It’s looking more and more like this whole FIBA goat dance is just gonna be one big learning experience for Team USA, and one that culminates in the most clichéd and boring learning experience of all; losing.
Barely beating Brazil by two points yesterday, the US saw for the first time an opponent set the tone of play. Brazil was able to force the US into a stagnant game that lacked a coherent offense, pick-and-rolls, post-ups and set plays. It was nothing more than a shambolic scramble with most points coming of steals and converts. And even on the break the Americans would often try to play too fast, resulting in alley-oops thrown to no one or balls fumbled out of bounds. Most of time, players should have slowed things down a bit, made the extra pass, or just given the ball to Chauncey Billups, because he’s the only guard on the team playing like a professional athlete at the moment.
With twelve players of similar calibre and talent, nobody other than Kevin Durant and Chauncey Billups should be playing more than five minute stretches. If anything, the depth of Team USA allows for short spurt substitutions and hockey-like lines in which athletes can play the kind of mad, intense defence that leads to fast breaks and a game that barely needs a set offence. Why Coach Kryzewski stopped emphasising this philosophy is frustrating. He needs to understand that he isn’t coaching Duke and that Team USA is a very different beast.
If you watched the game, you’ll know how tense the last minute was. With 3.5 seconds left and the Americans up by a very un-American two points, Brazil’s Marcelo Huertas had an opportunity to even the score from the free throw line. After choking on the first attempt, Huertas deliberately and brilliantly missed the second shot in such way that he snagged the rebound. Huertas then immediately fed the ball to Phoenix Suns’ Leandro Barbosa under the net where his tightly defended shot just barely rimmed out. Team USA staved off defeat, but it really doesn’t get any closer than that.
There’s a lot hyperbole being thrown around now about ‘eye openers’ and how ‘adversity makes a family tougher’ which is a little bit worrisome. NBA players rarely offer honest commentary that isn’t useless, but from today’s hogwash it sounds like not only do the players not understand what’s going on, their clinging to an idea that experiencing a near loss is enough of a wake-up call to ensure they don’t do it again. It’s not. The rest of the World Championships will be about strategy and implantation, not epiphanies and constraint regarding American grandeur.
Kryzewski told the players to expect an atmosphere and intensity comparative to a Game 7 in the NBA playoffs. Everyone with Team USA can say that as much as they want, but it doesn’t looks like they’re going to be hard-pressed to actually get into that mind set.
The good news is Team USA has a week to work on getting a coherent and fluid offense together before its faces a team like Brazil again. Next up are Iran and Tunisia, countries of no consequence and inevitable pushovers. Let’s just hope they don’t spend these games behaving like American tourists basking in their own fame while admiring each other’s crossovers and dunks.
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