Greece (V-Span) vs. United States (Battier), 6:30 a.m, Friday, Sept. 1

What a load of crap. That's like saying only republicans are qualified to judge democrats. You imply that non-Americans have no bias, which is absurd.

 

Dude.........

Please TRY and follow the conversation.

THE "ignorant" comment the guy made was at the expense of compucomp, not another expression which should be considered alongside the one which was originally mentioned. There was no grammar argument, I think everyone just found it funny that compucomp put a lot of effort into sounding intelligent and ended up sounding like an idiot.

 

Thank you.

 

maybe he sounds like an idiot, but at least he's a flawless idiot

 

Why shouldn't the US team be at least a little self-confident? They're, young, rich, and only the most talented team currently on the face of the planet, on paper, and maybe a handful of non-American players in the world (Dirk, Yao, Nash, maybe Pau and Manu) would even have a snowball's chance of even making the team. I'd be worried if they acted like a bunch of wusses, to tell you the truth.

 

As a team, they aren't clearly superior to Argentina or Spain. If each round was a best of 5 or best of 7 series, I think the US team would be a huge favorite. But with single elimination games, there's a sizable chance that the US won't win gold. If we put them as a 80/20 favorite over Greece, and maybe 60/40 over Argentia/Spain, that comes out to only a 48% chance to win both and take the Gold. And based on point-differential per possession, both Argentina and Spain have been more impressive than the US thus far (in a tougher bracker) ... so giving the US a 60/40 edge over them might be generous.

 

I didn't say that "they are clearly superior as a team to Argentian or Spain" I said "most talented team on the planet on paper" I don't think Dwayne Wade or LeBron James are doing the math like you are, I think they know that there is no player in the world that can stop them, and most of the players at the WC's don't belong on the same court, and that they are the reason why the Saitama Super Arena is filled when they play.

Yes yes yes, one game series, anything can happen, blah blah blah, I know and am well aware of it; but even considering all that they are the favorites - anyway that's not the type of analysis I'm talking about here - I'mnot handicapping the odds. I'm simply saying that the US has a right to be somewhat cocky considering that their players are simply better than 99 percent of their counterparts. That's not a solely American phenomenon, btw. It's not like Argentian doesn't expect to rout Peru or something.

On an unrelated note, I think a vastly inferior US team pretty much exposed Spain as inferior in 2004 and I have vey little respect for that team.

International basketball is a bit of a sham if you want to judge players, really; short tourneys with teams that don't play together; quite frankly it's only slightly more relevant as the Rucker league as far as determining who can play and who can't.

 

Why isn't V-Span starting?

 

I think he's always come off the bench.

 

we may have to double some of these big guys. if heinrich wasn't trying behind the back dribble in traffic or brand just standing there while someone steals it from behind that would be nice.

hopefully we hit more of the open shots this greece defense is going to give us.

 

killbill with the banked 3!

 

Woo nice three by V-Span.

 

The newest Rocket weapon! The banked trey!

(this will cease to amuse me should Team USA lose by one)

 

Hate to say it but v-span was moving on that charge.

 

He was moving but I thought he was still in front of Dwade. Gotta love the energy he's bringing on D though.

 

the US is absolutely dominating this game but only has a 6 point lead to show for it. something like 6 missed free throws, at least 4 wide open 3's that we missed, several horrible turnovers, a dunk put back that battier missed, and spanoulis' incredibly lucky banked in 3 have kept this from being a double digit lead.

while it's good that we look focused and are dominating, it's bad that we're not taking advantage of it. if greece starts to play better we could be in for a dog fight we never would have been in with decent play. lets just hope the D keeps being as good as it has been.

 

damn its so early

VSpan looking good...he is moving great..the way he switches the tempo and sides is crazy!

 

Spanoulis fouled on a threee point shot, makes all three

 

wow wow wow

what a crossover and pass by spanoulis!

 

The problem for Greece is that we rarely use zonal defence, which is obviously a big weapon against any American team.