USA-China Preview
In what will most likely be the most watched basketball game in the history of the world, the United States takes on host nation China at 7:15 AM (Pacific) on Sunday 8/10. Those in the Eastern and Central time zones will be able to see it live on their local NBC affiliate. Or if you have DirecTV HD it will be shown on channel 754. The rest of us in the Mountain and Pacific time zones will have to wait until our local NBC coverage starts.
The Chinese feature a very big front line of former and present NBA players. Obviously Yao Ming (7’5) will be the focal point of their offense in the pivot. PF Wang Zhizhi (7’0) has a great touch from deep and will force the US bigs to guard him on the perimeter. SF Yi Jianlian (6’11) has a nice all around game and is an active help defender too.
Where China looses it though is in the back court. SG Sun Yue (property of the Lakers) is known as the “Chinese Magic” for his crafty passing, but he looked very soft to me when I saw him play. PG Wei Liu is another vulnerable spot and he will certainly have trouble dealing with Team USA’s full court ball pressure.
Since you can never underestimate the host country in international tournaments, the Americans must withstand the initial boost that the electric atmosphere will undoubtedly give the Chinese players. After that the US should be fine though.
Team USA’s superior depth and athleticism will be too much for China to handle over a full 40 minutes. Even though the Chinese theoretically could control the tempo by pounding the ball into Yao on every possession, their perimeter players are too weak to effectively execute that plan.
Whenever the Americans are allowed to set the pace of the game they generally tend to dominate. I expect this to be one of the few contests where our full court pressure causes havoc and lets us turn this one into a highlight fest. You can also count on Carlos Boozer seeing plenty of minutes if Yao gets going.
What I’m mainly looking to see, besides sticky team defense with sharp rotations, is Coach K going to his small lineup some. Deron Williams at PG, Dwyane Wade at SG, Kobe Bryant at SF, Carmelo Anthony at PF and LeBron James at C might just be Team USA’s best five. Clearly that unit is deficient on the boards, but that’s why China is the perfect club for them to experiment against. Their front line is huge and even if “small ball” doesn’t work for Team USA we should still win pretty handily.
The Chinese feature a very big front line of former and present NBA players. Obviously Yao Ming (7’5) will be the focal point of their offense in the pivot. PF Wang Zhizhi (7’0) has a great touch from deep and will force the US bigs to guard him on the perimeter. SF Yi Jianlian (6’11) has a nice all around game and is an active help defender too.
Where China looses it though is in the back court. SG Sun Yue (property of the Lakers) is known as the “Chinese Magic” for his crafty passing, but he looked very soft to me when I saw him play. PG Wei Liu is another vulnerable spot and he will certainly have trouble dealing with Team USA’s full court ball pressure.
Since you can never underestimate the host country in international tournaments, the Americans must withstand the initial boost that the electric atmosphere will undoubtedly give the Chinese players. After that the US should be fine though.
Team USA’s superior depth and athleticism will be too much for China to handle over a full 40 minutes. Even though the Chinese theoretically could control the tempo by pounding the ball into Yao on every possession, their perimeter players are too weak to effectively execute that plan.
Whenever the Americans are allowed to set the pace of the game they generally tend to dominate. I expect this to be one of the few contests where our full court pressure causes havoc and lets us turn this one into a highlight fest. You can also count on Carlos Boozer seeing plenty of minutes if Yao gets going.
What I’m mainly looking to see, besides sticky team defense with sharp rotations, is Coach K going to his small lineup some. Deron Williams at PG, Dwyane Wade at SG, Kobe Bryant at SF, Carmelo Anthony at PF and LeBron James at C might just be Team USA’s best five. Clearly that unit is deficient on the boards, but that’s why China is the perfect club for them to experiment against. Their front line is huge and even if “small ball” doesn’t work for Team USA we should still win pretty handily.
posted by D$ at 9:25 AM
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