i would say yao must feel like he's playing on the rockets right now but china actually hits 3 pointers.
Poor Yao...China was no match for the US...I like his passion and as long as his foot feels fine, he needs the work to get back in shape...
did team USA leave the defense on the bus? no one is even trying to stop dribble penetration. granted, playing aggresively will get you beat, but they are getting beat very easily. and boki drains a 3 like he's trying out for the rockets instead of playing for the rockets. hopefully we step it up the rest of the way or this could be a long (or short) world championship.
Heh, we have a "comfortable" lead now. USA always starts out slow for some reason, but our superior depth wears the other teams down.
On the Chron sports sections for USA vs Slovenia, they show a picture of Bosh about to dunk one-handed, with his other hands clearly gripped to the rim. Is that kind of thing permitted in international rules? http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/4133052.html I know goal-tending is allowed, so maybe hanging on the rim before the shot is allowed too?
Feel sorry for Yao, but again, the sooner they exit, the sooner he can come back to the states... USA should be winning these games...Is it me, or can you tell a difference from USA teams in the past...More confidence, etc...
Well, the US has officially qualified for the elimination round now. Maybe they can focus on trying to play some defense in their two remaining pool play games.
I didn't see the shot, but this would probably be illegal unless he was doing this off of a missed shot. That'd be my guess...
I agree: The half court defense needs to improve. We need to play the PnR better and the drive and kick out. But, it also doesn't seem to be our game plan to focus on lock-down half court defense. Seems Coach K is going for up tempo vs lock-down half court defense. Focusing on lock-down D might result in low scoring games, which doesn't favor us. Shooting for up tempo does suit us. So what is your defensive strategy in up tempo. It looks to me what is happening is we are trying to up the tempo to the point of actually stringing out the court...ie, allowing one cherry picker to force the other team to leave a 5th player back with him. Not all the way pass half court, but one guy who slowly comes back. So, if we can get the opps to shoot quickly on 4 on 4 by going for risky turnovers; #1: we get them outta their game (ie, chaotic play), #2, we get our share of turnovers, #3, we fastbreak out of made baskets, and most all misses, #4, we tire the opponents with our superior depth. This offense-based-on-defensive scheme reminds me of the Magic Lakers/Loyola Marrymount. Bring your 5th defender back slowly and dare the other team to go 5 on 4 by upping their tempo. So far, it appears each team we've played has fallen into the mistake of attacking a Magic/Lakers defense. They should just pull it back out and force the half court game. I suspect we'll see that more in elimination. And then we'll see how well we do playing true half-court defense against an opponent who wants the score in the 80s.
The biggest problems the US are having is the dribble penetration and, like you said HP, the pick and roll. Arroyo is probably the one player the US has to watch out for in elimination play. Suprisingly, the risky defense they've been utilizing by playing the passing lanes has worked pretty well, with only a few buckets given up on missed steals. It really boils down to defensive fundamentals, proper foot spacing and keeping the arms up. They have to always keep an arm or hand around the ball, so the other teams become hesitant to pass and force up bad long range shots. Try to disrupt every pass possible, no matter how menial it may be. If a guard gets in the lane, jump on his ass as soon as possible. Send three or four guys at him and force a bad pass.
one reason might be that the High PnR in FIBA is 3' further in; that is, starting a PnR from 3pt land. Maybe that difference makes Arroyo in FIBA as effective as Tony Parker in the NBA.
NBA dud? He had solid stats when he started for Utah along with a career 2.5 a/to ratio. I'd like to have him on the Rockets...
Anthony just score a 3 pts and Wade scored another 2pts. USA lead by 1pt. Not dominating Italy at all. A tussle.
Carmello was lighting italy up, but USA needs to quit gambling for steals so much and play position d.
I had to leave for work after the first half. What did the United States do in the second half that they didn't do in the first half when they were getting their asses kicked? They were still playing terrible on ball defense in the first half...
From what I heard they played a lot better D... Carmelo starting hitting everything... They rebounded better... Got some fast break buckets... I had to leave for work too. Oh and apparently they started running plays because one anti-US announcer said, "That was the first play the US has ran all night".
