Marbury, Brown Drag U.S. Down
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

So this is what it’s come to: The American men’s basketball team played its best game of the tournament on Saturday, and still lost by four.
The 94-90 defeat against Lithuania dropped the U.S. to 2-2 on the tournament, although the Stars and Stripes at least clinched a spot in the quarterfinals when Australia and hapless Angola – today’s opponent – both lost.
Despite the loss, there were numerous positives for the U.S. The ball movement was noticeably crisper, the defensive effort was massively improved, and a few players, most notably Richard Jefferson, started getting the hang of the international 3-point line.
One glaring negative, however, overwhelmed the positive signs: the Knicks’ Stephon Marbury. Break down the game and it’s clear that Lithuania didn’t beat the U.S. They beat Marbury … badly. While his teammates were shooting 50% on 3-pointers and 54% on 2-pointers, Marbury went 2-for-14 from the floor to single-handedly keep the U.S. under 100 points.
At the other end of the floor, Stephon was arguably worse. He got torched by Sarunas Jasikevicius, with the coup de grace coming in the fourth quarter. With the U.S. clinging to an 84-81 lead, Marbury was slow getting down court, forcing Lamar Odom to pick up Jasikevicius and setting up a game turning four-point play by the fiery Lithuanian guard.
Then Marbury was beaten by the same simple play – a screen set just over the timeline – to set up consecutive wide-open 3-pointers by Jasikevicius that gave Lithuania a six-point lead. As the final insult, he fouled Jasikevicius with one second left on the shot clock in the final minute and the U.S. within striking distance of tying the game. Marbury’s man finished with 28 points, offsetting a fine defensive performance by the rest of the club.
That performance continued an astoundingly bad Olympics for Marbury, who went scoreless against Australia and has made exactly six of his 30 shot attempts thus far in Athens. Take away his numbers and the U.S. shooting stats from this tournament suddenly don’t look so bad.
Additionally, Marbury’s subpar defense against Jasikevicius provided an instant replay of his matador job against Puerto Rico’s Carlos Arroyo in the opener. If this were the Cold War, we’d think the Russians were paying him under the table.
But I’m not writing this column to shred Marbury. He showed up, after all, which is more than Shaq or Kobe or the reigning NBA MVP, Kevin Garnett, can say. Marbury came even though his game is uniquely unsuited for the rules of international basketball, with its emphasis on long-range shooting rather than one-on-one drives and the increased importance of perimeter defense. Nobody should be upset at Marbury.
No, my vitriol is reserved for the guy who left him on the court for 32 minutes on Saturday – Larry Brown. As badly as Marbury played, he somehow saw more playing time than any other member of the U.S. squad, sitting for only eight minutes against Lithuania. His backup, Dwyane Wade, is shooting 50% on the tournament but has barely played – despite the fact that the U.S. immediately went on runs both times that Marbury left the game.
For all the talk that the U.S. players are selfish, or don’t play hard, or don’t understand fundamentals, or any of the other blathering we’ve heard over the past week as this team has been raked over the coals, there was one simple truth on Saturday: The coach blew the game after his charges played hard enough to earn a win.
Brown may have won a championship with the Pistons, but thus far he’s seemed bewildered by some of the strategies of international basketball. He’s also appeared blissfully unaware that Wade and LeBron James (who mysteriously played just six minutes against Lithuania) have been two of his best players in Athens.
Wade’s impact has been immediate because of his ability to pressure opposing guards, forcing the international players to play faster than they’re accustomed to and forcing the kinds of bad turnovers that the old Dream Tream created in droves.Yet his stay on the court has been all too brief.
Marbury could go 0-for-30 and the U.S. could still beat Angola, but it sets a worrying precedent. Wade and James have been great but can’t get on the court, while one strains to determine how badly Marbury must play before Brown pulls him from the lineup.
Perhaps it’s all part of some master strategy that Brown plans to unleash on his surprised opponents during the quarterfinals. There were plenty of positives from Saturday’s defeat – the ball movement, the increased intensity, the occasional 3-pointer – but all of that was undone by Brown’s commitment to a point guard who can’t do the job. He has three days to figure out what everyone else in America already knows.
If there’s a saving grace, it’s that in the big picture, this game didn’t matter. Win or lose, the U.S. was looking at the no. 3 seed from Group B. And even if the U.S. had finished with the top seed, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing, because Serbia-Montenegro is lurking as the probable no. 4 from Group A, presenting a tough quarterfinal matchup.
Presuming the U.S. beats Angola (an assumption we shouldn’t make too cavalierly given what’s transpired thus far), the Americans’ quarterfinal opponent will be the winner of Monday’s Italy-Argentina game, both of whom have looked very beatable in the opening round.
Should Puerto Rico lose to against Greece today, it will likely drop the U.S. to no. 4.They only escape from that fate if they can smash lowly Angola by at least 30 points, in which case the U.S. would get the no. 3 or even the no. 2, but right now beating anybody by 30 points seems improbable for this team.