USA-Lithuania Preview

Back on 8/21 Team USA beat Lithuania 77-61 in a friendly played in Madrid. What was most noteworthy about the game, besides it being Rajon Rondo’s last with the team, was that America only scored seven points in the first quarter…and looked terrible doing it. We recovered OK and beat Spain the next day, but the Lithuania game set off alarm bells inside the national team and had a lot of people worried.

Fast Forward to Saturday (9 AM Pacific on ESPN Classic) and Lithuania is rolling after an upset of Argentina. Linas Kleiza (current Raptor) is their #1 scoring option at 19.1 points per game (6th overall in the tournament). Fortunately Team USA has plenty of guys that know how to defend him starting with Andre Iguodala. Robertas Javtokas is their center and next best player. He was drafted by the Spurs in 2001 and was on his way to the NBA before a horrible motorcycle crash in 2002 robbed him of his once impressive athleticism. Renaldas Seibutis (former Mav) is the only other guy I’m even remotely familiar with but he’s a bench player for them these days.

I have to say I was expecting to be facing Argentina here and am not all that worried about Lithuania. Coach Mike Krzyzewski will certainly use the lackluster friendly performance to keep the team sharp. Then you combine that with it being the semifinals and I think you’ll see the red, white and blue ready to play from the opening tip.

Kevin Durant has to keep it going and be as selfish as possible when the game slows down and Chauncey Billups continuing to be hot from long range would be huge. Our bench has devolved into Russell Westbrook and Eric Gordon only, so Rudy Gay and/or Kevin Love returning to form would be nice too. I think Team USA wins easily as long as they defend the 3-point line, play smart half court offense and gang rebound.