Women’s basketball prelims continue, as team United States of America takes on Serbia in search of its 44th straight Olympic victory.
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The U.S. fought through a turnover-ridden, foul-plagued start and defeated Venezuela 113-69 Monday, setting up a matchup of 2-0 teams when the U.S. plays impressive Australia in group play on Wednesday.
“It’s impossible to keep the intensity the whole game”, said Venezuela’s coach, Nestor Garcia. “We know that, even with this great team”.
Now, that may seem a little bit of coach speak. In 17 Olympics since the introduction of the sport, the U.S. Men’s Basketball team has amassed 14 gold medals, one silver, and two bronze (let’s just pretend 2004 never happened, and 1988 along with it). “Since 1992 the US teams have stayed in different locations and those are the accommodations here and that was good”. This is a veteran team.
The men’s team will pick up play in the preliminary round again Wednesday against an Australia team that is also 2-0.
The teams were tied at 18 after the first quarter, with the big-bodied Echenique – who played against Cousins in high school and later played at Rutgers and Creighton – presenting a problem the Americans couldn’t quite solve. Along with George, five other players scored in double figures.
For all the deserved raves going around about its defensive prowess, Team USA tends to take at least half a quarter to get untracked offensively, even against what clearly ranks as inferior opposition. The women, led by Katie Ledecky and Missy Franklin, look to continue their dominance of the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.
Speaking of free throws, Jimmy Butler led all U.S. members by shooting 8-for-8 from the line en route to his biggest game with the US team this summer. The Olympics are a single-elimination tournament, and the games are only 40 minutes long, giving an underdog a better chance at pulling off an upset.
Everyone, including the US basketball team, was cheering on Olympic great Michael Phelps as he won an incredibly close 200m butterfly race over South African rival, Chad le Clos.
But as talented as the U.S. teams have been under Krzyzewski, they’ve always been better defensively than offensively.
The match will be played just hours before Mills’ birthday and he declared the resurgent Boomers hold no fear going into their battle against the richest and most talented players in the world.
“A lot of Olympic teams that I’ve been on have had offensive power, but now we go all the way down the line to the 12th player”, said Bird, who had nine points and five assists in the win.
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Klay Thompson has struggled offensively, but is a tenacious defender all over the court. And if Jimmy (Butler) could answer too. While Boeheim has made a living off teaching zone defense at Syracuse, this team is based on Thibodeau’s aggressive man to man style.
