Olympic Basketball

[evildallas]

A strong performance in the first quarter. The big early lead and Manu leaving injured I think lead to some bad habits creeping in during the rest of the game.

Is it just me or does Jason Kidd seem to be "disruptive" in the 2nd half of these games? It seems every time I see him in the 3rd or 4th that he's trying to force all-star game style passes with little conversion. The US has been way up in these games so it hasn't hurt anything, but Argentina did get it down to 11 and seemed to have momentum. At that point Kidd and a few others were pulled and the final margin went back to 20 behind some seriousness. It seemed back in 2006 that Kidd was still crisp with the circus pass execution. This year he's off and looks sloppy. Every time I see it (which is starting to seem like every game), I think that all the talk about respecting every opponent isn't wholly embraced by the entire team.

[raleigh]

I think Kidd is trying to throw the ball in over the zone, but you've got to be rather precise for that to work, and he wasn't today. He's certainly capable, though.

It won't work vs. the Gasol brothers...

[HMFFL]

The first quarter was amazing. I knew they had the heart to make it a game, but even our players looked surprised out there, but they turned it back around on them soon enough.

One more and we win the gold!

[HMFFL]

For Gold, USA is favored to win by 20.5 points!

2:30AM

[evildallas]

I'm curious whether Calderon will play in spite of the groin injury.

[evildallas]

Watching the bronze medal game made me realize that Carlos Delfino was the type of SF we needed instead of Josh Childress. His per minute NBA stats are almost identical to what Childress put up, but he did it being more of a shooting thread from mid-range and from 3. I thought he signed for less money (like 3-4M a year after tax), but when I did a search on it he got similar money in Russia to what Childress got in Greece (3yr/30M). I realize there was no way under cap rules that we could have gotten Delfino even if he hadn't signed such a big deal, I'm just saying he has the right skills.

[evildallas]

Much tighter at halftime that I expected given the earlier game.

[JoshB914]

Really good game from both sides. It seemed like no one could miss. That USA team really was a joy to watch, I'm happy to see those guys get what they deserve.

[evildallas]

That was a tough game with a lot of big shots. I'm betting the Rudy Fernandez dunk over Dwight Howard is going to be the top selling poster in Spain.

[HMFFL]

Very close indeed. Just glad this great group of guys pulled it out off and brought the gold home!