Team USA ultimately prevailed over Argentina, 101-81, in the Olympic semifinals Friday. Yet with Andres Nocioni gimping around the court and Manu Ginobili out, this game should have been an open-and-shut case of nolo contendere.
Even so, viewers got a chance to see the Americans at their best and at their worst.
Let's summarize the worst first.
During the embarrassing second quarter, Team USA seemed baffled by Argentina's zone defense. They basically stood around, watched each other over-handle the ball, and looked to launch 3-pointers.Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Deron Williams were especially guilty of firing up too many ill-advised shots.The U.S. was discomforted when Argentina successfully slowed the pace.It was during the same quarter that just about everybody on Team USA lost their focus, their patience and their discipline on both ends of the court — doing so mostly against Argentina's scrubs.The U.S. committed numerous unforced turnovers — passes to nobody, 3-second violations, unnecessary charges and the like.All game long, Luis Scola (28 points) manhandled USA's bigs (especially Chris Bosh) in the paint.Too many reckless gambles on defense led to too many silly fouls.Throughout the entire tournament it's been virtually impossible to anticipate what the call might be after every whistle. And if not for another bogus call at the end of the first half, one that put Melo on the line for 3 freebies, the U.S. would have held a meager 6-point lead at the intermission.And saving the best for last:
The first quarter demonstrated just how great this team can be — playing a quick-footed, smothering defense that totally discombobulated the otherwise sharp-passing Argentineans. The Americans' adhesive defense on the perimeter was particularly notable.Moving the ball swiftly and making sharp cuts, Team USA had little trouble generating layups and open jumpers against Argentina's man-to-man defense.
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| Kobe Bryant scored 12 points and put the clamps on Carlos Delfino. (FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP / Getty Images) |
After struggling early, Team USA's 3s began to fall and all of the holes in the Argentineans' sieve-like zone were fully exploited.The Americans were also able to dismantle the zone by positioning LBJ at the high-post, then feeding him the ball and letting him drive or pass.Their failsafe anti-zone maneuver, however, was to have Jason Kidd make a wing pass from up-top, execute a dive cut, fade to a corner (thereby taking a baseline defender with him), then receiving a pass, and finding Dwight Howard open under the bucket with a defender on his back.They also took full advantage of the floor-bound defense of Fabricio Oberto and Luis Scola by attacking the rim and swarming the offensive glass.After getting chewed out by Coach K during the halftime break, the Americans regained their composure and took control of the game.In the fourth quarter, after Nocioni got nailed with a technical foul and Argentina's subs were running on empty, Team USA demonstrated an admirable killer instinct.Biggest surprise performance: Kobe playing lock-down defense against Carlos Delfino.
Most disappointing performance: Melo's being unable to control his temper on two occasions when he was involved in bone-on-bone confrontations in the paint. Blame the myopic refs for not T-ing him.
Conclusion: Playing its worst game of the tournament, albeit against a severely wounded opponent, the U.S. still won by 20.
Outlook: Undoubtedly, Coach K and his staff will make sure the guys understand that they mustn't take anything for granted and that it's imperative to keep their chops up for 40 minutes. That's why the gold medal game will be even more of a blowout than the initial encounter between the U.S. and Spain.
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