ramos are only marginaly good centers , too slow in transition and absolutly worthless outside the paint. Jose Ortiz is a good shooter, but the age factor is catching up to him and he looked lost most of the time. He also hesitated when he had some good looks at the basket. And dont get me started on Shariff Fajardo trying three point shots in key moments...he doesnt have the range , so dont even try it.

Our backcourt (Arroyo , Ayuso and backup Casiano) made 79% of our points , which shows our dependance on the smaller members of the squad. I still think we can finish in the top 6(c'mon , we beat the USA for God's sake. Angola and Grece seem like easy targets for us , we have beaten Argentina and Spain and Serbia before , even when I think we will loose those games.)

Go Puerto Rico!!!

[EWRFan]

Well, The USA looked better in their game aganist the Aussies winning 89-79. The 4th Quater comeback looked fantastic and they finally seem to be on the right track.

Plus, Puerto Rico barely escaped with an 83-80 win over Angola. Angola has really improved a lot and I see them having a better showing in the 2008 Olympics. They are very athletical and have some dangerous shooters. They are also real fast and if they could play better defensively, they would kill all the other teams in the fast break because their guys are soo fast.A really exciting game that had tons of lead exchanges and was close until the end. I was at the edge of my seat.

BTW, what did Carmelo Anthony did to Larry Brown? I read something about Carmelo being where he deserved to be.

[Karizma]

bwahaha, NZ beat Serbia, the Group A pool is gonna be a huge struggle for the last 2 spots, as Argentina & Spain look like locks at the moment...

We shoulda won against China and Italy (or arleast one of the games), but I can see us pulling the shock victory over either Spain or Argentina, it's what we excel at.

And the US will beat Lit and then everyone will be like "They're gold medal winners now" which is probably right, but US will beat Lit, I stand by that.

[sahyder1]

Beating Lithuania became a big deal since when? This is still a team that lost to Italy and Puerto Rico and escaped with a victory against Greece. You do realize that Argentina, Serbia and Spain are in the other draw and one of them is likely to be the Quarter Final opponent. Anyone calling this team a gold medal winner right now is retarded. This team still has it's problems

As for Carmello, him and Amare have been jawing a lot about their roles on the team. Larry Brown had told everyone not to expect anything playing time wise and make the most of the time you are given. Those two have had problems with that. Yet another problem of the "me first " attitude of the NBA. And I loved the SI headline today "This team plays like an NBA team......the Clippers".

[Guest bukkake bandit]

Anyone calling this team a gold medal winner right now is retarded. This team still has it's problems

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[naiwf]

Lithuania is lighting up the end of this game with threes. That triple that led to a 4 point play has been the shot of the tourney thus far. #13 for Lithuania has been amazingly clutch down the stretch. GREAT game so far.

[Guest bukkake bandit]

Tough loss for the USA.

[jonnycomelately]

Just for the record #13 is Sarunas Jasikevicius. He played college ball at Maryland and all he did was hit threes so that was no surprise. Well neither is seeing the USA basketball team get dominated nowadays. If they lose to Angola, they should sink the cruise ship they are staying on and go down with the ship. Carlos Boozer is an Olympian, I still cant get over that.

[naiwf]

Just for the record #13 is Sarunas Jasikevicius.  He played college ball at Maryland and all he did was hit threes so that was no surprise.  Well neither is seeing the USA basketball team get dominated nowadays.  If they lose to Angola, they should sink the cruise ship they are staying on and go down with the ship.  Carlos Boozer is an Olympian, I still cant get over that.

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Edited August 21, 2004 by naiwf

[cthemason]

Awesome game. I had this one marked on my calendar since I have mainly Lithuanian heritage.

[sahyder1]

gotta love Jefferson's quote after the game "We're getting there"......um.....it's getting kinda late.

[Guest Takayamanofear]

gotta love Jefferson's quote after the game "We're getting there"......um.....it's getting kinda late.

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[EWRFan]

Well....I was hoping that the USA would have won that game...why you ask?

Simple friends. Do the math:

Puerto Rico defeats Australia 87-81 to move it's record to 3-1

The USA beats Lituania to move to 3-1 and drops Lituania to 3-1

This means that three teams where tied up at spot #1 in Group B. With the International rule of Goal Average Puerto Rico would have classified as the top seed of the group.But alas...nothing is perfect. The second seed is guaranteed for us at the moment, even if The USA defeats Angola on Monday(likely) and we loose to Greece on Monday(50-50 chance), by the fact that we defeat the USA before, we will classify second.

I really digged the 4th quarter comeback for the win by Puerto Rico. If they would have used that same defensive intensity the whole game and if we had made more free throws(we ended up missing half our free throw shots), the lead would have been bigger. Our D held it's ground with two of the Aussies key players(Shane Heal and Andersen) being stopped. Too bad the rest of the team found holes and scored. Once again, the size disadvantage and the superior speed by the Aussies big men where factors, but I am damn happy with the win. Oh, and I promess never to call Danny Santiago an idiot again(22 pts and 10 rebounds, plus once heck of a defensive job and he made some key shots at the end).

As for the USA...well..they got desperate near the end and started doing too much "me ball" instead of team play. And Lamar Odom screwed big time with unessecary fouls in key moments. Damn...if this keeps up... Duncan , Iverson and Jefferson will look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame at the end of the Olympics for carrying sooooooooOOOOOOOoooOOOOOoooo much dead weight.

[Guest bukkake bandit]

Carmelo is a cancer in the making.

[A-Dub]

But the guy everyone said was overrated, LeBron, is not only awesome, but also a team guy. A great BASKETBALL player

[sahyder1]

But the guy everyone said was overrated, LeBron, is not only awesome, but also a team guy.  A great BASKETBALL player

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Edited August 24, 2004 by sahyder1