apparently this group of officials aren't aware that not everything single thing that happens on a basketball court is traveling. even by FIBA standards they've been ridiculous. team USA has been playing good D and they needed it during that 6 or 7 minute stretch where every possession was a brick or a turnover.
Looked like a blowout in the first quarter, started to look more competitive in the 2nd, and now looks like a blowout in the 3rd (52-32).
Another upset win, Germany over Serbia. With their size and shooting, can they surprise Team USA, if they manage to meet up?
I've watched a ton of the other World Championship games already and of all the teams I've watched, I think I've enjoyed watching New Zealand as much as anyone. They are waaaayyyy outmanned, but they've kept their first two games much closer than was expected and they have a couple of really excited players. The first is Kirk Penney. He has had a couple of cups of coffee in the NBA, but hasn't stuck. He is a volume scorer who can get a shot from almost any angle from anywhere. The other guy I enjoyed watching was this kid name Thomas Abercrombie. He has good size and a projectable body type. He had several rim-rocking dunks including an alley-oop finish on Marc Gasol's head.
team USA 4/5 on 3's in the first quarter and yet brazil is even more on fire. barbosa already with 2 pull up 3's that he usually doesn't take in the nba. and holy crap, considering the PnR is the most run play in the nba, team USA never looks like it knows what it's doing. i don't know if it's just not playing together or if coach K just doesn't get it, but the number of wide open layups and dunks other teams generate on simple PnR's is amazing.
wow iguodala. gets a steal and then looks around for 3 or 4 seconds before throwing a pass directly to a brazilian cutting in for a layup. then commit a foul helping on a guy shooting a 15 foot runner. right when we were only down 3, he single-handedly pushes it back to 7.
this tournament is really not making me want to get iguodala. he never does anything good on offense. and team USA up 6 with a wide open durant 3, and instead of going up 9, we miss, and barbosa gets 5 straight points (sandwiched around another billups bricked 3, his 457th of the game) to close it to within 1 after 3. not good.
US just looks like a bunch of guys playing pick-up ball. Haven't seen much of the tournament but this is ugly.
