Now that its official, i beleive this should´ve been the Gold medal game. Now one of the top nations in the world of basketball today will go home after this game without a medal!! Who will it be the powerful dominant "DREAM TEAM" that will have to go home with there heads down Or will it be Pau Gasols "BIG RED MACHINE" that will have there high hopes of a Silver or Gold medal shredded to pieces by the dominant American big men.
I'm going to vote for the US, I think Spain is under the impression that they're the favorite, I hope Duncan & Marion & Odom put the clamps on Pogo. If Spain shoots 3's under 30%, then they will most likely lose. But teams tend to come up huge going against Goliath, so I wouldn't be surprised if they have their best shooting game vs. us. I really wish Larry would break out a press or even a halfcourt trap with Wade & Jefferson but I don't think it's going to happen
Spain is pretty tough, if the US team can get it together by then Spain would still pose quite a challenge but alas I despise Pau Gasol and I'm an American also so I would have to vote for the US
Watching the USA/Angola game today Doug Collins handicapped potential USA matchups (Italy, Argentina, Spain) and said he thought Team USA would best match up with Spain because they are NOT a good 3pt shooting team and that seems to be the problem for the US (3pt shooting defense). Collins says that while Spain is very good they play a more American style game using their height in the front court so perhaps team USA would match up better with them because of this. While Spain has looked terrific so far, Collins might have a point there! I really feel that for a team to beat team USA they have to hit a lot of 3ptrs against them.
I think Spain want to shoot themselves to find out that they finish 1st in group only set to meet US.
I think that team USA will win this game because they've played together for more than a month now. Certain players have realized that they aren't stars on this team and have to play their roles. The game against Lithuania was actually very good. The game against Angola was even more promising. They still can't shoot, but they're getting a lot better at identifying scoring opportunities and playing to their strength. Spain is as good as anyone in this turnament, but now they are not the underdog anymore since everyone kinda expected USA to lose. I think that the overall talent level of team USA is still higher than that of Spain and we'll find a way to win this game.
Agentina and P.R. set this matchup up. First Agentina lost to Italy because they thought U.S. would finish 3rd, and they don't want to meet them in the quarterfinal. After that game, P.R. realized they would rather play Italy than Agentina, which means they have to lose by more than 13 points, and they conveniently lost by 20. As a result, Spain got screwed and have to play U.S.
I think it's going to come down to 4th quarter play, who ever wins the 4th will win this game. Hopefully the crunch time 4th quarter lineup will look like this, Iverson (Must), Wade (if he's cold Carmelo or Jefferson whoever is hitting more shots), Lebron (MUST), Odom (MUST), Duncan (OBVIOUS MUST). I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned this but if the US loses they get to play against the loser of China-vs- Lithuania. Prediction - Lebron dominates the 4th quarter, like he did against the Aussies, and the US wins by 7.
If you want to watch it live before you get word on all the news sites and websites you have to watch it on 7:30 AM EDT, but they will show it over and over during the day. They are showing both games. http://www.nba.com/athens2004/ 7:30 a.m. ET - Spain vs. United States 9:45 a.m. ET - Lithuania vs. China 1 p.m. ET - Italy vs. Puerto Rico 3:15 p.m. ET - Greece vs. Argentina
