Exactly what the hell do they have to be scared about, their bored with the talent pool. Im sure your better than others at certain things and you get bored if you constantly win and you basically play to their level? Thats what happened today until Lebron took it upon himself to finish it. The media hypes it like they are in trouble and its a wake up call etc. To me its insulting to our team to even hear that especially coming from our own media.
Heh. Did you really think that the media is suggesting that Kobe, LeBron and Durant are scared right now? "Scare" means they could've lost. Not that they are ****ting their pants. LeBron tried to 'take over' for most of the 4th quarter, and they kept coming back regardless. So did Westbrook, CP3, Melo, Williams and Durant. In the end, talent won. But a team of countless All Stars shouldn't get pushed like that. By a very mediocre team nonetheless. They came in over-confident, lackadaisical and expecting an easy game. They should indeed wake up. Russia and Spain are much more talented than this Lithuanian squad, and if the US defends like this, they'll get another 'scare'.
Chillax brah. They were probably partying the night before... This team is different from the fail teams in 2000-2004. Yes they are entitled and lazy but they know how to win. It's common in world tournaments these days to have 'close calls' or 'close upsets'. Just look at Britian the other day, almost took down Spain. And Tunisia only lost to France by 4 despite getting pummelled by the States a few days ago.
Coach K needs to understand that he needs to feature Lebron and Durant almost every play, and let everyone else play off of those 2. Unfortunately, they play like it's an all-star game and just spread the ball around. If team USA plays seriously and actually runs "actual" plays, the opponent has no chance. It would be a 30+ point blowout every game.
I don't have a reason to chill and relax, I'm not a US fan. For all I care, they can come drunk to any game. I'm simply reflecting on a game and saying that it's silly to act as if this wasn't close. This wasn't about US "turning it on" in the end. The US tried to "turn it on" a number of times. This was about Lithuania lacking talent and in the end, never really being able to take/sustain the lead for long. re Britain and Tunisia - very different situations. Britain has Deng, Tunisia has two extremely skilled big men who should be in the NBA. Those close games weren't accidental. Both teams are consistently competitive versus these mid tier teams so far. But the US
i don't have time to watch the other basketball games, but does coach K get video of how they defend the PnR? i don't understand how these other teams, with far lesser athletes, can hold each other to 73-69 type games but every time a european or south american team runs a PnR against us a big man is wide open in the lane for a layup or the guard gets an open 3. i realize that since moving picks are allowed it's a little difficult to defend but our guards seem to get lost on picks in ways that other countries must not or the scores would all be 100-96. now granted, even when we played decent PnR defense lithuania threw some amazing passes today and was getting the ball through windows that seemed impossible, and the fact they shot 53% in the 1st quarter and then shot better in each subsequent quarter made this game for lithuania like our nigeria game where you could hardly hope to score more points (when they made the shot where carmelo knocked it out of the guy's hand and he caught it in mid-air and shot it and still made it, you knew things were going well), but we still played crappy defense. throw in the fact we went on a 2-19 stretch on 3's (when you're just leaving kevin durant open for 3's and getting away with it, your D will look good), and couldn't make free throws, this would have probably been a loss with some past teams. luckily lebron decided to get it going and put the game away. also, it would be nice if fouling chris paul when he beats somebody off the dribble was actually a called foul.
on the other hand, pushing Jasikevicius out of bounds shouldn't result in a turnover for him. can't expect these games to be called very well. FIBA (as well as FIFA in soccer) has a stupid rule where they invited referees from all continents to make it "fair". It would be ok, if those referees were adequate. But basketball is just not very big in a number of places. This game was actually one of the better in that regard, IMO. another thing: how annoying is it that the quarter timer is basically never stopped regardless of the situation. I can understand saving time and avoiding time breaks. But come on. Kevin Love held the ball for like 5 seconds after scoring at the end of one quarter, until he decided to give it to the ref. But that time, the quarter is almost over. Just stupid.
The amount of 3s that the US takes is ridiculous considering how much stronger and more athletic all our guys are. Yeah there was a lot of open ones today but you don't have to jack up the three ball every single time. I know the line is closer and all but crap man, it's just lazy.
Today's Boxscore: http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/national/12_moly_game_04_stats.html Chandler played only 8 minz, no foul trouble.
not so easy when the other team is bigger and is allowed to handcheck. Also, the area inside the 3pt line is smaller and therefore more crowded. Also, a lot of NBA fouls just aren't fouls in Europe. So in other words, it's hard, you get banged up a lot and you don't get to the line as much as you'd expect. 3 on the other hand is a very nice shot when you are almost open and the 3pt line is closer.
because he's useless, the issue was perimeter defense and running back on D. Anthony Davis has played better so far than Chandler anyway, so if anyone should've gotten minutes, it's him. But this wasn't a great game for either. Lithuania was basically playing small ball all the way.
Chandler with 8 minutes, Love with 12, Davis zero? Did they play KD and Bron at C half of the game or what?
The contrast between this team and 2010 is striking. Coach K clearly doesn't have as much control over what's going on this year. His only influence seems to be doling out playing time. Two years ago, everyone accepted their roles and played them well. This time, egos are getting in the way. They need to run the offense through LeBron and KD (and Melo when he's on) and the other guys (i.e, Kobe, D-Will, WB) need to swallow their pride and play off of them. Kobe draws a foul every single time he goes towards the basket, so why is he still chucking? There is no reason for him to take a shot from further than 15-feet unless the shot clock is running out. Is there any chance another 1-7 (0-3 from long range) shooting performance puts him on the bench for the 4th quarter? You guys that say Chandler was worthless, did you notice the layup drill? From 2-point range, Lithuania was 31-49 (63%). Indeed the 7-16 from long range was better than expected, but it wasn't the biggest problem on defense for Team USA.
lol at all the serious international fans in here. Nobody here in the U.S. cares for your opinion. It was a laid back game for Team USA. Didn't mean much at all.
