<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Anthony led the U.S. with 21 points. LeBron James and Kirk Hinrich each added 15 for the Americans, who found things to be much tougher than they were during a 45-point rout in an exhibition game at Las Vegas earlier this month. "We got a slow start but we picked it up in the second half," James said. "We were able to keep them in front of us and we got a win. It doesn't matter how many points you win by, as long as you get a win." Carlos Arroyo of the Orlando Magic scored 23 points for Puerto Rico, which looked capable for much of the first half of a second straight major upset of the United States in international play. The Puerto Ricans shocked the Americans 92-73 in the opening game of the Olympics two years ago in Athens. The Americans will have to do it better, though, after allowing Puerto Rico to shoot 54 percent from the floor and make 10 of 16 3-pointers. But the Puerto Ricans didn't have nearly enough depth to keep up their fast start, especially when Arroyo was on the bench. Puerto Rico coach Julio Toro said the U.S. defenders, "have to keep growing and getting better in their man-to-man matchups, the matchup zones, closing lanes." </div> Source Sorry if this has already been posted. I couldn't find a thread anywhere, so I'm just giving everyone an update.
Puerto rico Without Piculin Ortiz, Hourroutunier, and eddie casiano is a moral victory to Puerto Rico, the game was closed at times and arroyo was brilliant, USA have to be worried because Puerto Rico does not have his best team
The one problem for concern for me, IMO is that we just aren't using our size advantage. We had 4 big guys that played today(Brad Miller got a DNP) and Dwight Howard had 18 mins, Brand had 15, Bosh had 12 and Jamison had 5. Combined they played 50 mins, so we were playing small for 30 minutes in this game. Not only playing time, but out of our 72 shots, these 4 big guys combined for 12 of them(Brand 5, Dwight 3, Jamison and Bosh 2 a piece). In comparison, Melo had 15 shots, Lebron had 12 and Wade had 10. I'm not saying those 3 shouldn't get the most shots, but when 3 outside players get nearly the same amount of shots a piece as the 4 bigs do combined, we are in for some trouble later on in this tournament. I'm sure we will have a size advantage in the majority of the games and especially against Puerto Rico. Coach K really needs to start balancing it out, because low post scores will open up the outside shooting and driving. I'm happy we came out of it with a W, but we won't get so lucky against the better teams in this competition unless we go downlow more often and use our size advantage. Being the huge Dwight Howard fan that I am, I was very pleased to see his line tonight, 18 minutes 10 points 7 boards(leading the team), 2 blocks, only 1 TO while shooting very efficiently 3-3 from the floor and an amazing 4-5 from the line(hopefully he can continue to improve his FT shooting and this game won't be a fluke)
Well, the USA is not the dream team anymore...I think that anyone who remembers that USA team is spoiled .
How long has PR been playing together? Serbia Montenegro? Argentina? Atleast one year and that's an understatement. Now how long has the USA been playing together? I'd just hate to see you guys cry when the USA takes home the gold with 30ppg average of defeat (j/k on that but I do think they'll take the gold)
Bottomline is International players have elevated their games. Im glad that the USA is being backed against the ropes. Its no longer a walk in the park.. IF they win gold, its beacause they earned it.
