Team USA Gets Wake-Up Call Before Olympics

Maybe, in hindsight, Team USA’s struggles against Australia yesterday in their final exhibition game will be a good thing. Maybe they’ll learn from it and be better prepared for their Olympic opener on Saturday against China, and perhaps it will spur them toward the gold medal everyone’s expecting.At the same time, the Americans’ 87-76 win over the Aussies — whose best player, Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut, sat out with an ankle injury — also laid bare the same weaknesses that have plagued them in other recent international tournaments.Once again, the half-court offense was an absolute mess. While the U.S. side has had no problem scoring in transition, it’s had considerably more difficulty when it can’t force a turnover and outrun the other side. Australia befuddled the American side with a match-up zone, holding the U.S. to 50% shooting, including 3-of-15 on 3-pointers, and again leaving onlookers to wonder whether they were running any plays or just playing pickup ball.Once again, free throws were an issue. For some reason, virtually every American player shoots worse on free throws in international games than they do in the NBA, and this tournament has been no exception. The U.S. shot 20-of-33 from the line against Australia, including an ugly 0-for-6 from Dwight Howard; for the exhibition tournament as a whole they shot 70%.And once again, quick guards had their way with the U.S. This time it was Patrick Mills, who plays collegiately in America for St. Mary’s, who zipped through the defense for 13 points thanks to countless botched pick-and-roll switches.All told, it looked way too similar to the loss to Greece in the 2006 World Championships, with the exception that Australia didn’t win because they just weren’t good enough.Additionally, we should give credit to a couple of the things that have changed, which probably helped the U.S. prevail. For one, the defense is vastly improved. While quick guards remain a problem and a lack of size in the frontcourt is a bit of a concern, too, the overall defensive record for the U.S. in their five tune-up games was very impressive. Even as Russia and Australia gummed up the American offense in the past two games, the D remained extremely solid. Both opponents shot under 50%, and the U.S. side controlled the defensive boards in each contest.Second, this team has shot the ball better from outside than previous editions of Team USA, yesterday’s brick-fest excepted. The American side hit 42.7% from long range through its five exhibition games, including 12-of-22 from Michael Redd and, shockingly, 5-of-7 from Dwyane Wade.Though neither Wade nor Redd start, those two may end up being the keys to the U.S. side’s fortunes. Redd is a zone-buster extraordinaire with his lefty bombs from the shorter international 3-point line, and coach Mike Krzyzewski has taken note. Almost any time the opponent has played a zone, Redd has come in to loosen them up.Wade, meanwhile, looks completely back after an injury-plagued regular season for the Heat. He’s shot 70.8% from the floor while leading the team in scoring during the exhibitions, including a crazy windmill alley-oop dunk in the win over Lithuania, and seems to have figured out how to drive effectively against packed-in international defenses.Four of the starting five positions seem set. Shooting guard Kobe Bryant will be the defensive ace and has embraced the role. He absolutely embarrassed Lithuania’s Sarunas Jasikevicius with his pressure and has had a similar, if less pronounced, effect in Team USA’s other games. LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony start as the forwards, with both looking much more comfortable in the international game now that they’ve had four summers of experience. And Dwight Howard is a force in the middle, as long as he can make a free throw.That leaves point guard as the lone question mark. Jason Kidd has started every game but has been ridiculously passive offensively — he’s only taken three shots in five games. Meanwhile, Deron Williams and Chris Paul have seen increasingly large chunks of playing time. Williams, in particular, has looked very good slashing through zone defenses and creating chances for others, and his physical style works well in international ball. Don’t be surprised if he’s the one finishing games even if Kidd starts them.The other key reserve for America is Chris Bosh, who will back up Howard at center and has played well in his limited stints. That leaves Carlos Boozer and Tayshaun Prince at the end of the pine. Prince is unlikely to play much, but Boozer could play an important role if the thin frontcourt picks up fouls.But enough about the Americans. It’s obviously the most talented team in the tournament, and the expectation is that they’ll win gold. But the Olympics are like the NCAA tournament once we get to the medal round, which means one bad night and the U.S. could again find itself wearing bronze. That’s what happened against Greece in the World Championships two years ago, and there are 11 other teams hoping to steal the Americans’ thunder one more time. Let’s take a closer look at them:The PretendersIran played shockingly well in the pre-Olympic tune-ups, upsetting Serbia and playing Argentina close, but appears overmatched at this level. Keep an eye on 7-foot-2-inch center Hamed Ehadadi, though.Angola is another team that played well in the pre-Olympic tournaments, and they have a ton of international experience. Nonetheless, the squad doesn’t have a single NBA-caliber player and will face a talent mismatch on most nights.China is putting huge hopes on its Olympics and has talked of winning a medal, but that seems very optimistic. While the front line of Yao Ming, ex-Maverick Wang Zhizhi, and new Net Yi Jianlian is imposing, they have trouble getting the ball because China’s guards are so awful.Germany is happy just to be here — so happy, in fact, that Dirk Nowitzki wept when the team clinched a spot by beating Puerto Rico in a qualifier in July. Nowitzki and L.A. Clippers center Chris Kaman (a Michigan native who is about as German as spaghetti) make a formidable frontcourt, but Germany’s guards are overmatched.The Second TierCroatia has only has one current NBA player (Raptors guard Roko Ukic), as well as onetime Net Zoran Planinic. But with a couple of the best Croats (high-scoring forward Nikola Vujcic and former Jazz guard Gordan Giricek) sitting this one out, they’ll likely lose in the quarterfinals.Australia played very well in the preseason, and not just against America. But while they’re cohesive and tough, Bogut is their only legit NBA player. One suspects they’re going to have too much trouble scoring against the big boys to make past the quarterfinals.I was high on Lithuania entering the tournament, but its clear their guards have lost quite a bit of zip, and they’re missing a couple key players. Though they have a few NBA-caliber players in forward Ramunas Siskauskas, centers Robertas Javtokas and Ksystofas Lavrinicius, and Denver Nuggets forward Linas Kleiza, they’re a very poor defensive team and are another club likely to fall in the quarterfinals.Medal HopefulsGreece beat the U.S. in Japan in 2006, but the truth is they played out of their minds that day. While they’re a big, tough, defensive-oriented team that can frustrate opponents, there isn’t a lot of scoring here. Guard Theodoros Papaloukas is a star in Europe and backcourt mate Dimitris Diamantidis is the best defensive player outside the NBA; however, the frontcourt is very limited offensively.Russia won the European championship last year and is led by Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko, who is much better in international rules than in the NBA. They have an American point guard, Bucknell grad J.R. Holden, and an American coach in David Blatt. They also have three failed Trail Blazers — Nikita Morgunov, Sergei Monia and Viktor Khryapa — and like Greece, a lack of offense is likely to be their ultimate undoing.Argentina is the defending gold medalist and has five NBA players, including San Antonio Spurs star Manu Ginobili, but they’ve looked very shaky in their tune-up games. Ginobili is still recovering from a late-season ankle injury and mainstay Walter Herrmann of the Pistons has opted to sit this one out. Between that and age, this edition of the Argentines is looking like bronze.That takes us to Spain. If there’s a team that can beat the U.S. fair and square, this is the one. Point guard Jose Calderon of the Raptors can handle the U.S. guards’ pressure, big men Pau and Marc Gasol can hang with the Americans inside, and wings Rudy Fernandez and Juan Carlos Navarro will bomb away from downtown. Keep an eye on 17-year-old guard Ricky Rubio, too — he’s a likely high lottery pick whenever he chooses to declare for the NBA draft.It’s not just that they have seven current or former NBA players, though. The Spaniards are tough, cohesive, and defend extremely well. They have a go-to scorer in Gasol and enough depth to hang with the Americans for 40 minutes.Ultimately, Spain’s lack of quality scoring on the wings may be their undoing, but this is the one game where sweating out a two-point win wouldn’t be the slightest bit embarrassing for the Americans. The U.S. meets Spain in pool play this week, but look for each side to keep their cards close to the vest until they get to the game that matters — a likely rematch in the gold-medal game two weeks from now.jhollinger@nysun.com

Team USA Gets Wake-Up Call Before Olympics

Team USA Gets Wake-Up Call Before Olympics

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