USA vs. China Thoughts

The best part of the game was the classic NBA on NBC music; it gave me chills.

The energy in that building was truly amazing. None of this year’s NBA Finals games contained that much excitement and anticipation. The energy did lessen as the lead grew but it was incredible to listen to and watch.

I was not as excited as the national media was about Team USA’s performance. There are several areas in which the team needs to improve.

With the speed and athleticism of the team, Coach K has emphasized pressure defense. Pressure defense does not mean gambling for deflections and steals on every possession. The pressure is intended to force the other team to cough up the ball. USA needs to apply pressure while staying in front of perimeter players and forcing them to make difficult shots.

Against China and in several of the exhibitions, USA gambled far too much, forcing other defenders to help out, resulting in wide open 3-pointers. Wade and Kobe have been the biggest culprits.

When USA is able to force turnovers and score in transition, they are unstoppable. But, if they run into a team that takes care of the ball and therefore slows the transition game, Team USA will have trouble. Their half court offense is inferior compared to many of these teams who have been playing together for several years.

The sustained effort level of the team was impressive, especially late in the game when the second unit played extended minutes.

Dwight Howard’s back-to-the-basket game is atrocious. He is very ineffective on offense when he is not dunking the ball. Andrew Bynum could be the starting center on this team in 2012.

The picture above depicts future Laker, Sun Yue, guarding his future teammate, Kobe Bryant. Yue was impressive versus the USA hitting some nice shots and showing no fear while challenging Kobe on a first half dunk.

My late response to this game was the result of a busy weekend, but thoughts on the Angola game should also be up shortly.