Oh, for a three

[Berry, Mark S]

Once again, bad roster construction. But what about Coach K? You sit
there and watch your team get beaten on the pick and roll over and over
and over and never consider switching to a zone?

Everyone involved with USA basketball assumes these other teams are
going to faint in the face of pressure defense applied by our superior
athletes. It doesn't work that way against the good teams.

I wonder if they're ever going to learn.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: celtics-bounces at igtc.com [mailto:celtics-bounces at igtc.com] On
Behalf Of Kestas
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 11:15 AM
To: The Boston Celtics Mailing List
Subject: Re: Oh, for a three

gene kirkpatrick wrote:

>Looks like coach K needed his boy, J. J.  Or even our boy, G Money.  No
one could get hot and hit shots for the super athletic U. S. of A.  It's
tough when it's a one game and gone system, but I thought we had it
figured out this year.  Still, it sounds as if defense was the bigger
concern for our guys than 25% and 33% on threes in successive games.
Cheers, Gene
>  
>
Greece played a near-perfect game from about the middle of the 2nd 
quarter, and basically dominated Team USA from that point on. The Greek 
guards and swingmen just killed our guys on the pick-and-roll, and the 
much-discussed (before several recent NBA drafts) and little-used (by 
Greece) "Baby Shaq" played a key supporting role, scoring 14 in 17 
minutes (he totally looks and moves like Shaq). Another little-used 
reserve,  the  near-Celtic Dimos Dikuodis got some run towards the end 
and also chipped in with some hustle plays. Team USA unleashed a fury of

three-point attempts to dig themselves out of a 15-point hole in the 
fourth, but in vain (9 for 28 total). I thought Brad Miller and Jamison 
would've helped in this game, but they stayed glued to the bench.

Bob Ryan has a good column about this in today's Globe:
http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2006/09/02/us_team_not_as_good_as_
gold/?page=full

On a positive note, Argentina didn't show up in the second half today, 
Ginobili sat the entire 3rd quarter, and Team USA got the bronze.

Kestas

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