I see the Olympic team is not doing so well today. I wonder if it could have anything to do with the suspended players being back in there. And, one of them in particular ...
Theres no one to blame for this loss except for the players themselves. Most of them are young and inexperienced, and they have been turning the ball over. Team USA needs more guys like Duncan and AI. A roster filled with rookies and second year players just won't cut it with the international teams getting better each year. The competition is tougher, and Team USA needs guys like McGrady, KG, Bryant, etc. to beat these international teams.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Ice:</div><div class="quote_post">Theres no one to blame for this loss except for the players themselves. Most of them are young and inexperienced, and they have been turning the ball over. Team USA needs more guys like Duncan and AI. A roster filled with rookies and second year players just won't cut it with the international teams getting better each year. The competition is tougher, and Team USA needs guys like McGrady, KG, Bryant, etc. to beat these international teams.</div> by those comments im consedring Ice as a person who knows basketball! i agree with you
god... I just knew someone was going to blame this loss on AI. People always blame Ai and Im sick of it. It wasnt any particular players fault. Their defense against those 3's just didnt cut it. Also those refs were total BS.
Allen Iverson should be the last person to blame. He did his job out there, even though he turned the ball over quite a bit, who hasn't? Well Italy played exceptionally well, they sucked up whatever defense the US had and kicked the ball out. This really confused the US, since they were so caught up in playing the isolation game. This just shows what happen when you have no perimeter shooters on the team. Not to mention, they also had trouble getting the ball in the paint. Iverson was constantly getting hassled by Italy, they were also denying Tim Duncan the ball, and forced the rest of the guys to take outside shots. Carmelo Anthony was the only who managed to power himself in the pain. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Also those refs were total BS.</div> I somewhat I agree with that. LeBron James did NOT travel, and how in the world could they call steps on Dwayne Wade twice? Obviously, the referees was in favor Italy, but lets be serious even with 6 extra points we were still going to lose, so doesn?t make much of a difference.
Well that sucks. I didnt see the game, but from what I am hearing from a good source that did see it AI performed great why should he be blamed for the loss when he did his job. If some other people could set up they would have done better. Baketball is a team game and a team takes a lose not just one player.
Yeah, sure dond the loss was because three guys were suspended, have some common sense will you. The Italians have been known for years for their strong offensive outbursts, and three point shooting. The United States team just did not study the Italian tapes enough, and if they had they would have known hot to set up their defense better. Our defense was all over the place, we were playing zone, instead of man to man. In international competition it is best ot play man to man especially when you don't know the teams well enough, and on top of all that, we had a young team.
The Italian players have been on the Italian team for a while,they play like a team and it seems like all of them can hit out side shots. Most of the Euro teams can probally shoot well,so Larry Brown better start preeching perimeter defense.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Billy King:</div><div class="quote_post">boxscore - http://www.usabasketball.com/seniormen/200..._msnt_box2.html</div> That box score shows AI is maturing. He is looking for good shots and getting his teammates involved in the game 5-7 in feild goals attempted. That is amazing shooting for the answer. I also see that the minutes were pretty evenly split up in between the players. AI lead everyone in minutes and only had 26. Glad to see no more injuries happened after all this is just warm ups for the real thing. ANy update on okafor?
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">That box score shows AI is maturing. He is looking for good shots and getting his teammates involved in the game 5-7 in feild goals attempted.</div> Maybe, he tried too much to get his teammates involved. Iverson was knocking down some shots, and as co-captain he should have take it upon himself to bring the team back from the deficit that they were in. Hopefully, he could have got something going, which would get the team motivated, and we could have possibly pulled of a win or just loss in a more respectable manor. Well whatever the case may be, I think he should have get more involved in the offense, he's their best offensive players, but showed very little of his offensive skills.
AI should of took over the team and led it when Duncan was getting double(sometimes triple) teamed. My guess is that AIs trying to practice his point guard skills or sometin because he usually takes over the offense and is part of our 1-2 punch along with Duncan. He did his part though. The team as a whole is to blame. Even though people like Melo, Duncan, and AI were doing great. Edit: Ahh yes and now the Olympic team has just beat Germany because of AI.
