ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- One week before its opener at the Athens Games, the U.S. men's Olympic team took a step backward. The American team blew most of a 14-point fourth-quarter lead against a Turkish team missing Hedo Turkoglu, one of its two NBA players, before coming away with a 79-67 victory Sunday. This was not an encouraging win for the Americans, who again struggled against a team that didn't even qualify for the Olympics -- just as happened earlier on their European trip against Germany. A 19-8 run that included several 3-pointers narrowed Turkey's deficit to 68-65 with 3 1/2 minutes left before the U.S. team turned up its defensive pressure to close out the game. Tim Duncan led the United States with 16 points and Allen Iverson scored 13, with no one else reaching double figures. What was most alarming was the way the team's core of youngsters, including LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade couldn't stop the home team from making a game of it down the stretch. Turkey's rally ended only after Duncan and Iverson, the U.S. team's elder statesmen, returned. With Turkoglu out because of a broken nose, Ibrahim Kutluay led Turkey with 19 points and Serkan Erdogan added 17. Both players combined for a flurry of 3s that thrilled the a crowd of about 10,000 at the hot, cramped Abdi Ipecki Arena. Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. looks like trouble.
That article makes it seem like the youngsters were playing terrible D. Melo, LeBron and Wade weren't doing anything wrong...it's just that the Turkish players were stopping 10 feet behind the 3 point line and launching up shots. It was ridiculous.
Not to mention the Turkish players were travelling often and hitting ridiculous shots. The refereeing is absurd. At one point they wouldn't let the US change players. The US had its starters waiting to come in, and only Duncan and Jefferson were allowed to enter. Iverson, Marbury, and Odom had to continue to wait another minute or so for no reason at all. At another point, Wade got fouled on the shot. The refs said he wasn't shooting, then gave him 2 free throws. It made no sense, they are horrible.
It wasn't that bad of a game for the US, hostile crowd, horrible calls, decent, at times, shooting from Turkey, some stupid plays by Wade; but they still controlled the game and never let the Turks take the lead; it's not like Turkoglu is so awesome he would have turned the game around.
They only do that because the international 3pt line is so much closer. Mo Taylor and Yao can probably consistently hit the international 3. What's sad is that Stu Jackson doesn't take this into consideration when choosing his players for the US team. With the shorter line, it's obvious that the 3 pointer is worth more in international play because the % of making it is higher. Our great shooters like Micheal Redd can abuse the 3 pointer as much, if not more so, than opposing national teams. Don't blame other teams for taking advantage of something that we refuse to.
It was one of the worst officiated games I have ever seen. Turkey hit some unbelievable shots in the 4th quarter to make it close, but the US controlled all the way.
You know, I was believing this until I saw this game. Although the US team has bad shooters, I believe we would've made as many they did if we threw up the same volume of shots. Silly us, being lured in by the high percentage shots. Also, I'm not seeing the "better fundamental play" of these international teams. Sure they can shoot, but there's hardly any mid-range game, and their passing pales in comparison to ours. I think if our squad would get it in their heads to play real, shut-down defense, we'd be in much better shape. They should press and play the hell out of the passing lanes. Make the game an up and down affair and kill them in transition.
how much further is the NBA 3 pt line than the international 3 pt line? is it the same distance that the NBA moved it in to for a couple years?
NBA 3pt line is 23' 9" FIBA is the same as the WNBA's whatever that is. I think it's something like 20.5 feet - somebody look it up.
I saw the game as well and that Turkey team sucked ass. Soft as hell too. Even with the excuses some of ya'll are giving, the game should've never been close.
i swear i saw them list the 3 point line as 20 feet, 6.1 inches one time. don't ask me where the 0.1 inch comes from, but i think i saw that one time. this is really starting to get to me. while i watch from an american perspective obviously, i'm also a huge duke fan who can tell when the refs are helping duke out and screwing the other team, and the reffing is blatantly against us. it's almost a shock when the ball goes out of bounds with two people battling for it and they give it to us. we get called for traveling all the time on pump fakes and yet other teams come off picks at the 3 point line, catch, land both feet, then pick them up and start their move before ever dribbling and NEVER get it called. i have yet to see this called once and considering how many 3's off of picks the international teams shoot it happens a lot. the refs seem to call it by the book only when they feel like it. somehow we were getting out shot at the ft line 11-3 at one point despite the fact turkey's offense basically consisted of jacking up as many 3's as possible. and then my two biggest complaints. tim duncan absolutely cannot get a call. no matter how much he is bumped. no matter if someone brings their arms down on him while he shoots. no matter how many times someone reaches in and hits his arm. no matter how many times they go over the back. no matter how cleanly he blocks a shot. he simply does not get a call. okur bumped him all day when he got the ball. maybe it's karma for all the stuff he gets in the nba, but it's crazy the way they are doing him. good thing he's a pretty calm guy. dwyane wade gets called for something every time he has the ball whether he does something or not. traveling when he catches a pass to start a fast break. traveling under the goal. some weird call today when he lost the ball on the floor and was going for it with another player. no continuation on a shot. he can't do anything. and i love international ball. bigger lane to hurt posting up, closer line to encourage endless jacking up of 3's. long rebounds off of said jacked up 3's that favor the poorer rebounding team who doesn't get inside position. lame ass refereeing. it's just so great (i hate it so much i'm even using a rolleyes for one of the few times ever). of note, our last four scores have been 78, 80, 78, and 79. so it seems we can get our 78-80 points. then it's just up to our D to step up. i liked what i saw from the D today, lots of intensity. if a team jacks up that many 3's and hits a few, what can you do. although i might actually like to see us try a zone sometimes when teams are on crazy runs like that. i know that shooting hurts a zone but the thing is, so many of the open shots come off of dribble penetration by some quick, shifty point guard or guys coming off of screens. i think with the zone not allowing as much penetrating and having no set man so as to not get caught on screens chasing one particular guy so much may actually hurt their open 3 chances. or at the very least when a team starts going 3 crazy like today in the 4th just start switching all the picks, even if it ends up big on small. make them shoot over that guy or bring it inside if they want.
The problem with US's bad shooters is that eventually, they'll meet a team that can defend the interior well, and force the US to start shooting outside shots. Turkey obviously couldn't prevent us from getting layups, but it doesn't mean that other teams can't either. As for the lack of a mid-range game, why bother when the 3 point line is so close? There were an enormous amount of 3s being put up in the NBA when they moved in the line back in the 90s(which was still further than the internation line). But they moved it back when teams were abusing it more. The 3 pointer is quite an important weapon, as you score 50% more points per bucket than a 2. I mean, 33% from beyond the arc is equivalent to 50% inside. That's a huge difference. That's why in the NBA, the line is so far away that most players have trouble hitting it consistently.
He...I could see other international players pulling a Robert Horry and blaiming the basketball court for bad shooting. Media: So, can you tell us why the team shot so bad from 3? Player: We didn't shoot bad, but the this sorry excuse of a court caused are threes to miss. Media: What do you mean? Player: That 3-pt line ain't 20 feet 6.1 inches. Maybe 6.2 inches, or 6 inches, but it isn't regulation. If they actually paid people to get it right, our shots would have gone in. They probably do it to get an advantage over their opponents too. We should put ours at 6.5 inches to screw them up. There's my attempt at humor...
I haven't been watching the games, but is it possible that you, like a lot of the American players, just don't know some of the international rules, hence don't understand why certain calls are made?
Some calls just DON'T make sense, though. For instance: Turkey was not in the penalty and fouled Wade during a floater. He hit the shot but they waived it off...making him shoot two free throws instead. Now if he WAS in the act of shooting and Turkey was in the penalty, then why didn't they give him the And One? Calls like that don't make sense. Another: Wade lost the ball off the dribble then picked it up. He's called for traveling. Two minutes later a Turkish player does the exact same thing, even hitting it off of his foot and picking it up and they turn the other cheek. Over the back is never called. 3 in the key has never been called. All I ask for is consistency...doesn't matter if the rules are different, just give me consistency.
Because you do not UNDERSTAND international rules. International rules allow physical plays inside, but non-physical plays on the perimeter. They have very tight standard on travelling calls. That's why you see perimeter-based teams can get lots of foul calls. I think one day in a NBA game we can see a running back like Emmit Smith holding the ball and running from one end of the court and dunk the ball on the other end of the court without dribbling. NBA referees just do not make travelling calls.
