USA vs. Australia, Battle for the greatest nation on earth!!

[Rockmaninoff]

Call me crazy, but I think Amare is a better offensive center than Yao.

hmmm in my head, i still don't think of amare as a center

Not a traditional center, but if you don't believe in the right way, then everything is a-ok. He was listed as a center pre-Shaq, so technically, I guess you're correct. He is a traditional power forward now.

My question is why didn't Amare make the team? You'd think that Howard and Stat with playmakers would be pretty lethal.

[jeremyd236]

Call me crazy, but I think Amare is a better offensive center than Yao.

hmmm in my head, i still don't think of amare as a center

Not a traditional center, but if you don't believe in the right way, then everything is a-ok. He was listed as a center pre-Shaq, so technically, I guess you're correct. He is a traditional power forward now.

My question is why didn't Amare make the team? You'd think that Howard and Stat with playmakers would be pretty lethal.

Amare did "make the team". He backed out because he didn't want to get injured.

[dunhill]

I don't know why everyone's so dissapointed. It's a fact that the gap between NBA athleticism and the rest of the world is not like what you had in the 90's. Every team now consists of professionals. Most teams now have legitimate size. Most teams have at least one NBA calibre talent or at least European quality talent. It's not a case of the dream team just being so much more physically gifted and much more fundamentally sound. 40-50 point hammering are never going to happen again vs the top 5 or 6 teams in the world.

I can't think of any team with just one guy anymore. The days of guys like Oscar Schmidt, Andrew gaze scoring 30+ppg in Olympic competition are long gone.

[AussieBuck]

Dwight Howard hands down.

[magpies]

Good to see Team USA get a challenge, I thought Barlow would have a good game, Mills showed his quickness and Anstey showed he has still got it.
The other thing it showed to me was that if USA underestimates any team they could lose but teams that are better then Australia

[Chuck Diesel]

Couple of observations-

Patty Mills played like an Australian Tony Parker today. He got to the basket with ease and blew by Team USA's guards on at least five or six occasions.

Chris Antsey is very crafty and skilled. I didn't realize how good of a passer he was, and that left-handed finger roll from the hip had to make every middle aged YMCA baler proud.

Bruton was much more effective used as an undersized two guards when all he had to worry about was hitting shots. Thought he worked well offensively when he was in the game with Millls.

David Anderson didn't show any of his repertoires today. He's never been known as a physical player, but he looked especially soft against the Americans today. I know he had some foul trouble, but he was really taken out of his game.

All of the Aussies played with a lot of confidence, but Newley and Mills in particular looked to be making a statement that they can hang with anyone. If Newley's jumper was a little bit better he could find a home in the NBA.

From Team USA's perspective-

Is Coach K doing any actually coaching? I know these are only exhibitions, but I haven't seen him stand up once and every time he's on camera he has the same blank look on his face. The only time he even mutters anything to one of his assistants all it looks like he's saying is "who is number 12?". I'm a little concerned.

[Bernman]

The U.S. is the greatest nation on earth!

Australia, # 103

[icat2000]

Bogut in Melbourne paper stated he is 85 percent fit (ankle).

[boknoy]

whinging as its best again. lets accept it but gone are the days when the 40 point average blow-up by US Team is just as simple as winning.

you cannot expect it to happen this time. everyone's tryin to beat them but the they're still winning.

a win is win but to ask too much is something else.

[boknoy]

coack K and the entire coaching staff knew it thats why they have put The Bommers as their last tune-up game opponent. but many didnt know, a lot of us saying that it will be a an easy game with a 60 blown-up points. when we're saying this kind of thing, i guess we're just one dimensional observer who watches our own domestic games of dunks and 360s. the world is huge and thanks to the internet, we can now read and analyze whats on the basketball world. but some simply do their usual way of of just opening the CPU or TV and expect the old school easy wins and will whinge if the things did not go in their way.

time is telling us again. last Athens Olympics, if you can still remember, the Aussies were the hardest team the Dream Teamers have faced by then. The Bommers leads for most of the game until they collapses in 4th quarter giving the Americans a 10 point win. The Boomers features a young 19 year old Andrew Bogut who held his own againts Tim Duncan post to post and drives by drives.

[boknoy]

its BOOMERS not BOMMERS!!! me idiot

[steger_3434]

I think a sure fire way for the US to walk through international competition is to set up their team with 5 superstars and then a bunch of role players that know they won't be playing much. The other teams play their 5 best guys the majority of the minutes and they find their groove. The US plays everyone around the same and noone can get into any sort of rythm.

[boknoy]

I think a sure fire way for the US to walk through international competition is to set up their team with 5 superstars and then a bunch of role players that know they won't be playing much. The other teams play their 5 best guys the majority of the minutes and they find their groove. The US plays everyone around the same and noone can get into any sort of rythm.

i can think of Odom and some above-average players will fit as one of the role players. certainly, you put all scorers in one team will only lead to eagerness to score overlooking what the team play is about.

[Mike X]

Interesting to note that Andrew Boguts magnifcent sophomore season in college came off the back of the confidence he got from his game against the USA in Athens afer his freshman year.

A good omen there for Patrick Mills.

[jeremyd236]

These announcers were garbage.

One guy says Michael Redd could be the best 3 point shooter in the world....?

The other says Redd can't shoot if there's a guy on him....?
Redd couldn't drive to the bucket until last season....?
Redd is 6'4.....?

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

I uploaded highlights from this game to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2szkwC9sO8

[paul]

I uploaded highlights from this game to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2szkwC9sO8

So me thinks you might be a little fixated on the bounce pass Adam...... Nice music though.

[MajorDad]

a lot of people say the USA should send their top NBA or college team rather than a mix of all stars. the thinking is that the team would play together as a team and perform better. I am against this idea, but for a different reason.

When you look around the world, no other team has a team competing for its nation. they all have a bunch of all stars combined for the olympics. it's not like Dirk or parker or yao or kamon or nash or Delembert played a lot of games with their respective country's national team before the Olympics. it's not like Spain or Argentina had their olympic team playing together for the last 3 years.

What it comes down to is coaching and players accepting their roles and responsibilities. other countries have success in the olympics because their players leave their egos and agents behind when they join and play for the team. guys like parker and dirk and Gino had as much time to prep with their national team as the USA players did.

one of the biggest differences between the German and other foreign teams and the USA team is that their rosters are set well in advance, and they actually start practicing very close to the end of the NBA season. The USA team always seems to waste at least a month after the NBA season is over before they finalize their team. This wastes valuable training time.

Bogut didn't play much with his aussie buddies. he went to college in Utah and joined an NBA team. he plays as much with his national team as a USA player plays for his national team.

Both Yao and Yi knew they were going to be on the Chinese team. they didn't waste their time in June just hanging around. As soon as their NBA season was over, they started joining their national team.

I noticed this year's USA team was decided a lot earlier than the past two olympic teams. they also started practicing together earlier. the days of olympic teams playing together as a team for 2-3 years is a thing of the past. today every nation's team is a collection of all stars that get togethr two months prior to the olympics. I will restate the difference between Team USA and other national teams is that other national team's players leave their egos, agents and ESPN highlight reel cameramen at the door when they join their team. they play as a team because they want to. They are not worried about commercials and pending endorsement deals or looking bad. ESPN would never forgive Kobe if he didn't score at least 20 ppg. not only is the USA expected to win, but their stars have to also look good in doing so. for teams like Argentina, all they care about is the win.

[ReasonablySober]

When you look around the world, no other team has a team competing for its nation. they all have a bunch of all stars combined for the olympics. it's not like Dirk or parker or yao or kamon or nash or Delembert played a lot of games with their respective country's national team before the Olympics. it's not like Spain or Argentina had their olympic team playing together for the last 3 years.

I know nothing about international competition and I have zero interest in it in general, but I thought the prevailing reason that the US had been shellacked in previous years was that the guys on the opposition had all played together for years, therefore functioning more like a team, and that's the reason for a team like Argentina having so much success. Is that not the case? Honest question. I really have no idea.

[bigricho12]

When you look around the world, no other team has a team competing for its nation. they all have a bunch of all stars combined for the olympics. it's not like Dirk or parker or yao or kamon or nash or Delembert played a lot of games with their respective country's national team before the Olympics. it's not like Spain or Argentina had their olympic team playing together for the last 3 years.

I know nothing about international competition and I have zero interest in it in general, but I thought the prevailing reason that the US had been shellacked in previous years was that the guys on the opposition had all played together for years, therefore functioning more like a team, and that's the reason for a team like Argentina having so much success. Is that not the case? Honest question. I really have no idea.

So true

I think it is more about the fact that Argentina, Greece, etc are completely devoted and willing to play team ball. They will throw the extra pass, set the screen, do the dirty work for each other, etc. Your notion that the US have not been together long enough to become or develop team chemistry as well as know each others games, is laughable. We are talking about pro athletes. Has Australia been together longer? Bogut only joined quite recently, yet the talk is they are playing disciplined basketball and executing on offense.

We are not talking about subpar teams either. When Argentina won, they played flat out brilliant basketball. The USA have had problems with egos and their players playing one on one basketball for years now. I think it also may have something to do with the very selfishness that the NBA draft creates for young players at an early age, developing a culture of 'I gotta get mine', through the draft, and then the money and glamour that is the NBA.