Olympics 2008

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

I watched a lot of the USA-China basketball game. I think the US could struggle when they play against teams that know how to control tempo. From what I saw, the US struggled in the half court offense - they scored a very high percentage of their points off the break off of turnovers.

I watched that game, and all I could think was how totally different world basketball is from the days of the Dream Team. The US beat China, by a lot in the end. As they should have. But it wasn't because China sucked. China played a great game in the first half. They let the US go on one big run, outside of that they played them even. They just don't have the conditioning to keep up with the intensity that the US can maintain for the whole game, especially since the game is 1/6 shorter than what they're used to playing. But China didn't look foolish out there, they looked like a somewhat outmatched team. LOVED Yao cheering them on for good plays, even when down by 27.

The difference between this team and the '04 team is that they're actually taking it seriously. The world snuck up on them in '04 and they learned they can't just phone it in. They've put a lot more work in than the '04 team did and it shows. Even the loose defense they showed in today's game would have been beyond that '04 team.

Of course, the other teams have progressed too, but I'm betting the US takes it.