It had been EIGHT years since USA Men's Basketball had won an international competition. Then, in USA's EIGHTH game of the Olympics, the so called "Redeem Team" joined Michael Phelp's EIGHT gold medal performance as the biggest stories of the 2008 Olympics, which started on... 08/08/08.
That said, here are 8 observations about USA's 2008 gold medal run think about.
--- 1 ---
If Team USA proved that USA Basketball is still number 1 in the world, it also proved its players have a short attention span when it comes to playing defense.
At the beginning of Olympic competition, USA was serious about defense, but then visibly and statistically let up as time went by. Check it out:
70.8 = Points per game allowed by USA in their first 5 games 91.0 = Points per game allowed by USA their last 3 games
36.7% = USA opponents shooting percentage first 5 games 46.2% = USA opponents shooting percentage last 3 games
Putting this in perspective, no other team in the 2008 Olympics allowed a team to score as many as 107 points like USA did versus Spain in the gold medal game, and Spain is less than half the size of Texas.
In fact, 107 points would have won every other game in the 2008 Olympics, and would be enough to have beaten USA in 5 of our 7 previous 2008 Olympic games.
And USA's statistics for the gold medal game against Spain looked less like a "redeem team" performance based on the first 5 games of the Olympics, and much more like USA basketball has looked these last 8 years, when a talented USA team would sometimes fail to outgun their opponents.
Had USA not come up with enough points to win its shoot out with Spain, there would forever be doubt in the minds of USA basketball. If a 3 year commitment, a coach focused on TEAM play, and a group of players like this couldn't bring home the gold, who could?
Spain will be back (see #5), and when it does, USA better have a longer lasting commitment to defense than it did this year.
--- 2 ---
Praise and accolades are being heaped upon Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade for their heroics in the gold medal game.
Dwayne Wade carried USA early, when Bryant and LeBron James were benched with foul trouble, scoring 21 of his 27 points in the first half.
Then at clutch time Kobe Bryant came through, scoring 13 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter.
HOWEVER!
The rest of the truth is that those two shooting guards allowed Spain's 2 shooting guards to combine for 40 of Spain's 107 points. (Fernandez 22, Navarro 18)!
In fact, they allowed Spain's shooting guards to score so much that despite their heroics, Bryant and Wade were actually only +7 over their counterparts for Spain.
Remember, Navarro washed out of the NBA after playing 1 year for the Memphis Grizzlies, and Fernandez will be an NBA rookie this fall!
There is something seriously wrong when THOSE 2 players combine to score just 7 points less than the scoring performance everyone is praising Kobe and Dwayne for, and the thing that was seriously wrong was Kobe and Dwayne's defense.
Earlier in the tournament, when USA cared about defense, Fernandez and Navarro combined for just 13 points against USA.
And while Dwayne Wade did have 4 steals, most if not all came by leaving his man and gambling on a pass. In reality, Spain's guards were never pressured.
The gold medal game was the least number of turnovers a USA opponent ever committed in the 2008 Olympics.
--- 3 ---
The final score was a little bit deceptive. Spain was actually better this game than the final score would leave you to believe.
With 26 seconds left, USA got 4 free throws in a row, and possession of the ball, thanks to a foul and a technical foul on Ricky Rubio.
The flustered 17 year old Rubio then missed a lay up on the following possession.
Additionally, Spain's highest scorer, Rudy Fernandez, fouled out with 3:10 left in the game.
There are easily AT LEAST 6 to 10 points in those end of game events, for which USA can take no credit. USA was just the beneficiary of some fortunate breaks.
After Spain's first defeat to USA in pool play, Spain started playing better, and began holding its opponents to 59 and 50 points, including opponents that USA allowed to score 76 points.
Excluding their meltdown against USA, Spain is the only team that averaged less turnovers per game than USA (13.4 vs. 13.9). Given Spain's improvements, USA should not have been surprised it would present more of a challenge than it did in their first meeting, and USA should have been prepared to defend better, rather than ease up.
28 = Turnovers by Spain vs. USA in pool play 14 = Turnovers by Spain in gold medal game
82 = Points by Spain vs. USA in pool play 107 = Points by Spain vs. USA in the gold medal game
39.4% = Spain's shooting percentage against USA in pool play 51.4% = Spain's shooting percentage against USA in gold medal game
--- 4 ---
Who did Coach K trust to bring home the gold?
On the floor at crunch time were: - Chris Paul - Duane Wade - Kobe Bryant - LeBron James - Chris Bosh
And considering Kobe Bryant and LeBron James were in foul trouble since the first quarter, it is interesting who still ended up playing the most minutes:
28 minutes - LeBron James 27 minutes - Kobe Bryant 27 minutes - Dwayne Wade 24 minutes - Chris Paul 23 minutes - Chris Bosh
* Notice how USA starters Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and Jason Kidd are not in either of those two lists?
World class blogger, Basketballogy, known for his astounding basketball intellect (not to mention his fine collection of mouse pads and his lovely singing voice), once pointed out that USA basketball's problem is not talent, it is decision making. This is especially true of Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, although both are young and have lots of time to grow in this regard.
--- 5 ---
While USA disbands this team, searches for a new coach, and organizes its next group for a 3 year commitment, it hopes the pattern set by the "redeem team" will keep USA on top.
However, Spain promises to be a force the London Olympics as well. Spain's young back court includes Rudy Fernandez (23), and Ricky Rubio (17), Jose Calderon (26), and Juan-Carlos Navarro (28), and its front court includes Pau Gasol (28), Marc Gasol (23), and Felipe Reyes (28).
And next time, Spain will be bringing the "redeem team," in a push to get their gold medal back.
--- 6 ---
Dwight Howard shot 45.9% from the free throw line for the Olympics, which is worse than Spain's 3 point percentage in the gold medal game (47.1%).
I am still high on Dwight Howard, but clearly he was not the best center (after Yao Ming) at these games. In fact, Dwight wasn't even the best center playing for USA.
It will be interesting to see how NBA fans vote for the 2009 All-Star game, with both Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard in the east.
Additionally, Pau Gasol probably upped his stock in the eyes of NBA fans. In fact, I'd be very surprised if Shaq didn't take a back seat in the 2009 NBA All-Star game to both Yao Ming and Pau Gasol.
--- 7 ---
Why don't more players learn to shoot the runner? Juan Carlos Navarro, and his 18 point gold medal performance against world champion USA, certainly showed how effective the runner can be at the highest levels of basketball... as if France's Tony Parker hadn't already proved it.
Opposing defenses don't even get their knees bent to jump before the shot is off.
The runner makes dribble penetration so much more deadly, and causes defenses to back off and give you open 3s.
If you had a deadly runner, a deadly 3, and were a good passer, I'd let you play on MY team!
--- 8 ---
This was a 2 point game in the fourth quarter.
It was a 4 point game with 2:29 left to play.
It was a 6 point game with 1:52 left to play.
USA was just +2 in the fourth quarter, +1 in the third quarter, and +1 in the second quarter.
USA had to shoot an insane 70.3 percent from 2 point range to pull this win out.
All of Spain's statistics, including its shooting percentage were within normal ranges.
And Spain was +6 on rebounds.
The odds of USA pulling off a performance like this again are not at all has high as Spain's odds at hitting their numbers again.
USA has superior depth, quickness and athleticism. If it will put that to use on the defensive end of the court, it won't have to rely on unlikely performances to bring home the gold from London in 2012.
--- Bonus ---
Lately I've been noticing that the number of comments on a blog is in inverse proportion to the amount of time I spend on it, so I'll be lucky to get 8 comments.
Nevertheless, here are 8 great Mike "Coach K" Krzyzewski quotes for your enjoyment.
(1) "A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play."
(2) "A common mistake among those who work in sport is spending a disproportional amount of time on "x's and o's" as compared to time spent learning about people. Making shots counts, but not as much as the people who make them."
(3) "I don't look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball."
(4) "I believe God gave us crises for some reason—and it certainly wasn’t for us to say that everything about them is bad. A crisis can be a momentous time for a team to grow—if a leader handles it properly."
(5) "I had a really bad temper, when I was growing up. Sport helped me channel that temper into more positive acts."
(6) "I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one."
(7) "A leader may be the most knowledgeable person in the world, but if the players on his team cannot translate that knowledge into action, it means nothing."
(8) "A leader has to be positive about all things that happen to his team. Look at nothing in the past as failure."
redeem (verb) - to do something that makes other people have a better opinion of (you), especially after you have behaved badly or failed at something. -- Cambridge Dictionary of American English.
Whoever first coined the phrase, "The road to redemption" must have understood that redemption is almost never a single act or gesture. Redemption is a road that, like all roads, must to be traveled a step at a time. Today USA took another step towards redemption with its 31 point defeat of Australia. There are 3 steps left to go.
The story line to this game is an interesting one. USA led by just 1 point at then end of the first quarter, and would have taken just a 6 point lead into the locker room at the half, were it not for a missed 3 pointer by Australia's Mark Worthington, a rebound by Chris Bosh, then a buzzer beating 3 pointer by Deron Williams. That buzzer beater is more remarkable when you realize that Williams was only 1 of 5 from the arc against Australia, the buzzer beater was his only successful 3 pointer.
After a close first half, Kobe Bryant took control for USA by scoring 9 of USA's 14 to 0 run. After that, USA slowly built on its advantage.
Australia probably thought it was playing well against USA in the first quarter, but I didn't see it that way. For some reason every American but Jason Kidd started off the game completely infatuated with dribbling. I was really frustrated.
The ball movement was so stagnant, that USA did not have an assist the entire first quarter. In fact, with 2:51 left in the third quarter, Mike Breen and Doug Collins mentioned that USA had only 1 assist the entire first half. USA moved the ball considerably better after the break though, and had 15 assists in the second half.
Also, defensively this was the worst game of the 2008 Olympics for Team USA.
Never in these Olympics has USA allowed an opponent to score so many points. Opponents have been averaging 70.8 points per game, USA but allowed Australia to score 85.
Why isn't anyone talking about USA allowing 85 points?! That is enough to have won 12 of the games played so far in these 2008 Olympics!
Opponents had been averaging just 36.7% from the field but Australia shot 43%, easily the highest shooting percentage allowed by USA.
And Australia was actually -2 in turnovers, and +2 on points off of turnovers!
The closing play of the first quarter was typical of USA's defense: after a MADE free throw by Chris Bosh, Australia put the ball in play and ran the ball the length of the court and made a lay up while collecting a foul on Chris Paul.
Australia had only 1 turnover in the first quarter, had 7 turnovers in the second, and only 3 turnovers in the entire second half. Think about that. Australia's biggest let down was in the second quarter, when Coach K played a very quick, defense minded group consisting of Williams, Wade, Bryant, James and Bosh.
In other words, when Coach K forced USA to play defense, Australia coughed up the ball like the other teams have.
USA's defense definitely slipped in this quarterfinals game from its previous performances, which troubles me. It should be getting better as games go on and mean more.
But USA's offense struggled to get going as well.
When Kobe Bryant shot his first shot of the game, 3 minutes into it, USA was already 3 of 9 (33%). That's a lot of quick and poor shots for 3 minutes.
LeBron James started 0 of 3, Dwight Howard was 1 of 3, and Carmelo Anthony was 2 of 3. And although Bryant made that first shot, he missed is next 3 and was 1 of 4 for the first quarter. For the first quarter: LeBron was 1 of 5, Howard was 3 of 6, Anthony was 3 of 5, Kidd 1 of 1, Wade 0 of 2, and Paul and Williams were 0 of 1.
And watching the game, it was clear the poor shooting was not due to Australia's defense, but due to USA's poor shot selection, particularly from the arc, which Australia's defense was daring them to take.
Defensively, Australia packed in their zone and dared the Americans to shoot from the outside (3 of 13 from the arc in the first half. And when USA did get the ball inside to Dwight Howard, they quickly hacked him; Howard had 5 free throw attempts in 14 minutes of play. And why not? Prior to this game Howard was shooting just 45% from the free throw line.
Observations:
- All 12 USA players scored.
- Australia sent in a scrub named Worthington to hammer Carmelo Anthony. To Anthony's credit, he smiled and walked away and left Howard and James to jaw with the scrub.
- USA's next opponent won't likely be intimidated by the "Redeem Team, seeing as Argentina has 4 NBAers in its starting 5.
- In the second quarter, Kobe rebounded the ball under the rim, and took such a severe fade away on his turn around jumper that he literally landed on his back on the 3 point line. I groaned that he attempted the shot, and laughed as it went in. Kobe is the best maker of bad shots I've seen.
- The NBA should change its terminology for the playoffs from "first round, second round, etc." to "quarter finals, semi-finals, conference finals, and finals." The Olympics have figured it out: that repeated uses of the word "finals" leading to the NBA Finals would be stronger product branding.
- After the game, LeBron James had this to say of Kobe Bryant, "He's the one guy on our team that's not afraid to take the final shot or guard anyone. Kobe is the No. 1 athlete out here. Beyond basketball, I think people are starting to see his personality."
- Team USA had 13 offensive rebounds in the first half, which was allowing them additional shots and a shot at staying in the game.
- Team USA was +29 in rebounding, astounding considering it was -4 in rebounds over the course of the first 4 games.
- Australia's coach, Greg Goorjian, "Going into the game, I thought we had one advantage, and that's a lot for us. I thought it was Patrick Mills. . . . I thought he was someone their point guards would have trouble with."
- USA's coach, Mike Krzyzewski, said this of Patrick Mills, who will be a freshman at St. Mary's this fall, "I'm glad my Duke team doesn't play St. Mary's this season. (Patrick Mills) is a great guard. He’ll be an NBA guard and I’m very, very impressed.... he really has great quickness. I love him defensively; I’m sure Brian does too. I’ve been a defensive coach my whole life and there aren’t very many people who stay with a guard – like right on him – when he has the ball – and if he’s beaten, he doesn’t retreat; he continues to play the play. He’s got to be an extremely tough-minded kid. As good as he is offensively, I think he’s got a chance to be a great defender. I think the kid has got a big time future, to be quite frank with you. He’s an impressive player. He’s got great quickness and great strength. What else can I say? he can shoot, he’s tough-minded, he’s so competitive. I mean the kid’s going to be an NBA player, there is no question about it. What a great thing to build your future on (speaking of Australia's basketball team)."
If you are a fan of USA basketball, this was a great game, but two
numbers indicate Team USA wasn't yet tested where it is weakest:
inside. Those two numbers are 28 and 64.
Twenty-eight. Spain committed 28 turnovers versus the United States.
For perspective, Spain committed 8 turnovers in their previous game
against Greece.
Sixty four. USA shot 7 of 11 (64%) from the arc in the first half.
For perspective, that is better than USA's FREE THROW percentage from
their previous game (56.5%).
While those 2 numbers are actually positives, they are also anomalies: unusual occurrences that may not happen again.
Of course, USA had something to do with Spain turning the ball over
so much, but then again, Spain's zone defense had something to do with
USA shooting so well from the arc. If you don't believe that, Spain's
halftime adjustments had USA shooting 4 of 14 for 28.5% in the 2nd half.
Anomalies (a.k.a. "luck") probably affect many if not most games,
but for success to be consistent, it needs to be based on something a
team can consistently do.
If Team USA can consistently shoot 64% from the arc, it hasn't shown
it so far. In fact, USA's second half 3-point shooting performance against Spain,
28.5%, is more consistent with how USA has been shooting 3 pointers in
the Olympics.
As for turnovers, remember Australia? Earlier this month (August
5,2008), the Aussies slowed down the pace to limit possessions, and
were it not for a flat 2nd quarter, Australia could have upset Team
USA. Instead of slowing down the pace though, today Spain tried to play at
USA's pace, and Spain turned over Group B's leadership to USA.
Literally.
I really think USA will earn the gold medal in 2008 Men's
Basketball, but I also think teams have seen enough of how USA plays,
where it is strongest and where it is weakest, and that opposing teams will try
slowing down the pace and caring for the ball to take away USA's easy
points, and they will try to make USA grind it out from inside.
USA's last two wins were impressive, but they scored very little with bigs posting up in the half court.
Against Spain, Carmelo Anthony scored 12 of his 16 points from the
arc. Tayshaun Prince scored 9 of his 10 points from the arc. LeBron
James scored 6 of his 18 points from the arc, and I don't know how many of the
remaining 12 points were scored in transition, but it seemed like a lot, didn't it? That's where his highlight plays come from.
But in terms of good old fashioned back to the basket bigs scoring down low on post
play in the half court, USA was probably outplayed by Spain. And Team USA was
out rebounded again (39 to 36). Can USA's bigs step up to score inside
if opponents are successful at forcing that pace on them? I hope so.
Other observations:
- Less than 2 minutes into the game (1:57 to be exact), Pao Gasol
set a screen and Kobe Bryant just leveled him to the floor. Pau smiled,
but Kobe walked by Pau without looking at him, much less helping him up
or giving Pau a pat, which Bryant did with other Spanish players
throughout the game. Commentator Doug Collins said he thought it was a
good foul, and Collins was wrong. The only message that foul sent was a message Gasol already
knew: that Kobe was more serious about beating Spain than he was about his
friendship with Pau. In reality, the only thing that stupid foul did was put Kobe
out of the game sooner.
- Team USA was called for 17 fouls in the first half, but as USA
took control of the game, refs stopped trying to help Spain and called
only 7 fouls against USA in the second half. USA did make adjustments, but it really appeared the the refs did as well.
- I was thrilled to hear Doug Collins say that Team USA's mantra is:
No bad habits. That's the motto I'm yelling during the practice of
every team I've ever coached. You think Coach K stole it from me? ;-)
- It was a 7 point game with 25 seconds left to go in the 1st
quarter. Considering the final scores in the Olympics, USA has yet to
really dominate a team from the get go. Opponents start off finding
success, then USA finds its way and then has its way with its opponents.
- 13 of 16 USA turnovers were James, Bryant, Paul and Wade.
- LeBron James and Chis Paul combined to shoot 14 of 14 from the
free throw line, substantially helping USA raise their overall free
throw percentage. The rest of the team shot 5 of 10 for 50% from the
free thrown line. Tch tch tch.
- When asked to expand on Team USA’s strengths, Pau Gasol said: “They
are playing with a purpose and that’s to win and to show everyone else
that they are superior. And I think that’s the bottom line. It’s not
that they are better individually than two years ago, they are better
as a team. They have a better mentality.”
- In a post game interview with Craig Sager, Chris Paul made it
clear the Team USA wanted to make a statement with this game. Did they?
Well, ask Spain's Pau Gasol.
“They wanted to make a statement in this game, playing against us,
and they did,” Pau said. “They sent a message to everybody in the
tournament. They didn’t do it before, and now everybody knows that
they’re for real, and they’re very serious about this.”
Observations about the USA vs. Angola game have me thinking USA has a problem with their "bigs," or in other words, a BIG problem.
--- Angola's 3 point shooting was about as bad as Team USA's (29%), as was their mid range game, meaning most of Angola's 76 points came inside, which is SERIOUSLY bad news for Team USA. USA's bigs were dismayingly deficient defensively, especially since Angola may be the only team in the Olympics that is smaller overall than the U.S.
--- At half time, Angola was +3 in rebounds. By the end of the game, Angola out rebounded USA by 4 (38 to 34), so USA's rebounding efforts against a smaller Angola team were horrible, and got worse as the game wore on. There was no correction at half time or any other place in the game.
The thing is, the rebounding situation is worse than you think.
53 percent of all Team USA's rebounds came from their GUARDS, not their bigs!
When you consider that bigs are, well, bigger than guards, and that at any given time there are usually 50% more bigs on the floor than guards, you can see that Team USA's bigs are definitely not pulling their weight.
Criticize Kobe's performance all you want, (I plan to), but what hurt Team USA most this game was poor efforts and results from its forwards and centers, both on defense and in rebounding.
Rebounds per minute for FORWARDS & CENTERS:
0.286 - Carmelo Anthony 0.200 - LeBron James 0.200 - Dwight Howard 0.182 - Carlos Boozer 0.143 - Chris Bosh 0.071 - Tayshaun Prince
Rebounds per minute for GUARDS
0.313 - Dwayne Wade 0.267 - Jason Kidd 0.222 - Kobe Bryant 0.190 - Chris Paul
And of course, Angola's rebounds per minute stats blow away all Team USA's big players.
--- There is no other way to say it, I'm disgusted the Team USA only shot 64% from the charity stripe (16 of 25). 7 of the 9 free throw misses were Team USA big men.
--- Unlike the rest of the country, I'm not that worried about Team USA's outside shooting. USA's 3-point shooting stats are deceptive. As a team, they did shoot 5 of 21 (23.8%), but if you remove Kobe's 0 of 8, then they shot 38.4 %. Not great, but not the end of the world either. Before his finger injury, Kobe was the most devastating perimeter player in basketball. He's not so good now, but I don't see him shooting 0 of 8 again. I'm thinking USA's perimeter game will be adequate against Greece tomorrow, provided a team-first mentality prevails.
--- This team has lost its focus, and many players are thinking of themselves before their team. Often a man ahead was ignored so the man with the ball could dunk or shoot. Deron Williams over dribbled. Chris Paul let his man blow by him so often I could swear the crowd started to yell, "Ole'!" Kobe, even if you were 8 out of 8 from the arc, those aren't the stats nor the acts of a defensive stopper. Carlos, you are a role player on this team, and your role is to defend and rebound, not blow gimmies around the basket. Dwight, trash talking? Against ANGLOLA? Really?! Come on, guys, get back on task.
--- Scoring for the United States declined by quarter as the game went on, scoring a record low 16 points in the 4th quarter. I'm sure much of this was a motivation problem, and some of it is (hopefully) a sportsmanship thing, not wanting to run up the score and embarrass Angola. Angola's scoring, by the way, increased.
--- I LOVE how clear the floor was out of bounds at the baselines and the side lines. This should be the rule for NCAA and NBA basketball as well. I can't STAND to see players flying into camera men or cheerleaders, or worse, not diving for loose balls so they don't collide with these people. There is enough money in both college and professional basketball to give the players some breathing room and still make a profit.
--- Team USA did manage to get the ball into post, especially to Dwight Howard, but usually they did it in early offense before Angola's defense was set.
--- I was embarrassed by Dwight Howard's trash talking. First of all, he isn't playing well enough to have the right. Second, even if he was, this is Angola, not the 1992 Dream Team. Get over yourself and play basketball, Dwight.
--- Only one player got up early and scouted the Greece vs. Spain game with the coaches: Kobe Bryant. When asked about that, LeBron James said that if Kobe was there, then the whole team was there because Kobe would share any information he obtained. My goodness that is LAME! Those guys had a chance to peek at the cards of their two greatest adversaries, and slept through it! ARGH! Can spoiled millionaires ever grasp it? TEAM comes first, you come second!
[Added after I originally posted this]
Restating what I've written before...
It is scary for us to pin our hopes to a team that "turns it on and off" like our current Team USA does. It would be so much more reassuring if they would just play at their full potential all the time and crush everyone, even if destroying their opponents and running up the score is seen as poor sportsmanship.
We are all hoping that as the competition gets tougher, so will they, but it's an uneasy feeling not knowing for sure whether or not they actually will, given that USA has lost before.
One thing that will help is right now all players are getting lots of minutes, regardless their production. I'm sure the minutes will be less for players who aren't proving themselves productive once the heat is on. That will help with the final score as well as the box score.
Also, there is one point that probably can't be ignored.
It is just the nature of competitors to raise their level of play as the level of competition rises. It's just who and how they are.
I remember back in the day, I lost games of horse to middle schoolers, and later that day hit 7 3-pointers in a row during a tournament.
There is just something about real competition that brings out the best in some people. Even in the NBA, some players play better against some players and some teams, the challenge just brings out the best in them. Take for example, how Gilbert Arenas plays when he plays against Kobe.
And there are a LOT of these kinds of people on TeamUSA. They need the challenge to be their best.
And TeamUSA has yet to face a team that has challenged them enough to bring out the best in them.
I like pretty much all sports, but to make time for the more important things in life, I have chosen to follow just one: basketball.
I have more blog posts at Basketballog y.com.
It had been EIGHT years since USA Men's Basketball had won an international competition. Then, in USA's EIGHTH game of the Olympics, the so called "Redeem Team" joined Michael Phelp's EIGHT gold medal performance as the biggest stories of the 2008 Olympics, which started on... 08/08/08. 
redeem (verb) - to do something that makes other people have a better opinion of (you), especially after you have behaved badly or failed at something. -- Cambridge Dictionary of American English. 
If you are a fan of USA basketball, this was a great game, but two
numbers indicate Team USA wasn't yet tested where it is weakest:
inside. Those two numbers are 28 and 64.
