Team USA Wins Gold!

[mkwest]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT9krgjIiXw[/youtube]

[donemilio21]

Spike Lee is attending games and I had chance to talk to him shortly while he was getting himself a sandwich at the half of Slovenia-Australia game. Apparently people don't recognize him much, so he was kinda glad when I said "hey you're Spike Lee!"
So, I told him I was a Clippers fan and asked he would consider doing an "EJ doing work" in the future.
He laughed for a while and said: "Why not? If he plays like Kobe, become MVP and wins few rings." He also said he likes EJ a lot that he is very talented and has great personality. He also wished me good luck
that guy is very short btw..

[Forte IV]

Yea isn't he only like 5'5?

[thanumba2clippersfan]

I don't remember Spike being all that tall, I had a chance to see him when I was a kid in New York City.

[donemilio21]

watching EJ making back-to-back threes is so much fun.

[mkwest]

Green-Light Gordon

It's no surprise Durant is leading Team USA in scoring. The surprise is who's second.

Guard Eric Gordon, who had to battle just to make the final roster, is averaging 11.3 points. He's made a team-high 16 3-pointers (in 30 attempts), and coach Mike Krzyzewski has given him the green light to fire away.

"I think it's been pretty good so far,'' Gordon said of his tournament run. "I was trying to be consistent every day and try to play hard.''

Chauncey Billups said Gordon is not well known because he plays for the Los Angeles Clippers, but the Team USA veteran guard always has liked his game.

"I kept a close eye on him ever since college,'' Billups said of Gordon, who left Indiana in 2008. "I knew the type of player and shooter that he was. He's turned a lot of heads because he didn't have that chance with the Clippers. They're not really playing on national TV. But I think he's the best shooter on our team.''

The stats do not suggest differently.

Chris Tomasson, NBA Fanhouse

On Thursday, team USA takes on Russia exactly 38 years to the day of the infamous 1972 Olympic gold medal game between USA & the USSR in Munich, Germany.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqCXSSJHwU0[/youtube]

[thanumba2clippersfan]

Let's see if I can get up early enough to watch tomorrow's game

[thanumba2clippersfan]

There have been many questionable calls in this game, and I thought NBA officiating was bad

[mkwest]

USA over Russia 89-79

I was nervous in the first half. Russia, who was a much bigger team, controlled the boards and were moving the ball really well. We pulled away for good in the 3rd. Gordon finished with 6 points (2-5 from 3), 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block & 0 turnovers in 15 minutes of play.

The final four is set. We'll take on Lithuania on Saturday and the winner will play in the finals against the winner of the Serbia & Turkey game.

[mkwest]

Has anything surprised you?
Eric Gordon has been, from the playing standpoint … his play certainly brought him from one role to another. So that’s been exciting to see that. (Kevin) Durant is living out all the expectations. A lot of players are sacrificing their own game to be a part of what we’re doing. That more than anything – not so much as a surprise – but it’s satisfying to see a group of young pros be committed, be focused and show the character that they have. These are outstanding young guys.

- Jerry Colangelo

What’s the biggest way your team has evolved since that night?
Well one, different starting lineup. We know our guys better, although it’s not a set rotation. Coming off the bench Westbrook and Gordon have been just really good, I think Gay has been really good. Yesterday was a different game where you can’t take Durant out of yesterday’s game. Our center position has had a good rotation. Yesterday their guy was so big, I thought he was too big for Kevin, and then Tyson was ready and I thought Tyson gave us good minutes. We’re just more of a team then we were that first time and so are they. They were still making their roster cuts. We were both making our roster selections when we played that game.

- Coach Mike Krzyzewski

There's also a video of Gordon speaking on his USA experience at USA Basketball

[thanumba2clippersfan]

We're going to the finals, I personally think we will be playing Turkey.

[mkwest]

It's all settled. The US will be facing off against hometown Turkey in the Gold Medal Game. The USA had a fairly easy schedule, facing the likes of Angola, Russia and Lithuania along the way. Turkey on the other hand, squared off against France, Slovenia and Serbia. Both teams have advanced to finals without having to go through Spain, Greece, Argentina or Brazil in the elimination games. Team USA had a sizable lead for much of their game against Lithuania. Turkey fought back to pick up a come from beyond victory that was determined in the final seconds.

I don't want to say that our guys like the little engine that could, but they kind of are. Many had doubts that they would be able to bang with the bigger and more experienced opponents. They have used their defensive, speed, quickness and the Durant factor to push forward. Things weren't looking all that promising in July, but they've come together and have taken care of business. One more game left and everything is on the line.

I'll probably only be able to catch the last few minutes, so I hope we take care of them early.

[mkwest]

Team USA wins the gold with an 83-64 victory over the hometown Turkey national team. The award ceremony is taking place now.

Congratulations to EJ and the rest of the US team for beating the odds, winning the gold and representing their country proudly. The team will head back to the US in about 4 hours, where they'll have about 2 weeks to rest before training camp begins.

[mkwest]

[thanumba2clippersfan]

I was able to watch the first quarter, but fell asleep do to this flu. When I woke up I saw that the US won the gold

[Kalidogg24]

E.G Beastin !

USA!!! USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!

[clips_starter]

Damn, Eric is clutch for the United States of America. Go Gordon.

[mkwest]

Lasting Impressions

Watching him work with the USA on his chest, however, served as a grand reminder of just how dynamic a player he could be if used properly — surely the Clippers’ brass saw him this summer and have to be thinking about tweaking his role alongside Baron Davis this season.

Gordon’s shooting range is basically anywhere inside of the half court line, something that’s always been a staple of his game. His work on the defensive end, however, was a revelation. And I’ve been watching Gordon for years, long before he wore the Clippers’ red, white and blue.

The point is, as solid as Gordon has been to start his NBA career, competitions like the 2010 FIBA World Championship remind us of how much more a young guy like Gordon is capable of, on both ends of the floor. And therein lies one of the truly beautiful things about the selection process for pros conducted USA Basketball honcho Jerry Colangelo and head coach Mike Krzyzewski. It wasn’t just about snagging the most high-profile names this summer. It was about finding the best fits for this team. And they did a fantastic job.

Sekou Smith, NBA.com

Eric Gordon: We were able to prove we could win the gold

I've never won a championship on this level, so this is big time for us. We came together for a short period of time, a month and a half, almost two months now, and our expectation was to win the gold. A lot of people back home and around the world didn’t think we could do it because we were a young and inexperienced team. But we were able to prove that we could win it because we played as a team and played really good defense the entire tournament.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski is a really good coach and motivator. He kept us together as a team and helped us adapt to the FIBA style of play. It's a different type of game than the NBA -- more physical and fast paced sometimes -- and Coach told us to keep adapting our game to the rules and we were able to do that.

Confidence-wise it helps a lot to win this tournament. You learn a lot of new and different things and it's been a really good learning experience for me.

I have two weeks before Clippers training camp. I'm feeling pretty confident about the upcoming season. It's a brand new start for us and I'm really anxious to see how we’re going to be this year. I worked a little bit with Blake Griffin and some of the players this summer before joining Team USA, but that was awhile ago. It's going to be good to get back and get into the flow of things.

Eric Gordon, The Fabulous Forum / LA Times

[mkwest]

Anthem makes impression on Gordon

"When you're a youngster, even when you go to games, people do the national anthem and it's over with and the game starts. When they played it after that championship game, that was really meaningful."

Gordon, the youngest player on the team, led the U.S. in scoring twice during its 9-0 run in Turkey and finished as the Americans' fourth-leading scorer despite not scoring in the gold-medal game.

"The best thing about it was to play some type of role on the team," he said. "Playing those type of teams, you really have to focus and work harder. It expands your mind and your game because it's a different style of play."

Whether anyone other than Durant is added to the 2012 Olympic team once LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and the other NBA stars are back in the mix remains to be seen. But Gordon, who would be 27 in the summer of 2016 and 31 in 2020, clearly is on the mind of USA Basketball boss Jerry Colangelo.

Asked during the tournament who has been surprising, Colangelo told reporters: "Eric Gordon has been, from the playing standpoint. His play certainly brought him from one role to another. So that's been exciting to see that."

Jeff Rabjohns, Indianapolis Star