Team USA 2004 Olympic Basketball...rocked by Italy

[MDE3 0]

Wow.....Team USA was just destroyed yesterday by Team Italia in a pre Olympic exhibition game.....I mean DESTROYED. Team Italy was up by 23 points with only 4 minutes to go, and pulling away, when they put in their "deep reserves". I think the final margin was 17 points..the game was never close. The look of horror and confusion in the eyes of the young TEAM USA stars was evident, as call after call for travelling was made against these NBA stars with almost no international experience. I guess not everyone allows three steps on the way to the basket.....

Italy controlled the game with fantastic outside shooting..averaging over 50% on 3 point attempts.

Maybe some of those overpaid egos will be able to pick up enough of their shattered personas and find the time to actually learn how to play Team Basketball

This was the most humiliating loss ever suffered by any Team USA since the NBA was allowed to field players for these teams.

Interestingly there was not one article to be found on MSN or ESPN news on this loss yet on the web......

[mack 44]

Looks like it'll open up spots for their next roster. I'm going to get the Chuck Taylors and my headband out and wait for tryouts.

[Neo5370 132]

Team USA is missing alot of the NBA's most dominant players. Even though that's not a great excuse. Other countries have picked up usa basketball or watched it enough to know how to play us. Kinda like how russian hockey's no secret anymore.

[mack 44]

Without looking up the actual roster though, who could Italy have? Gugliotta? Scalabrine? Granted basketball's picked up in other countries, but come on...this is ridiculous.

[Neo5370 132]

http://www.usabasketball.com/seniormen/200..._msnt_exh2.html

Here ya go.

I didn't watch the game myself. But looking at the Team USA roster, I don't see any pure shooters. We've got a bunch of penetrators, and high-flyers. Lot's of youth. Marbury is the only real passing guard and he hasn't effectively led an NBA team on his own yet.

From what I've read we were crippled by excellent shooting. USA is purely an athletic team who can be whipped by guys that can pass and nail the open jump shot or three.

We only have one guy (duncan 7ft) over 6'10" and only three guys that are exactly 6'10" and none of them are NBA centers ('cept for duncan).

It's like at pick up when a bunch of old timers whip the uber-athletic rink rats by passing the puck, and playing position/posession instead of relying on pretty moves and breakneck speed.

They need duncan's previously perfect fundamentals to rub off on the rest of the young team.

Unless miracle man larry brown can pull an herb brooks :)

[thejackal 46]

Im not a basketball exper, but it sounds to me that they have many GOOD players, but not the RIGHT players.

[Neo5370 132]

Im not a basketball exper, but it sounds to me that they have many GOOD players, but not the RIGHT players.

exactly.

[MDE3 0]

I watched the whole game.....all I can say in their defence is maybe they were jet lagged.....no energy, braindead passes picked off one after another, passes dropped or made to a man who had just vacated a spot.....lost 80% of the one on one battles for ball possession on rebounds, were caught travelling constantly..as that rule has effectively been shelved in the NBA....threw up one "brick" after another from the outside when they found themselves unable to dance through the zone defence.

In fairness Italy bagged almost everything they threw from 3 point range from about half way through the second period. They relied so heavily on the outside shot that even when they had successfully penetrated Team USA's rather non existant defence down low, they still dished it to the outside for a shot rather than take the easy lay-up....it seriously looked like Italy was simply toying with Team USA!!!!!!!

[cgin6 0]

As mentioned before, the glaring problem with the team USA is their lack of pure shooters. In international rules you are allowed to play a zone defense and most ballers will agree that the only way to keep the defense honest against a zone is to stick a few long range Js. In their defense, team USA hasnt had a lot of prep time, only 3 weeks, to come together and if not gel as a team, at least get used to what each other tends to do on the court. Most international teams have played together for years and are able to make up for having less talent with good team work. When i used to play basketball, my friends and I were able to run with much bigger and talented boys because we played a zone defense and swarm anyone who drove the lane, (most streetballers will 80% of the time look to dribble penetrate), and because we ran a ton of off ball picks and pick and rolls on offense.

[mack 44]

Good point about the lack of practise time together, but they just finished year 2 of allowing the zone in the NBA so that's not an excuse, even if their own team doesn't run it. They just have way too many 2s and tweeners on the roster.

[MDE3 0]

Good point about the lack of practise time together, but they just finished year 2 of allowing the zone in the NBA so that's not an excuse, even if their own team doesn't run it. They just have way too many 2s and tweeners on the roster.

In fairness Italy played as well as Team USA played badly.

The lack of execution on the things they were trying to accomplish was at least as significant as the difference in style of play. The poor rebounding, the poor passing, the failure to win the one on one battles, the failure to play basic defensive coverage of the same two guys who were bombing the three point shots all contributed to the loss so greatly that a discussion of the differences in style of play is almost moot.

It seriously appeared to be more of a case that a collection of Prima Donnas showed up to sign autographs and were surprised that a game broke out in the middle of this event.

[Chadd 916]

The played a lot of man in the part of the game I saw last night, some zone as well. Look at the guys on the team and tell me how many are true "team" guys. The international teams move the ball well and play together, team USA is a bunch of good individuals. You could probably drag out the original dream team and they would beat the current team USA and most of the international teams, simply because they knew the game.

[Neo5370 132]

(most streetballers will 80% of the time look to dribble penetrate)

I agree. Almost all the points scored in an NBA game are from w/in the paint (lots of put backs and sad to say, lots of free throws), or behind the arc (most of time it's what? like 30% shooting if that?)

I hate it when a player gives up a midrange jumper to kick back to the point or try and penetrate.

The mid range J is gonna join the lay-up, finger roll and dinosaurs.

Jordan was the last great player that used the mid-fadeaway to rape defenders after he couldn't jump 20ft anymore.

Dunks and three's..........that's all people are excited by anymore. No fundamentals.

[MDE3 0]

The played a lot of man in the part of the game I saw last night, some zone as well. Look at the guys on the team and tell me how many are true "team" guys. The international teams move the ball well and play together, team USA is a bunch of good individuals. You could probably drag out the original dream team and they would beat the current team USA and most of the international teams, simply because they knew the game.

I agree the started to try to play man on man..then forgot halfway through the exercise, leaving the same two guys unguarded almost every time. It looked like everytime one of the Italian guards was going to penetrate...those "streetball" egos got sucked into a "you ain't goin to beat me" thing, and three or four Team USA players would collpase down low..allowing the outside dish to a now open man.

That only explains the successfull oportunities given to Italy...not the poor rebounding on the offensive boards..which they(Team USA) really needed with all their missed attempts, the totally bad passes, the dropped passes, the passes to oblivion.....the losing of the one on one battles....those were individual errors, not "team" errors.

It was actually pretty funny listening to the announcers ragging on about how much athletic talent was on Team USA, but then watching those individuals get hosed one on one by these "lesser" talents.

[Chadd 916]

The second part is all arrogance, they didn't feel they needed to play hard to win.

I'm just wondering how most of the guys on team USA are going to pass the drug tests.

[MDE3 0]

The second part is all arrogance, they didn't feel they needed to play hard to win.

I'm just wondering how most of the guys on team USA are going to pass the drug tests.

Agreed about the arrogance like I said..I think they felt pretty insulted that these upstarts were interfering with the autograph session...I hear Ricky Williams phone line was busy all night long..... :P

[Chadd 916]

I like this guy's stuff (it helps he's an old time Celtics fan), a very interesting article about what the team is and what it should be.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=simmons/040804

[Chadd 916]

It took a shot from half court by Iverson to pull out the win against Germany. Team USA is in bad shape.

[cgin6 0]

Bill Simmons is my favorite sports editorialist. His vengeance list? Pure genius. I hope he is able to keep the quality of his writing up now that hes got his own page. Too bad he gave up on the B's.