Anyone watch it? Brazil had two chances to tie in the final seconds. Durant was the best player on the floor, but the next two were probably Splitter (who is excellent - the Spurs should be interesting) and their PG Huertas. That guy is GREAT. I can see why Caja Laboral (which has both Brazilian players) was able to upset Barcelona in the ACB finals this year. Brazil would have won if they hadn't gone COMPLETELY cold in the fourth. Rose was a deer in the headlights. I think this is a game where they missed Rondo. Chauncey made up for it a bit though - he was a rock when the US needed it. Can we get him, please?
I got to watch most of the 2nd half. One of the reasons I do not bemoan the Oden vs. Durant pick still - is that Durant showed you exactly why he is one of the best scorers to ever set a foot on a basketball court, and also that he has no way to make any of his teammates better. I know people say how he will be the best player in the NBA in 3 years - but what LeBron has over this guy, any day of the week and twice on Tuesday - is the ability to make his teammates much better. This USA team is not good. It will be a big surprise if they make it to the finals game, imho.
I agree. If anything, he seems to make his teammates more timid. However, I will say that he puts much more of an effort in on defense these days, and gets a lot of deflections with those ridiculous arms of his. However, that's not to say that he's a good defender - he got faked out easily by fairly slow players this game. He's certainly no LeBron, even if, right now, he seems a lot more lovable.
why is the title US squeaks by Brazil without nene and varejao, couldn't it also say, Brazil loses to US without lebron, kobe, wade, bosh, howard, etc?
I think the reason they should still be favorites is because, overall, they have a much better team defense than usual. However, a smart veteran team with good ball handlers and outside shooters always stands a chance. They destroyed Greece in the pre-tournament game. If they play in the tournament, though, I think it'll be a much different story. (And I wonder if Brazil held out Varejao because they didn't want to show everything they had.) Incidentally, what did you think of Huertas?
That should always be true of any US team. The question is, will they? And given that they just have to screw up once, and some of the US players (Iguodala and Odom in particular) seem to have forgotten how to score altogether (both bricked absolutely completely totally wide open layups on more than one occasion), I think they're easily capable of doing that.
Quick question: Are these the players we're taking to the 2012 Olympics? Or are the big name players sitting out now and joining the team later in the process?
I was sorta busy and couldn't watch the games this morning, but I did hear that Patty completely beasted in his game. Any of you have first hand reports?
I watched. Patty was tremendous. He was bombing from 3-4 feet outside the line. Slashing and finding open mates. And he played some not bad defense against a German back court that I wouldn't think of as being any better than an average to poor US college team. His plus/minus must have been huge ++. When he was out, things were kind of even, but when he was in they doubled up the score.
Splitter is also a whiner (at least he was today), was playing against a team with no legit post defenders, and looks vaguely like Ashton Kutcher. He's good, but he's not any better than Luis Scola (who was dominant today, BTW).
So, your criticism of a 21 year-old Kevin Durant is that he isn't as good as LeBron James? What does that have to do with Greg Oden?
It's not really a criticism of Durant, it's support for a decision not to pick him over a guy that to me, still, looks like a better cornerstone for a championship run (health permitting). Of course, if injuries derail it, it was a bad pick - but at this point I still think that if Greg can stay healthy (which I hope he does) - it was the right pick. If anything, the real criticism is for the people that think Durant will be the best player in the NBA in the upcoming years, something I just do not see happening for a while, given that LeBron is not on the decline.
Wouldn't it be a bit premature to say that Durant doesn't make his teammates better? Granted, his team was flukish last year in terms of injury, but he averaged 30 ppg/8 rpg/3 apg/1 spg/1 bpg/ 26 PER/ 16.1 WS on a 50-win team. He did this at the age of 21. I hope Greg pans out as much as anyone, but ripping on Durant for going for 27/10 against Brazil today in a win seems like a stretch. It's possible that both can be great players, and that both can be great draft picks, but at this point, it's not Durant who needs to prove that he was worth his pick.
