1 post tagged “defense”
Team USA; Game 1 analysis
There was no suspense last night, as expected. But, you can not deny the fact that watching Kevin Durant, the young player who wowed us all year, get on the court and play next to Lebron, Kobe, Kidd, and Billups would have been like Beckham coming out of the entrance at the Home Depot. Not in a "Rudy" type of situation and definitely much different than JJ Redick coming off the bench to shoot threes and stepbacks late in the game. There would have been a genuine interest in the shy, skinny, future star of the NBA from basketball fans worldwide.
Other thoughts on the game:
The rumors are true Kobe, has taken his focus to a new level. The whispers of his renewed focus leadership through relentless expectation of himself was evident both in the intersquad scrimmage and his last minute duel with Lebron, but even more evident last evening. Guarding point guard for court, 5 early assists, and the jordanesque fist pumps and celebratory motions both early and late in the game solidify the potential gossip. Nine games to go?
Dwight Howard does not fully extend on his free throws and actually looks like he is holding his breathe on each shot.
The US wore down their guards but bit early on a lot of pass fakes and struggled with some quick ball rotations, especially when Kidd, Anthony and Howard were in the game together. We will need to be more disciplined in upcoming matchups to keep our bigs out of foul trouble and prevent any Greece like sniper shooting. Better guards will be coming soon.
We got open three and easy pitches to open laned situations. Need to watched rotations back when Kidd, Billups and Williams get deep into the lane take lower percentage contested shots. As playing nine more games in 11 days, our aging guards and fatigue could lead to teams going small ball and collapsing harder on drives.
Quick mid post players are going to give us problems. Numerous possesions with early right side post touches lead to good offensive possesions for Venezula. Look for teams to isolate Howard, Chandler, Bosh and Stoudemire and become passers or floppers.
Watch for teams to post up USA's guards to create cutting opportunities and misdirections on our weak perimeter guarding bigs. With Melo, Lebron, Kobe and Michael Redd freezing them out on the offensive end their desire to guard will be aligned with the law of diminishing returns.
