U.S. Works Out Kinks and Steamrolls China

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.

The New York Sun

One day of hoops down, and it’s so far, so good … well, unless you’re a Nets fan.

The American team overcame an initial burst of enthusiasm from a Chinese team playing in front of its home crowd and dominated the second half en route to a 101-70 victory in the opening game of pool play. The Americans again swim in the shallow end of Pool A tomorrow morning when they face Angola; after that, the competition ramps up quickly.

As for the Nets side of things, there was somebody on the Chinese side wearing a Yi Jianlian jersey, but let’s hope it was an impostor. The other four China starters played out of their minds in the first half, keeping the game close by making seven of 11 three-pointers — including one from 7-foot-6-inch Yao Ming to open the game. Yi, on the other hand, missed all six first-half shots and played matador defense.

China wasn’t going to win anyway, as it inevitably cooled off and succumbed to America’s pressure defense. The last three quarters were a highlight video of American dunks, forcing China’s overmatched guards into one turnover after another and constantly beating them in transition.

Nonetheless, Yi’s effort — or lack thereof — was jarring. He had a nice follow-dunk over Carmelo Anthony, and that was about it, finishing 4-for-13 with two turnovers while getting some harsh looks from teammate Yao Ming.

For the American side, the two worries were familiar ones — an inability to shoot 3-pointers and defend them. Though China ended up 10-for-27, they got wide-open looks from beyond the arc throughout the first half. Meanwhile the Americans were only 7-for-24, including 1-for-7 from Kobe Bryant, as they struggled to score in the halfcourt.

Fortunately, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were awesome. James scored 18 points and dominated defensively, including a spectacular block of a Chinese layup where he caught the ball with two hands in midair. Wade continues to go for steals on nearly every play, something that’s likely to burn the U.S. against better competition, but he’s clearly back from last season’s injuries — he scored 19 points without missing a shot.

Meanwhile, minutes at point guard and center remain in flux. Jason Kidd played 13 minutes without taking a shot and had three turnovers, but neither Chris Paul nor Deron Williams made a loud statement either. Paul had three points, six assists, and two steals in 20 minutes, while Williams had nine points on 3-of-7 shooting.

In the middle, Chris Bosh again outplayed starter Dwight Howard. He made all four shots from the field and had nine points, eight boards, and three steals in just 13 minutes — including a sweet reach-around on a post entry to Yao — while Howard was 5-for-10 and continues to blow free throws (3-for-5).

Those starting spots haven’t changed yet, however, and may not until the medal round. Nor has Wade usurped Carmelo Anthony’s starting gig, even though ‘Melo — who didn’t make a basket yesterday — looks decidedly less effective than he did in a dominating run at last year’s World Championships.

Of course, the pool games don’t matter that much for the medal contenders — it’s just a chance to get a good seeding for the medal round. The important thing is to survive intact for a week until the games really count, and the U.S. did that with flying colors yesterday.

Meanwhile, two other games of interest produced notable outcomes.

First, Lithuania upset defending gold medalist Argentina 79-75. Though the Argentines sport five NBA players on their roster, they played poorly in tune-up games and looked out of sorts in this one. Their glaring weakness at point guard is certainly one reason — they had only 10 assists against 18 turnovers. Manu Ginobili’s ankle injury is probably another. The Spurs’ star scored 19 points but didn’t look too zippy doing it, shooting 6-for-15 against a poor defensive team.

This contest was also notable for an odd strategic choice at the end of the game. With the score tied at 75 and 20 seconds left, Lithuania had the ball for the last shot. Normally in international ball the team on defense fouls intentionally in this situation in order to get the ball back with some time left — it’s too easy to score in international ball, and you can’t advance the ball after a time-out like you can in the NBA.

In fact, that’s exactly what Argentina did against Spain in the semifinals of the World Championships in 2006. It didn’t work — Spain made the free throws and Argentina missed a last-second shot by Andres Nocioni (who, incidentally, is now sporting a full-blown mullet and looks even crazier than usual).

Perhaps that result in ’06 was what led to the opposite decision yesterday. This time, they let the opponent play it out, but that didn’t work either. Lithuania’s Linas Kleiza of the Denver Nuggets hit a three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left, and Argentina was done.

This result wasn’t necessarily good new for America. It’s now possible Argentina won’t win Group B, making it more likely that they could meet the U.S. in the semifinals. And we shouldn’t dismiss Argentina based on this early loss. Remember, in pool play in 2004 they lost twice in pool play and barely beat lowly New Zealand before rallying in the medal round.

The other major gold-medal contender, defending world champion Spain, didn’t have nearly as much trouble. The Spaniards easily disposed of Greece, 81-66, even though Pau Gasol didn’t start and only played 20 minutes. Greece’s shaky shooting was a major problem, as they were 7-of-20 on 3-pointers and a nasty 11-of-24 from the line, and they couldn’t do anything in the post either — centers Kostas Tsartsaris and Ioannis Bourousis combined to play 40 minutes without scoring a basket.

Spain looked good all over, but guard Rudy Fernandez, who will play for the Trail Blazers next year, looked especially fantastic — he scored 16 points and had several sweet aerial finishes on drives. As for 17-year-old point guard Ricky Rubio, a likely top-5 NBA draft pick as soon as he declares, he didn’t make much of an impact in his first Olympic contest.

Though it didn’t involve medal favorites, Sunday’s action did produce one other surprise — Croatia’s shockingly easy 97-82 win against Australia. The Aussies played the U.S. tough in their final exhibition game, but the Croats ran a layup drill, shooting 66.7% from the floor and hitting 12-of-16 on three-pointers.

jhollinger@nysun.com


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