This and That

This (International Basketball rules to change in 2010!)

Ever wonder specifically wonder HOW International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules favor tall, outside shooting men? And if this will change? Howard Beck answers these questions and more in a recent article.

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• FIBA's 3-point line is 20.5 feet away from the basket, mere child's play compared to the NBA's 22.75 feet distance.
• FIBA's trapezoidal lane encompasses 19 feet, 8 inches along the baseball while the NBA's lane is 16 feet wide. This means a) The area in which a player may called for a 3-sec. violation is wider, and so less posting up is done b) When FIBAllers do post up on the edges of the expanded trapezoidal lane, perimeter defenders, who are guarding a closer 3-point arc anyway, have an easier time doubling-down on the post-up player.
• After the 2010 world championships, FIBA will abolish the trapezoidal lane and institute the rectangular one favored by the NBA. FIBA will also move the 3-point arc to 22.1 feet, still not at NBA length because of the women's and youth teams playing on the same courts.
• FIBA wants to lessen the number of 3-pointers, which it feels is no longer an "exceptional shot." To wit: In 1984, when the 3-pointer was added to the international game, only 14% of all shots were of trifecta ilk. Fast forward to 2008, where 40% of all field goals thrown up are long-range bombs, falling at a clip of nearly 40%, and one can see influence this shot has had on the game.

That (Will an NBA megastar ever play abroad?)

Ian Whittel discusses how economic factors may preclude it from happening and then Henry Abbott, with his usual blog-condensing aplomb, breaks it down:

There are lots of reasons to think that the only way such a deal could happen would be if a very deep-pocketed owner just decided to be extraordinarily irrational. For instance:

• ... many U.S. basketball fans may be surprised at the modest size of European attendances, although they generally make up in enthusiasm and passion what they lack in size.
• Only three Euroleague teams averaged five figures in attendance last season (Maccabi Tel Aviv, 11,000; Panathinaikos of Greece, 10,357; and Leituvos Rytas of Lithuania, 10,296), while Olympiacos averaged a modest 6,071 for games in Europe, just over half capacity.
• Obviously, the signing of James would increase crowd size at home and on the road. And the Euroleague's current boom is such that Bertomeu has had conversations with eight different clubs this summer about their plans to build new arenas.
• But even these new arenas will be smaller than their NBA equivalents, and crucially, average ticket prices, particularly in southern Europe, are much lower than in the NBA. An increased attendance, on its own, will not be enough to finance the signing of a Bryant or James.

Aha, you might say, but what about if an owner decided to give a player like Bryant a chunk of ownership! That's all fine and dandy. No rules against it. But remember that if you own something that loses money, ownership comes with negative cash flow. What kind of benefit is that?

Dream Team vs. Redeem Team

It may be the most entertaining water-cooler talk two basketball fans could imagine. What would happen if what most consider the greatest basketball team ever constructed - the 1992 Dream Team - took the hardwood against the most impressive international basketball team the world has seen in the last 12 years - years in which the caliber of play abroad has skyrocketed and blowing out a squad as good as the 2008 National Spanish team by more than 30 points (as the Redeem Team did) did not seem possible?

The question has been debated online over the days following the USA's 118-107 gold-medal victory. Per my friend's request (that's right, Sean), I've decided to chime in.

The following italicized passages are reasons that Jack McCullum believes the Dream Team would beat the Redeem Team and my counterarguments in

The best all-around player on the '08 team was LeBron James, with Kobe a close second. (During the NBA season, I reverse that order.) The best all-around player on the '92 team was Jordan. And Jordan, at that time, was a better player than either James or Bryant, offensively and defensively. To a large extent, teams draw their identity and their strength from their best player.

But I feel that James and Bryant could beat any two players that the Dream Team could have put together, like Jordan and Pippen, Jordan and Magic or Jordan and Bird (especially the older, hobbled '92 version of Bird). Cumulatively, the top two players from this year's team are better than the top two players from the Dream Team.

The '08 team could not begin to match the Dreamers on the interior. Not only did the '92-ers have two classic centers in Patrick Ewing and David Robinson -- that's two more classic centers than the '08 team had -- but Barkley and Karl Malone could also supply post-ups and rebounding. Dwight Howard was a force at times in Beijing, but against the Dream Team, he'd have three fouls before Coach K could look around for a replacement. Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer would play their tails off, but they would get pounded inside.

This was the same supposed downfall that pundits felt would afflict the Redeem Teamers. Yet Boozer hardly played and the team still won gold undefeated with only Bosh and Howard as center-types. What happened?

Thick-as-hell small forwards in the NBA who made the conversion to FIBA power forwards happened.

For the Redeem Team, James and Caremlo, who weigh in the 240-260 range, were athletic , powerful and versatile enough to man both the wings and interior for the Redeem Team. Against the '92ers, LeBron would be strong enough to guard Karl Malone - both are 6-8ish and 260 pounds - and cause all types of problems for the more slow-footed man on the offensive side. Carmelo has the bulk to guard Barkley. True, Robinson and Ewing are together bigger than Howard and Bosh and would give the Dream Teamers a slight advantage at center, but I don't believe the '08er are deficient in the paint as pundits make them out to be, given Carmelo and James' ability to contribute there. '92 wings Mullin and Pippen were physically no where near as ready to bang inside.

The '08 team is deeper at the point with a combination of Jason Kidd, Chris Paul and Deron Williams, particularly since John Stockton was limited by a leg injury in Barcelona and could provide only minor backup help for Magic. But that's irrelevant. Any number of players besides Johnson (Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin and Clyde Drexler) could initiate the U.S. offense, which was more versatile than the Beijing team's.

Stockton's injury would have given the Redeem Teamers the decisive edge on the perimeter, primarily because of'08ers' superior defensive versatility. Players in 2008 tend to be stronger and more athletic than players in 1992 because of more effective training regimes.

Who would guarded Paul/Deron Williams from the '92 team? An older Magic would not have looked very spry running after the two speed-demons. So Jordan or Pippen would have been put on them. So Magic has to switch off to guarding a Wade - who is just as quick - or Kobe or LeBron, all of whom would have spelled trouble. Meanwhile, Jordan/Pippen would be using valuable energy running around trying to keep up with Paul/Williams that they could have allocated to the offensive end.

Given, the Dream Teamers backcourt would have been taller, but I don't think the points from a few post-up fade-aways could trump the havoc raised by the Redeem Teamers' speed. Johnson, Bird, and Mullin are all significantly slower than Wade, Paul/Williams, Kobe, LeBron and Carmelo and I think that in the end this would spell foul trouble for the '92 perimeter players. It would be a fascinating game of attrition, as Coach Daly would have to judiciously apportion the time that Jordan and Pippen spent chasing down the point guard speedsters.

P.S. ESPN.com interviewed the Dream Team Coach Chuck Daly and Daly, as would be expected, declared Magic would have his way with the smaller guards. When asked how Magic would do defensively, he said Magic would use the same spacing techniques that he had against the Lithuanian guard Sarunas Marciulionis.

Sarunas was quick, yes, but his microwaved maple syrup doesn't compare to Paul's molten lava.

I imagine Drexler would see a lot of Wade, some Kidd and a little Kobe.

I would favor the Redeem Team by 1 point in an actual match-up because of the above reasons and also because you cannot the discount the possibility that the 12th men would play a role in game between two extremely deep teams. Prince/Boozer are much, much better 12th men than the circa '92 inexperienced Laettner, who earned his roster spot by dint of his college performance. Booz, Carmelo, Howard and Bosh would eat poor Christian alive whereas everybody on the Redeem Team could be a contributor in crunch-time and wouldn't embarrass themselves on the defensive end as Christian would do. Redd could guard Mullin and Prince could guard Bird or Magic in a crunch.

Stockton's injury and Mullin's and Laettner's relative slow-footedness give the Redeem Team a quicker, and defensively more versatile, team.

Finally, as Chris Mannix argues, let's not forget that the Redeem Team has practiced and played in tournaments for 3 years under international rules and would understand the nuances much better than the Dream Team, which first practiced together the summer of 1992.

The actual numbers, as taken from Chris Sheridan's article, favor the Dream Team but this is to be expected - their competition was so much inferior.

Dream Team vs. Redeem Team
1992 2008
W-L 8-0 8-0
PPG 117.3 106.3
Opponent PPG 73.5 78.4
PPG differential +43.8 +27.9
FG pct 57.8 55.0
Opponent FG pct 36.5 40.3
3-pt FG pct 40.0 37.7
Opponent 3-pt pct 30.5 29.9
FT pct 72.6 68.0
RPG differential +13.5 +5.6
Assists per game 29.9 18.8
Steals per game 22.1 12.5
Blocks per game 5.9 3.9

Wonder how a best-of-7 series would turn out? Go here to find out from the number-crunchers at whatifsports.com.

Olympic Semifinals: US takes Argentina by 20

Factoid! Argentina is the oldest team in tourney.

First Quarter

Color commentator Doug Collins said if Argentina keeps turnovers to 13 or 14 "they will have a fighting chance." Let's check back on this in the fourth quarter.

In its loss to Argentina in 2004 US only shot 44FG% and 3-11 in threes.

Hark! Argentine PG Prigioni had 27 assists and only 4 turnovers coming into game, buthe commits one 3 minutes into a game.

The US gets off to a slow start, shooting 1 of 6.

Despite Argentina's age and short bench, it generally does not play zone. It will end up playing quite a bit in this game, though.



3:30: Ginobili is down with ankle injury. In conjunction with his 2 fouls and small forward Andres Nocioni's lingering knee injury from the last game. With the aid of an 18-0 spurt, the US goes into the 2nd quarter ahead 30-12

The US forced 7 turnovers.

2nd quarter

6:30: The tide seems to have shifted a bit. Nocioni bounds off of a gimpy knee and blocks Kobe's reverse dunk, then causes LeBron to lose the ball. Prigioni then hits a three and an offensive foul is commited by D-Howard, putting Argentina into the bonus.

A couple of free throws and an Argentina steal by Quinteros later, the US is "only" up 37-25.

4:20 - After a Carmelo 3-pt miss, the US has missed 5 of its last 6 threes. With Ginobili injured in the locker room, the US is up 37-29. Sharpshooter Michael Redd enters the game.

:40 - OH MY GOD. After a Scola lay-up, giving him 12 for the half, the White and Blue is down only 40-46. A scarily intense Nocioni screams himself red-faced from the Argentine bench, resembling an angry lumberjack on meth.

The US has forced 12 turnovers but only scored 4 points from them.

3rd Quarter

A couple of minutes in, James gets his 3rd foul as Nocioni bull-rushes the goal. After 5 fouls in FIBA play, you're out, so James had better watch out.

5:55 : Carmelo hits four consecutive technical foul shots, giving the US a 67-49 lead. He is 11-11 from the free throw stripe this game, which sure puts Kobe's 44 FT% to shame.

Final Score: 101-81

Argentina committed 17 turnovers, spelling their doom. As Chris Sheridan noted, Argentina committed only 10 turnovers in the final 32 minutes after beginning the game with seven by the time it was 21-4 late in the first quarter.

Carmelo, whom many considered America's best FIBA player before this tournament, had his strongest Olympic game, garnering a team-leading 21 points on 13-13 FTS.

Fascinating side-note for the upcoming Spain-USA title game: Team USA director Jerry Colangelo's son, Bryan, who runs Calderon's NBA team, the Toronto Raptors, will undoubtedly try to influence the Spanish federation to hold Calderon out of the final game. Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall for those conversations?

The US shot its lowest FG% of the tourney - 47% - and hit 10-31 threes.

Couch Blogging

Tonight, I sat down with all four quarterfinal games recorded on my DVR, feeling a tad bit like that boy from "A Christmas Story" as he opened his presents, feverishly anticipating his Red Rider BB gun.

I am going to do try a "DVR-enhanced" live running commentary blog on the games...

Spain blew out a very young Croatia team, but that outcome was expected, considering Croatia was missing one of its best players. The other three games interested me more.

China-Lithuania

The first thing I noticed when I stopped my super-fast forward DVR function halfway through the 1st quarter was that the Chinese crowd sounded like it was cheering at the end of a close game. And really, this is the most important basketball game that the team has ever played. It will not get another chance to play a major international tournament in China for probably at least another decade, so it's do or die for the Team Red against the Lithuania. Making the semifinals and earning at least a chance would be a big, big deal in Beijing. Lose in the quarterfinals and they've done no better than their 7th place finish in Athens.

It is 1:24 left in the 1st quarter and Yao Ming has yet to shoot the ball, color commentator Skipper Jones says. Yet China still leads 15-14. This bodes well for them.
Yi Jianlin, though, has 6 points and 5 rebounds - a magnificent start for the New Jersey Net. He misses a 5-foot gimme with 5 seconds left in the first.

2nd Quarter
9:31 - Yao scores his first point on a free throw after being fouled on a 3-point attempt! He misses the next two and looks fatigued, though.

A few minutes later, Lithuania hits a 3 pointer, out-hustles the Red to an offensive rebound for a put-back and scores a fast-break lay-up to take a 25-20 lead. It'll be interesting to see if this is the beginning of the end.

5:00 - Wang Zhu Zhu looks old as sin. He turned the ball over on a drive and (dropped) a dish to the Green and White on one possession. The next time he had the ball, he was stripped of his lollipop and kicked out of the candy store, leading to a Lithuanian dunk.

Did anybody else notice the NBC NBA theme song leading into the commercial breaks? I understand USA is owned by NBC, but linking the Olympic games so blatantly seems a bit ridiculous. Conversely, you could argue that there's no way NBC would even be airing a non-USA Olympic basketball game without the participation of foreigners in the NBA and the interest these athletes have generated both in their home countries and the American viewer.

Siskaukus, the "Baltic Scottie Pippen," cans a wide-open three from the wing to put Lithuania up 41-30 heading into half. From what I've seen, I'd say China has a better chance of soon fielding a 100m sprint champion than coming back from this game. Time to FF it.

End of the 3rd quarter: Jasikevicius drains a three to put Lithuania up 70-53. Make that Jon Stewart has a better chance of being invited to George W. Bush's birthday party than China does of winning this one.

"Saras" Jasikevicius scores 23 points to lead the Green and Yellow to 94-68 triumph.

China did well to make it into the quarterfinals but it is obvious that, although they are the best team in Asia, they have to be more aggressive and deep at the guard positions to compete with the better European teams. With the interest the NBA has shown in China (the NBA tentatively plans on installing 800,000 rims around the nation), progress will be made before London 2012.

U.S.A. vs. Australia

Wow. I have just happened upon the Aussies' averages for their last three wins (including a blow-out win over previously undefeated Lithuania) - all victories. Check it:

Points - 102.3
Field goal % AND 3-pt FG % - 53 %
Point Differential - 28.0

Of course, Lithuania wasn't playing for anything and was probably reserving their strength for the medal round. Also, the numbers are inflated by the Aussie's wallopin' of weakest team in the tourney - Iran. I predict the US wins by 32, partly because the Aussie point guards outscored the Americans 24-5 in the exhibition game and I expect Chris Paul and Deron Williams to show they're just a tad bit better than that.

1st Quarter
Kobe get out the kleenex and erases a Brad Newley tear-drop and on the other end jab-steps his way to a deuce, putting the U.S up 9-3. He's good.

5:18 - Patrick Mills, the Aussie PG, hits a sweet step-back three. One Aussie three later and the US is only up 15-12.

3:00: Australia misses three consecutive lay-ups on two consecutive possessions. C'mon guys. If you're going to pull a colossal upset, you gotta do better than that. Still, only down 17-21 are the Down-Underers.

04:5 - Wow. Patty Mills just blasted by Chris Paul (not an easy guy to make look slow) and threw in an angled, off-balance 8-foot runner. Aussies down 24-25. So far, he is the point guard - not Jose Calderon or J.R. Holden - that has given the US the most trouble in these Olympics.

2nd Quarter
8:45 - Mills redux. He stole it from Deron Williams and outraced everybody to the rim for a dipsy-doo layup. I can't help cheer for the fiesty lil' guy. Aussies down 28-30.

7:20 - Australia only has 3 turnovers at this point, which has done a spectacular job of taking care of the ball against the US. The US goes small, with LeBron as a post player, and a couple of turnovers later, Uncle Sam is up 37-30.

6:02 - D-Will scores a lay-up off off of an offensive foul and right on cue Doug Collins points out the US is up 39-32 because they have a 10-1 offensive rebound edge.

A little later: Wait a minute. Maybe they're ahead because LeBron is a beast. You don't often see someone strong enough to bull into a defender with such force that the poor chap's still sliding after the ball's gone through the hoop. LeBron did that. And stared the dude down even as he slid away from him.

Right before half the game shifts. Kobe grabs an offensive rebounds, spins, fades to Shanghai and scores. Australia then misses its 3rd consecutive three point attempt, and D-Will hits a trifecta with a second left to put the US up 55-43. Still, the Aussies should be happy they're only down by so much after being hammered 31-14 on the boards.

It's late and I gotta go to bed. FF time.

Halfway through the third, the US is up by 25 points, 69-43. As Doug Collins put it, they have learned to "have patience in delivering the knock-out punch."

As I FF through the second half, I notice Andrew Bogut look progressively more beat up. Finally, he can no longer play. With 6 minutes left in the game, I see him hobbling over to the Australian bench on one foot. They are down 70-101. After a shaky first-half, my prediction is looking good.

The drama increases as the numbers in the upper left corner zoom downwards. I am practically on the edge of the couch as the US's lead oscillates from 25-32 points. Finally, the final score emerges from the smoke: 116-85.

A 31-point win!

Sooooo close!

Gems from Greece/Spain Wins

The US defeated Spain 119-82 in the most resounding victory over a quality international opponent I have seen in a long, long time. One wonders how much of its gameplan Spain decided not to show against the US in the second half once it was down and how much they were able to learn to their advantage for a likely gold-medal game. The hunch here is that the Americans' athletic dominance and neck-breakingly intense full-court pressure will be something Spain won't be able to overcome, no matter how many tactical adjustments they may make.

To wit: The US forced 28 turnovers and outscored Spain 32-0 in fast-break points. Nearly as downright sick a stat is that such defense enabled the US to go into the second half 16 points ahead despite the Spanish team shooting 58% from the field.

Snooping around, I found some other interesting factoids:

1. The first is from Chris Sheridan's self-interview heading into Olympic play. It is a good, basic description of how FIBA ball is different from the NBA.

Q: What aspects of international play will be most difficult for Team USA to adjust to?

A: The NBA is an outside-in game, meaning you try to move the ball from the outside to the inside for a closer look at the basket. The FIBA game is inside-out, with teams trying to penetrate the middle, draw defenders in, then kick the ball outside to the shorter 3-point line.

The best teams move the ball quickly and make the extra pass to the open man on the perimeter, and the Americans have not been quite as adept at playing that style, which features more catch-and-shoot jump shots than what we see in the NBA.

2. In recent game recap by David Friedman, we find out that improvement of big man D-Howard's perimeter defense has been contributing factor towards the US's drive for gold. Interestingly, Coach Krzyzewski, in his CEO capacity, is sometimes so busy that he must outsource his instruction to the squad's more senior players...
sideline reporter Craig Sager mentioned that Coach Krzyzewski had asked Tayshaun Prince to explain to Howard what he was doing wrong in help defense situations because he (Krzyzewski) did not have time to do this during the game. Bryant also talked with Howard during a stoppage of play. While great defense starts with pressure by the guards it is critically important that all five players are "on a string" defensively and that everyone rotates properly.

3. Chris Sheridan wrote another interesting article about one strategic difference between FIBA and NBA coaches (even if his speculation of a close US-Spain title game looks woefully off right now). Essentially, in close late-game situations in which a team is up by 1 or 2, Americans like to "man-up" and play defense to preserve their win. Europeans would rather foul, make the other team hit free throws and then win the game with offense. This may help explain why European players have traditionally had a reputation of being more offensive-oriented than American (especially before Ginobili, Kirelenko, Nocioni).


4. I finally saw the 17-year old phenom Ricky Rubio play for the Spanish squad. He appeared preternaturally poised for his age and I look forward to monitoring this immensely talent point guard's progress over the next few years. If you don't know about him, here are his biographical highlights from a recent Alexander Wolff piece:

The story thus far: At 14, Rubio actually played in Spain's ACB, the top European pro league, for DKV Joventut Badalona near his Catalan hometown of El Masnou.

At 15, he led Spain to FIBA's Under 16 European title, along the way registering a quadruple-double and, in a double-overtime win over Russia in the final, 51 points, 24 rebounds, 12 assists, seven steals and one half-court buzzer-beater to force the first OT.

At 16, he led the Euroleague (a man's league) in steals (a man's stat).

Redeem Team Strikes; Cooks Greece's Feta 92-69

Finally, after 23 months, the US team avenged their 2006 World Championship quarterfinal loss to Greece, the last loss Team USA has endured. Some tasty morsels I have picked from the Informational Bread known as the Internet:

1. The "greatest self-trip in the history of basketball" is unfortunately not available through youtube. Fortunately, there is still an nbcolympic.com route by which you can see it, though a bit a circuitous. Simply, go here and click China under "By Country." Then choose the video "Highlights: Gasol, Spain defeat China." If you have to download software, it's worth it to see Carlos Jimenez do something I thought was physically impossible at the 1:05 mark.

More forthcoming...

Angolan' for a Gold Medal - US drops Africa's Finest in 97-76 rout

I am trying to turn this whole watching the game without aural commentary thing on TV into an advantage. So I am trying to decipher the players' souls by listening to what they're shouting over the squeak and squawk of the hardwood:

1. Lebron hits the ball hard. Late in the first , he received the ball at the top of the key and hit it like he was trying to spank Satan out of a toddler.

2. For all the hubbub about the US not defending the 3-point shot well, I like what I see from Bron-Bron so far. After his "Satan Smack," LeBron and D-Wade defended against a pick n roll near the arc. As LeBron closed out on the dribble, he screamed out to D-Wade - "Get up, D-Wade! Through, through D-Wade!" telling him to pick up on a switch.
No three was attempted then, and soon afterwards Kobe flew out to disturb a subsequent Angolan attempt, ending in one ugly travel.

3. A similar occurrence happened early in the 2nd quarter when Anthony yelled out to Redd to switch on the arc and the two Americans orchestrated it well. The resulting pressure resulted in the Angolan pivoting himself into a pretzel and throwing the ball directly into Deron Williams' hands. It was 33-21 and I knew the mud was only beginning to slide for Africa's Finest.

On to the Spain-China, a much more competitive outing. I knew China would improve after playing the US, but playing Spain even in regulation only to lose in 85-75 overtime was very impressive. I quite frankly didn't think they were that good.

There are a few things I will add once the video is up of the above game. Teaser: The first is the most spectacular self-trip in the history of the sport, courtesy of Carlos Jimenez.

US Dispenses China 101-70

This game, likely the most widely watched in basketball history, was very much a Jekyl and Hyde affair. The electricity surging through the arena before the game was palpable, I'm sure. From all I saw it was, anyway. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to listen to the commentators on TV but instead watched the live webcast on nbcolympics.com.

N.B - NBC's website says that the company will air more than 3,600 hours of the Summer Olympics this year, 1,000 hours more than the combined coverage for every televised Summer Olympics in U.S. history (Rome 1960 - Athens 2004, 2,562 hours).
It is "the most ambitious single media project in history."

My viewing experience, however, wasn't as grand. I was chagrined to learn that nbcolympics.com does not stream commentators (for this game, the color commentator was Doug Collins). So I watched the game in silence, pretending I was there, occasionally checking the weird text-based live commentary some random ex-coach provided.

The beginning of the game is all a basketball fan could have hoped for - the president in attendance, Yao Ming hitting a three, and the home team starting out with tough, spirited basketball. But while China was able to keep the game close through the first quarter (America did not shoot well, hitting only 2 of 16 threes through 3 quarters, and Carmelo did not score in the 1st half), a number of factors led to China's eventual 31-point demise:

1) China is not a deep team and the US is. The US kept running and at first China could handle it - they had the adrenaline of playing at home and fresh legs going for them. But over the course of the game, they fell victim to wave after wave of fast-breaking, stars and stripes-saluting greyhounds.

2. Yao Ming, China's hinge, was creaky. He had surgery in the spring and has been playing with the national team since only July 15th. He scored only half (13 points) of what he averaged 2 years ago as the leading scorer of the world championships and was not able to finish plays around the rim during the 2nd half. He wearily waved to the crowd as he exited with 4 minutes left in the game, but I expect China to bounce back as Yao's stamina improves and EVERY OTHER TEAM WON'T BE THE UNITED STATES from now on. The Red Dragon's second brightest flame, New Jersey Nets forward Yi Jianlin, was horrible: he had made only 1 of 9 shots a couple of minutes into the 4th quarter.

3. LeBron and D-Wade were spectacular. LeBron had 18 points on 8-12 shooting, buttressed by 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks. He also looked like he was ready to win the 100 meter dash. Late in the 2nd quarter, as he waited for a rebound off of a free throw attempt, he hunched down like a sprinter in the starting blocks. There was no way he was letting Yi Jianlin get the rebound.

Wade was impeccable - 7-7 FGs, 5-5 FTs. If he continues to play at his NBA Finals MVP-level of last year, the US's transition game goes from orange alert to red.

Catching Wind

With the US National team's last exhibition game against Australia more than two days in the rear view mirror and the opening game against China still three days down the road, it's time for a quick look around the blogoscape.

These landmarks stick out -

1. As David Friedman reported in his Team USA Exhibition Tour Report Card, Dwayne Wade has been mighty impressive lately.
He's shooting .723 FG & and, surprisingly to me, is shooting better from deep (5-7 3 pt. %) than Deron Williams (1-6).
"
2. Meandering through a past blog about Team USA's 2007 evisceration of Argentina, David also mentioned something that I had never known about the genesis of the 1992 Dream Team. In the late 1980s, when FIBA proposed that the US inject professional players into future Olympic competitions, the US evidentally "was the one country that was initially opposed to the idea. The fact is that sending college players to compete against other countries' professionals is pointless; the college players cannot win in these kind of events and it is better for the development of the game for the best to play against the best."

A USA basketball article clued me in that:

"In 1986 - two years before Americans lost in '88 - the rules were nearly changed. FIBA Secretary-General Stankovic introduced the resolution for open play at a FIBA convention, and the vote to allow all professionals to play was 31-27. At the time, Stankovic said 18 or 19 countries abstained from voting, but if only five had changed and voted "yes," the resolution would have passed and the original Dream Team could have debuted in 1988 rather than 1992."


3. In a recent prognostication article, CNN SI's Ian Thomsen writes, unsurprisingly, that Spain is favored for silver. He said one reason for this because the fleet, full-court oriented Spanish squad "lost the European championship final last summer when the Russians slowed the tempo. By trying to push the ball up the court, the Spaniards will be playing to the preferred pace of the Americans."

Then, almost shockingly, he quotes Ettore Messina, the highly respected coach of CSKA Moscow, saying that Spain would be content to settle for silver: "Their goal realistically has to be nothing more than to make the final. I remember they were so happy when the draw put them in the same group with the U.S., meaning they [are likely to] face the U.S. only in the final. I think they are thinking of second place.''

I can understand why Messina said Spain was glad that they are in a situation where they will not (in the elimination games) likely face the US until the finals, but I cannot fathom a team with 6+ NBA-caliber players not considering gold as a realistic goal. If anything, after last year's loss in the Euro Championships in Madrid, I would expect Spain to be more hungry for gold than ever. The possibility of one nation holding the FIBA and Olympic championships in basketball, and the Euro Cup in soccer, as Spain has a chance to do, is unreal.

Aussies Get (Down) Under Americans' Skin; Lose By "Only" 11

The fifth and final US exhibition game marked either a) the toughest challenge the US has received since Greece in '06 or b) the most bored Uncle Sam's Finest have been in a game situation. I'll chalk up the 87-76 victory more to the latter than the former, simply because I refuse to believe an Australian teams sans Andrew Bogut is capable of playing a snarling, fully engaged American team to only an 11 point loss.

Mine eye fell upon the following:

1. The Australian point guard - Patrick Mills - only 19 and a smidgen under 6 feet, looks like the real deal. He glides over the floor like a well-hit hockey puck and displayed impressive range and moxie against Paul, Kidd, et al. I wish to wallabies I had seen him play when his American college, St. Mary's, played Texas here in Little Rock, AR during the first round of this spring's NCAA tournament. Instead, I saw Memphis receive a closer game than expected from Texas-Arlington.

2. There's a LOT of jingoistic schlock floating through cyberspace these days with the onset of the Olympics only a few days away. Fortunately, not all of it is vomit-inducing. Every once in while, a piece or two of it is actually ok, makes you think - "Yeah, I guess it is pretty cool to be American."
Case in point - this commercial, featuring the dulcet voice of Marvin Gaye basking in the lushest, bad-assest rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner" known to man (er, cat). His singing is interspersed with shots of a Team USA practice in impossibly cool slow-mo.
Then again, I have an inkling that even Marvin Gaye singing the Iranian national anthem with dramatic slow-mo shots of the Persian Go-kart team warming up would be equally as hip.

3. Kudos for Coach K finally deciding to call the Americans' first time-out of the exhibition games with 6 minutes to go in the third quarter. Of course, he had to do it - his team was reeling from a 15-4 2nd-half opening run that brought the Australia to only a 48-44 deficit. Following the break, the US was able to refocus and pad its lead a bit. As color commentator Fran Frashilla repeatedly reminded the viewers, the US's days of coasting through an international tournament w/o calling a timeout are long over (Daly did not call one during the '92 run). There will be tough stretches against the likes of Greece and Spain in which we'll need to call a timeout. And it's nice that the very act itself won't be such foreign territory once we arrive there.

Russia v. US

This 89-68 victory was the least impressive of the US's exhibition victories so far. Russia was tall, tough, experienced and able to minimize the Americans' fast break points while outrebounding them 12-4.

Some sights -

1. There's no doubt David Blatt, Russia's head coach but born and raised in the US, has officially gone over to the dark side, sartorially speaking. If his open-collar, flaming-font red Russian shirt tucked into tight designer jeans doesn't scream "Euro Trash," it's only because the outfit's far too hoarse.

2. It is both amazing to note and indicative of the US's obscene stable of talent that Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest scorers in NBA history and at 29 still in his prime, was only the US's 6th leading scorer at the game's onset. Admittedly, part of the reason for this relative paucity of points is Kobe's single-minded dedication to defense for this team. His 12 points in the third quarter, however, showed how important Kobe's offense still is for his team. The 8 point deficit they faced with 3 minutes was the closest they had been late in an exhibition game so far. Kobe's timely drives and perimeter shooting, as well as a couple of 3s from Redd, helped expand the US's lead to a more comfy 18 going into the fourth quarter.


3. It just occured to me with 4 minutes in the first quarter as Dwayne Wade speedily slithered to the basket for a deuce that Wade's new bald pate makes him look like a bigger, less surly version of Nick Van Exel.