Olympic Recap
I know it was very weak of me to cover all the games and then bail right at the end, but contrary to popular belief, I do indeed have a life. I do my best but sometimes I don’t have the necessary time that I need to write.
Anyway…
Team USA played what could have been their best 1st quarter of the entire tournament scoring 21 of the first 25 points against Argentina in the semi-finals. The Americans straight ran them off the court with a determination and ferocity that hadn’t been seen up to that point
Then Manu Ginobili re-injured the ligament in his left ankle (he has since had surgery) and the US quit playing. It was almost inexplicable how they let off the gas and started to coast. Give Argentina credit though, they rallied to win the 2nd quarter by 10 without their best player and never quit the rest of the way.
I didn’t get to watch the gold medal game live (life...remember?), but I have since watched the entire second half (only missed one half of the Redeem Team) and recommend that any and all basketball fans watch the 4th quarter in its entirety (it starts at the 1:11:48 mark).
The score was 91-82 to start the fourth and Spain went on a 7-0 run (keyed by Rudy Fernandez, who looked extremely NBA ready) right off the bat to cut the American lead to 2 with 8 minutes to play. After a Coach K timeout Team USA answered with a 7-0 run of their own led by Kobe Bryant.
From the 8-minute mark until there was 1-minute to go Kobe absolutely took over and would not let his team lose, cementing himself as the best player on the planet (for now anyway). The American scoring in that span looked like this…
Kobe basket
Kobe assist on a 3
Kobe assist on a basket
Kobe 3
LeBron James put back
Dwight Howard free throw
Kobe 4-point play
Dwyane Wade 3
Kobe basket
So in the decisive stretch of the contest Kobe had a hand in 16 of the final 22 points. And if that wasn’t enough, the dagger 4-point play also fouled out Rudy Fernandez.
Game over.
From there the Spanish completely lost their cool and behaved like a bunch of punk teenage sore losers. They were fouling to extend the game long after the outcome was decided and Ricky Rubio even picked up a technical foul with :26 seconds to play.
It was really a shame too since Spain acquitted themselves very nicely after being blown out by 37 in the preliminary round and going at it without their second best player (Jose Calderon, slight tear of the adductor muscle in his right thigh) in the gold medal game.
Overall what this tournament showed me is that FIBA ball is moving closer every day to the NBA version and not the other way around. It makes sense when you break it down too because these days other countries all have plenty of NBA players on their rosters.
Then factor in that FIBA is moving their 3-point line back, finally scrapping that ridiculous trapezoid lane and instituting a restricted area for charge/block calls…and…well…all of that favors us going forward. That said our boys are still going to have to take things seriously, prepare and play smart on both ends to remain dominant.
As for my predictions, I hit both the men and women’s medal stand exactly.
MEN
USA
Spain
Argentina
WOMEN
USA
Australia
Russia
Anyway…
Team USA played what could have been their best 1st quarter of the entire tournament scoring 21 of the first 25 points against Argentina in the semi-finals. The Americans straight ran them off the court with a determination and ferocity that hadn’t been seen up to that point
Then Manu Ginobili re-injured the ligament in his left ankle (he has since had surgery) and the US quit playing. It was almost inexplicable how they let off the gas and started to coast. Give Argentina credit though, they rallied to win the 2nd quarter by 10 without their best player and never quit the rest of the way.
I didn’t get to watch the gold medal game live (life...remember?), but I have since watched the entire second half (only missed one half of the Redeem Team) and recommend that any and all basketball fans watch the 4th quarter in its entirety (it starts at the 1:11:48 mark).
The score was 91-82 to start the fourth and Spain went on a 7-0 run (keyed by Rudy Fernandez, who looked extremely NBA ready) right off the bat to cut the American lead to 2 with 8 minutes to play. After a Coach K timeout Team USA answered with a 7-0 run of their own led by Kobe Bryant.
From the 8-minute mark until there was 1-minute to go Kobe absolutely took over and would not let his team lose, cementing himself as the best player on the planet (for now anyway). The American scoring in that span looked like this…
Kobe basket
Kobe assist on a 3
Kobe assist on a basket
Kobe 3
LeBron James put back
Dwight Howard free throw
Kobe 4-point play
Dwyane Wade 3
Kobe basket
So in the decisive stretch of the contest Kobe had a hand in 16 of the final 22 points. And if that wasn’t enough, the dagger 4-point play also fouled out Rudy Fernandez.
Game over.
From there the Spanish completely lost their cool and behaved like a bunch of punk teenage sore losers. They were fouling to extend the game long after the outcome was decided and Ricky Rubio even picked up a technical foul with :26 seconds to play.
It was really a shame too since Spain acquitted themselves very nicely after being blown out by 37 in the preliminary round and going at it without their second best player (Jose Calderon, slight tear of the adductor muscle in his right thigh) in the gold medal game.
Overall what this tournament showed me is that FIBA ball is moving closer every day to the NBA version and not the other way around. It makes sense when you break it down too because these days other countries all have plenty of NBA players on their rosters.
Then factor in that FIBA is moving their 3-point line back, finally scrapping that ridiculous trapezoid lane and instituting a restricted area for charge/block calls…and…well…all of that favors us going forward. That said our boys are still going to have to take things seriously, prepare and play smart on both ends to remain dominant.
As for my predictions, I hit both the men and women’s medal stand exactly.
MEN
USA
Spain
Argentina
WOMEN
USA
Australia
Russia
posted by D$ at 11:40 AM
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