Olympics Game 4: USA vs. Spain

[ForeveRaptorFan]

Ugh, this game was over early 3rd quarter. Probably even earlier than that. I was expecting it to be much more competitive.

I thought everyone played great today, Wade/Bron did their usual thing, Paul stepped up, and Tayshaun 's 3's just buried Spain.

[Rasho Brezec]

what do you think about Felipe Reyes?
He's been always rejected by NBA scouters for being undersized, but that never was a problem for him.

I thought he was really good, especially on the glass. He was the only Spaniard who looked like he wanted to compete today.

It's just hard to gauge so many of these guys because few of them are overly athletic. Some guys can overcome that and be good NBA players, like Gasol and Garbajosa, and some can't. At the very least he deserves a look because he's clearly a good player.

Reyes always gives his best, just like Garbajosa (even when he shouldn't).

[INKtastic]

another us route, another round of excuses. What are the excuses going to be after the US wins the gold medal game by 30? As I've been saying for days, there is NO CHANCE that the US loses this year.

[Apollo64]

I guess the tournament is pretty much over, no team can counter US. In theory, there are a lot of things you can do against them in offense and defense, but, again, no team can do what is required consistently for 40 mins in order to have a chance.

[M.Balla]

another us route, another round of excuses. What are the excuses going to be after the US wins the gold medal game by 30? As I've been saying for days, there is NO CHANCE that the US loses this year.

Definetely, you can't read, son.

[Rasho Brezec]

another us route, another round of excuses. What are the excuses going to be after the US wins the gold medal game by 30? As I've been saying for days, there is NO CHANCE that the US loses this year.

Lol@excuses, browse through some of the pages in this thread and look at all the complaining about the refs.

[CircleCitysportsfan]

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/08/oly ... _arti.html

BEIJING (Olympics) – The United States underlined their status as gold medal favourites with a 119-82 destruction of world champions Spain on Saturday.

Looking to make amends for missing out on gold at the last two FIBA World Championships and the Athens Olympics, Mike Krzyzewski’s men brushed aside a team that is loaded with NBA players and top European talent.

Just as they have done in all of their other games this summer, the Americans tore an opponent to shreds with ferocious intensity on defense, forcing 28 turnovers – 17 in the first half when they opened up a 61-45 advantage.

“I was really proud of how we came into this game – focused, from the beginning to the end, especially on the defensive end,” USA’s Carmelo Anthony said.

“We put pressure on the ball and everything worked out better than the previous two games. I think we got a lot better today.

“Obviously this wasn’t a good game for us,” said Spain’s Pau Gasol.

“I don’t feel happy at all with how we played tonight. They played with much more intensity and we weren’t able to start with that intensity and we weren’t able to keep up the whole game.

“Twenty-eight turnovers is a staggering number, and it’s a number that you can’t have a chance in a basketball game if you do that.”


While Dwyane Wade led the defensive effort with six steals in the rout of Germany, LeBron James came up with four against Spain.

James scored 18 points while Anthony, who was four of six from three-point range, and Wade finished with 16 apiece.

“They were just going in tonight,” Anthony said of his shooting stroke.

Eight players ended up in double figures, including point guard Chris Paul (14 pts, six assists).

The Americans were 12 of 25, including seven of 11 in the first half, compared to Spain’s six of 28 from long range on the night.

Spain briefly closed the gap to seven points in the second quarter but the Americans played faster, shot better and showed more determination in building a 61-45 lead by half-time.

The crowd did erupt with applause late in the first half for Spain when Ricky Rubio lofted an alley-oop pass that Rudy Fernandez grabbed and dunked to pull Spain to within 57-43 but the Americans were never under serious threat.

Overall, the Americans shot 44 of 76 (58%) from the floor compared to Spain’s 28 of 71 (39%).

“I think this is a good lesson for us to know what we need to do to play at the highest level and to compete,” Gasol said.

“Hopefully we’ll learn and we’ll move on from this result and leave it behind us.

“Hopefully we’ll meet Team USA again if we earn that opportunity.

“Team USA wanted to make a statement in this game and they did. They wanted to send a message to everybody in the tournament.

“They didn’t do it before, but now everybody knows they are for real. It’s very hard to keep up with that pace. Hopefully we’ll learn the lesson and be ready for next time.”

When asked to expand on Team USA’s strengths, Gasol said: “They are playing with a purpose and that’s to win and to show everyone else that they are superior. And I think that’s the bottom line.

“It’s not that they are better individually than two years ago, they are better as a team. They have a better mentality.”

[INKtastic]

Gasol is wrong, we are better individually than 2 years ago. He's right that we are also playing better together as a team. That's the whole purpose of the 3 year commitments.

[CircleCitysportsfan]

Gasol is wrong, we are better individually than 2 years ago. He's right that we are also playing better together as a team. That's the whole purpose of the 3 year commitments.

Yes indeed, but i think he was just highlighting the fact that team play is the biggest difference this time around. They looked completely unbeatable today.

[Airness_ACB]

Gasol is wrong, we are better individually than 2 years ago. He's right that we are also playing better together as a team. That's the whole purpose of the 3 year commitments.

Yes indeed, but i think he was just highlighting the fact that team play is the biggest difference this time around. They looked completely unbeatable today.

I agree with you, USA team looks completely unbeatable when play as a team, and you're playing as a true team. All the players has the right attitude in terms of what they should do to benefit the team and doesn't seem to care about his stats the way they used to care in other tournaments. The ego is clearly behind the team's interest, and that's a big key to your recent success. If you keep playing like that the gold medal should be yours.

[TheOUTLAW]

It's the first game I've seen of team USA, and I think a Pacers-Nets game would provide better basketball than this game did. Team USA wasn't very impressive, but Spain looked terrible. Completely careless passing, they'd put up shots and hope they go in rather than try to create their own easy percentage shot, and just made too many dumb plays.

It just makes you wonder what it would take to impress some of you. I guess it's never the US team, it's the other team playing poorly. Silly nonsensical escuses.

[TheOUTLAW]

another us route, another round of excuses. What are the excuses going to be after the US wins the gold medal game by 30? As I've been saying for days, there is NO CHANCE that the US loses this year.

Definetely, you can't read, son.

Wait, are you saying that he can't read when you are spelling definitely like that?

[Wade2k6]

Let Wade-Kobe-LeBron ride this team to the Gold. Everybody else is playing great as well. Everybody is playing their role and really letting LeBron and Wade take the games over. No more "LeBronze" nicknames anymore. If they play as a team, they are completely unbeatable

[flyingvee]

I guess people got spoiled with the lame effort team USA had put up the last few tournaments that teams actually caught up to those teams. With the effort team USA has shown starting with assigning Colangelo to put togtehr the team, the US has raised the bar once again. So now the rest of the world will slowly have to catch up once more. Pretty much the gold is for the US to lose, th erest of the teams are aiming at Silver for their prize again.

The one thing that bugs me still is how of all the teams that get trashed on here, Greece gets the brunt of it being about "how they don't belong here" and so on. As I see it the US blew out Spain more than Greece and Greece blew out Angola by way more than the US did, so Greece is not nor has ever been a fluke. It's just that against Spain they always play awful. I guess the goal here for the rest of the teams is to just medal. Spain will get Croatia looks like while the US Australia. Greece will get Argentina, which should be one hell of a game. Unless Greece 'does funny stuff" as one of the announcers talked about and lose to China to face Lithuania. I don't know about that. Every year there one team that is on fire and this year it seems to be Lithuania. I'd rather play Argentina whom Greece match's up well in the past. Thing is winner of Argentina plays the US, so Gold and Silver is out LOL So do you lose and hope to beat Lithuania instead to then play someoneother than the US? Which I think would then be Spain if they beat Croatia. this format is so fascinating.

[ChocolateThundr]

the NBC basketball theme they play before the game and during halftime really brings back old memories

[snitch55]

USA played the perfect game ! Perfect on offense and more important perfect on defense.
I'm gonna say this - if Spain and USA play again , trhe game will be much closer than this blowout .

Oh and Rubio -i was impressed , very good playmaking and great defense !

[HarlemHeat37]

another us route, another round of excuses. What are the excuses going to be after the US wins the gold medal game by 30? As I've been saying for days, there is NO CHANCE that the US loses this year.

+1 and this is exactly what I said before the tournament..there is NO CHANCE that the US loses, there is barely a chance that we don't win every meaningful game by blowouts..

2004 wasn't lost because of the roster, it was the lack of focus..the Olympics are irrelevant for basketball, and our team didn't have focus..we lost and they made us angry, and now we're back to dominance..we probably won't care for 2012 now though..

[INKtastic]

I guess people got spoiled with the lame effort team USA had put up the last few tournaments that teams actually caught up to those teams. With the effort team USA has shown starting with assigning Colangelo to put togtehr the team, the US has raised the bar once again. So now the rest of the world will slowly have to catch up once more. Pretty much the gold is for the US to lose, th erest of the teams are aiming at Silver for their prize again.

The world caught up once when the US used strictly college players, that brought the Dream Team

The world caught up again when the US didn't prepare properly, that brought the 3 year commitments that led to this year's Redeem Team

Assuming the US prepares properly in the future and continues to send most of it's best players to the Olympics, the next time the world catches up in an olympics, the US may not be able to reassert it's dominance. My guess is that this is about 12-16 years off as the next generation of international players enters their prime.

[INKtastic]

another us route, another round of excuses. What are the excuses going to be after the US wins the gold medal game by 30? As I've been saying for days, there is NO CHANCE that the US loses this year.

+1 and this is exactly what I said before the tournament..there is NO CHANCE that the US loses, there is barely a chance that we don't win every meaningful game by blowouts..

2004 wasn't lost because of the roster, it was the lack of focus..the Olympics are irrelevant for basketball, and our team didn't have focus..we lost and they made us angry, and now we're back to dominance..we probably won't care for 2012 now though..

the 2004 loss was a combination of roster and coaching. That roster was severely flawed, starting with the choice of PG. And the rotations were awful - nearly every run that team went on was when LeBron and Wade were playing instead of Marbury and Iversion. yet the further we went, the more the latter played. The whole thing was over for us when Marbury had that one big game - I knew he'd just be awful after that.

[TheOUTLAW]

How the heck was this a perfect game by the US team? They were incredibly sloppy with the ball at times. While the outside shooting was pretty good, there were at least 10 missed layups as well. I think there are a number of things the US could have done better. The defense was also kinda sloppy once we got the big lead.