"Team" USA escapes with a victory.

[Rod1975]

I was thoroughly unimpressed with "team" USA's performance in a game that was entirely too close considering the competition.

Antonis Fotsis looked all-world against the USA defense.

Tim Duncan and the rest of the interior defenders got burned on more than one occasion by an unknown 6'8" center, Papadopolous. Tim Duncan fouled out halfway through the 4th quarter.

The Greek team shot better from the floor, played better as a team, but could'nt take care of the ball and it cost them the game.

"Team" USA got out in transition well and LeBron was a major factor in the second half, helping to get a big lead that they barely held onto.

The man I think was responsible for victory was Lamar Odom. He made some great defensive plays to snuff out what was sure to be a Greek run to take the lead.

Greece was only about 2 turnovers and 2 missed layups away from an upset.

"Team" USA will be in big trouble against Lithuania with slightly better hopes against the Aussies.

You have to consider, the Greeks are only in the Olympics because they are the host country. Nobody thought they would even make the medal round, even with the ridiculous home court advantage. And yet they find a way to force "team" USA to fight until the end.

It was an inspired but unimpressive W. Nothing more.

[Pongo]

true, true...
but the us boys did a lot better compared to their last game.

richardson was horrible again, 0-7 from the field, 'melo wasnt doing well, either

lebron deserves more playing time, at least today

free throw-shooting und perimeter game were bad (expected), defense was impressive
but i thought the chemistry looked good and there was some team spirit

[dirno2000]

Richardson is reminding the Nets why they can't trade Jason Kidd.

[Big Boy Laroux]

god, bench jefferson, or make him pass the ball. he's horrendous right now. he should only be dunking.

[fin4life]

i weep for the net's future.... actually i dont care. They are going to suck for a while.

[NBAGnome]

In Jefferson's defense he usually isn't that bad of a shooter...and i mean who would you rather have taking jumpers...you gotta take some open jumpers. The only guy i'd rather do it is Iverson, but he can't be the only guy taking perimeter shots. They HAVE to make some. They get open looks, its only 20 ft away, you HAVE to extend the D, Duncan can't do it alone with 3 guys surrounding him.

Its amazing they've failed to do it. You'd think Stephon Marbury could make a 3 once in a while, but damn, i've not seen him make 1 three yet. Maybe I missed one, but i don't remember him hitting any yet, and i've watched a good 6 games (including exhibition). Its just downright sad. James should not take any perimeter jumpers, hes just not a good shooter. He needs to distribute and play stellar defense. I have some confidence in Wades mid range jumper, but hes not really taking this shot as hes devoted himself to distributing...Anthony has been shooting a horrible %, he should stay on the bench...whos left? Marion? Another bad shooter...who takes the shot?! Theres nobody! I don't know what this team is going to do...they have to play better D, its not an option.

I think one thing they should try is Stoudemire on the inside. I don't know if it'd work. It seems hes just not an option on offense when they play. He doesn't get enough time in the first place, but hes the second best inside scorer on that team, next to Tim Duncan. Why isn't he included in the offense? I'd rather have him try to get a good inside shot than a James-Marion-Anthony-Wade-Marbury-Odom jump shot. But the only time he takes a shot is when he gets a offensive rebound, did you see that one play where he got a O rebound about 10 feet from the hoop, and just exploded to the basket through like 3 guys, sure he missed, but it was a lot higher percentage shot than one of the USA teams jump shots.

Anyways...i dunno...they better play D man.

[DubOverdose]

James really should be given all of Marbury's minutes

[mary]

Larry Brown should be thanking his lucky stars right now that the U.S. got a relatively easy draw for the preliminaries...no Serbia..no Argentina...no Spain. How embarrasing would it be to not even make it past the preliminaries??

[TripleDipping]

Originally posted by: mary
Larry Brown should be thanking his lucky stars right now that the U.S. got a relatively easy draw for the preliminaries...no Serbia..no Argentina...no Spain. How embarrasing would it be to not even make it past the preliminaries??

Might not such a bad thing to happen. It will definitely spark outrage in this country and serve as a wake-up call to the national team.