Team USA beat the world champions

In the last Olympic game, team USA has able to prove their qualities by beat the FIBA world champions, Spain. The dream team beat Spanish national team 119-82. This high scoring game caused by superb 12 3 points shoot. Everybody scores for team USA, including 8 players that able to get a double digit score. LeBron James becomes the dream team’s top scorer by 18 points. Dwyane Wade continues his superb play in the Olympic with scoring 16 points, same with Denver Nuggets superstar, Carmelo Anthony.

Both of the backup point guard, Chris Paul and Deron Williams play superb with 14 and 11 points. The NBA MVP, Kobe Bryant also added 11 points. With Dwight Howard and Tayshaun Prince scored 10 points, team USA has able to crush Spain defense and scored superb 119 points. The defense from Gasol’s brother both Pau Gasol and Marc Gasol is not able to handle superior dream team side. All of the Spain members have been frustrated with the superb team USA. Gasol brother, Jose Garbajossa, Calderon, until the wonder kid, Ricky Rubio, cannot believe they have beaten by this huge margin.

With winning all previous game in the preliminary round, team USA will secure the first seed in pool A, no matter what result from the last preliminary game against Dirk Nowitzky. Team USA in the high level of confident. With winning from the host nation, China, then they won from the African side, Angola, after that, doing the sweet revenge against Greece then with a perfect game against Spain, team USA believe they will secure the gold from Beijing.

Sweet revenge by team USA

In the past FIBA world championship, team USA that predicted to be the easy winner had surprisingly defeated by superb three points shoot and defensive team by Greece. However, in the Olympic basketball game in Beijing, China, team USA pay their game. They keep their chances by beat Greece in the sweet revenge by 92-69.

Since tip-off, the Team USA members do not want to reduce their pressure into Greece. They do not want to lose against the Hyena army again. Team USA has able to play with full concentration until the end of game. If in the FIBA world championship Greece can bombard Team USA behind the arc, it is not happen again in the last Beijing Olympic game. Greece only scores a poor 22% of three points shoot.

In the other side, Team USA has able to break Greece’s defense. With a superb 18 points from the NBA MVP, Kobe Bryant and also the Toronto Raptors power forward, Chris Bosh, Team USA easily scored 92 points. The star from previous 2 games, Dwyane Wade also scored 17 points while LeBron James scores 13 points.

The win against Greece was make Team USA qualified to the quarter final. They also get a good confident before face the world champions, Spain. But, the main benefit from this win is that Team USA has success to the sweet revenge.

Team USA crushes the African side

In the latest match of the Olympic basketball preliminary game, Team USA easily beat the African side, Angola with a 97-76 on score line. Like the first match again chine, the dream team once more lead by Miami Heat’s guard, Dwyane Wade. With only 16 minutes in the court, Wade has able to produce superb 19 points and lead the team to crush Angola. Dwight Howard also plays well with 14 points when LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony produce 12 points in addition to the easy win for team USA.

The dream team itself does not play too hard to gain the big win. They give their starter a lot of rest. No one from the team USA starter (Jason Kidd, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard) who plays more than 20 minutes. LeBron James is the starter who plays longer with 19 minutes. In this game, coach K gives the team USA’s bench much more minutes play. Jason Kidd, like usual, does not need to make any shoot to help the team to win. Both of the Jason Kidd back up players, Deron Williams and Chris Paul has shown superb play to change the dream team general.

The match again Angola has shown the perfect rotation and the deep bench order in the team USA. Coach K has shown that the dream team can win big without its starter. With previous 101-70 wins again China, Team USA leads the groups with Spain just behind them. It is interesting to see who’s the stronger between the world champions, Spain against team USA, the dream team that has the deep bench order. I can’t wait for that!

Team USA beat China in fashion

The first basketball Olympic game between the dream team, team USA against the host nation, China. There are more than billions people watch the game since it can be said as the main show of the Olympic basketball. The result itself is just like the prediction from all the basketball fans around the world. Team USA easily beat China with 101-70 score-line.

China national team that leads by Yao Ming and Jianlian Yi still cannot defend well to beat the Americans. Led by hot shooting that up to 100% field goal from Miami guard, Dwyane Wade, team USA crush the Chinese defense in style. China attack USA with the superb percentage from behind the arc. Team USA itself is in awful form in the three points shoot. But, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James crush Chinese just off the rim. Team USA just through and attack the rim. They use their athleticism and over powered Chinese defense.

The rest of the match is just like the slam dunk contest from team USA. There are a lot of dunks that done by American. They are dominating and beat China easily. Team USA produces superb 83% field goals in the paint area. Chinese, with a superb three point accuracy (up to 50%) cannot handle the Americans.

In the end of the game, Dwyane Wade becomes the most productive player with 19 points. LeBron James adds 18 points when Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard add 13 points for the easy wins for Team USA. Dwight Howard says to the media that he and the other member of team USA want to entertain the Chinese crowds with the high level of basketball.

Team USA

Just got back from the official team USA redemption convention -official press conference- a madhouse affair that made an NBA champion’s locker room celebration feel like a stroll in the Bejing royal palace gardens!

American media were shocked to see more autograph-seeking amateur photographers than journalists bumper-carring their way around the beautiful conference room to shoulder up to the stars!

I stayed glued to coach K for the hour but was only able to listen in on other more aggressive journalists’ questions.

The coach said all the right, respectful things about China, his team, the opponents and the international officiating, just the complete opposite of Larry Brown four years ago!

His motto is the word respect which he says is as important as a gold medal here.

I am more interested in the tactical and technical aspects and he said the USA still needs work on ball movement, help-side defence, spot shooting and attacking the zone, amen!

He’ll have as many family members as players here(12) for what he calls a once in a lifetime experience in a basketball loving country.

His team is built on speed, talent and defence but I fear that the lack of a fourth true big man might push him to overuse the small-ball lineup(due to D’Antoni’s influence and his roster) which has Lebron and Melo often playing out of position and causes matchup problems on defence and with rebounding when opponents play tall.

This hurt them against Greece in Japan two years ago and the small lineup against Australia produced alot of dribbling and forced one on one type shots which could be costly vs Spain, Argentina, Russia, Lithuania or Greece(again).

I liked his comments on the learning curve for the whole team concerning international ball while still sticking to what he calls universal core values like respect(again), trust, teamwork, sharing and camraderie.

He scares me, however, when he’s says he hasn’t seen Germany or Spain play yet(satellite?youtube?) and that USA basketball chose not to play any first round opponents in warmup games preferring to meet eventual medal round adversaries.

He’s right that the first round prepares his team for the cuthroat, all or nothing medal round games which must remind him of single elimination march madness encounters.

Coach K promised to know the greek players faces, numbers and tendancies but he is still not too sure about their names!

As I watched the players ham it up on stage before the press conference, I couldn’t help but think of the forlorn faces of the players receiving their bronze medals on the podium in Athens in 2004.

Coach K might want to re-evaluate his use of a five containing two natural big men to assure shot blocking and especially offensive rebounding when the shooters go cold.

USA squeaked out the gold in Sydney thanks to offensive rebounding by Garnett and McDyess.

I agree that Yao and Dirk are dignified and faithful faces to represent their countries and these olympic games and I also go along with his hommage to the chinese hosts who are eagerly helpful when we get freaked out by the colossalness of this heavily-populated, spread out, high-rise megalopolis called Bejing!

In fact, if you have a problem not one but TEN chinese people will chime in to help!

I guess they found a way to reduce unemployment!

I can’t wait for the competition to start and I highly recommend your watching the openning ceremony this evening because after all, the chinese invented fireworks!

Woman Olympic Team (Team USA)

It took a while for the United States to get going but once Diana Taurasi and Tina Thompson sparked the team into life, there was no stopping the Americans.

Taurasi finished with 17 points and Thompson seven as the USA rolled to a 97-57 victory in Group B in front of United States President George W Bush who watched from the stands.

Trailing 13-2 nearly five minutes into the game, Thompson and Taurasi combined to score all the points in an 8-0 run.

The Czechs were still on top at 17-12 following a Michala Hartigova basket when the US hit the Europeans with another surge that put them in command.

Lisa Leslie scored, followed by a Kara Lawson three-pointer and a jumper from Candace Parker to tie the contest.

Tamika Catchings continued the surge with a jumper to make it 19-17.

The three-time defending Olympic champions stayed in front the rest of the way.

By half-time, the US had a 49-31 stranglehold on proceedings and they pulled away in the second half.

“Defense was the key to our win tonight,” Parker said to FIBA.com.

“We forced the Czech Republic into 27 turnovers and we took full advantage.”

The US scored 12 points off those turnovers.

“We were cautious at the start because this was our opening game of the Olympics but then we picked up our game and now we look forward to taking on hosts China,” Parker said.

The USA finished 32 of 54 (59%) inside the arc compared to 14 of 40 (35%) for the Czechs.

Anne Donovan’s team also out-rebounded the Czechs 41-31.

Sylvia Fowles finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds while Leslie had 10 boards to go with her four points.

Type of Offense

There are only two types of offense: free-lance and controlled. In a free-lance offense, players make their own patterns, depending upon the defensive deployment and the ability of the opponents.

Free-lance is not as free, or uncontrolled, as the name implies. All two-on-two and three-on-three plays should always be part of your drills. Controlled offense is a set patterned offense. Both types must fall into one of the following classification, based on the position of the offensive players in relation to the basket and the defensive players guarding them:

1. Five Offensive Players Outside –
2. Four Offensive Players Outside and One Inside –
3. Three Offensive Players Outside and Two Inside –
4. Two Offensive Players Outside and Three Inside –
5. One Offensive Player Outside and Four Inside –

Offenses that begin from this structure are a 3-2 (wide) and a five-man weave. Normally this is a four-man weave system or a single type of offense in which the corner men are approximately 18 or 19 feet from the basket. Three offenses start from this structure:

1. A double-post places the two larger men in closer to the basket than the other three. The 3-2 offense may have three front men moving while the two inside men are stationary in close to the basket.
2. A 1-3-1 offense uses a tandem pivot, one high and one low.
3. An overload offense overloads one side of the court, passing the ball to the side that has only one player and having a teammate who was away from the ball cut off a post man toward the ball.

This is a standard 2-3 offense in which the forwards are within eighteen feet of the basket. This offense has four players close to the basket such as a stack offense which usually forces a zone to play you man-to-man.

Jason Kidd the Leader

In Beijing, Team USA faces a very competitive field including Spain, Argentina and Lithuania. With the announcement of the American squad, there were a few changes to the line-up from last year.

Jerry Colangelo and the coaching staff added past Olympians Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer to last year’s team. But there are a few questions which remain.

Is D-Wade healthy enough again? Is Chris Paul big enough to play against the much bigger European guards? All of that is secondary because Team USA has the ultimate weapon. Jason Kidd. J-Kidd. Mr. Kidd, the twice named Dallas Maverick who, although he did not bring a ring for Cuba this year, will bring a gold medal back to Dallas despite Mark Cuban’s protestations about NBA players and the Olympics.

Kidd is the ultimate Olympic basketball player. A truly gifted passer who makes everyone on the team, and I do make an emphasis on TEAM,  better.  Although he does not have any NBA rings, Kidd is a perfect 44-0 in international games and was a gold medalist in 2000 at Sydney.

The triple-double machine plain and simply makes Kobe better (the best player in the world better?) and watch out for the montrous dunks Lebron will lay upon the opponents.

With that said, Boozer and Bosh will bring the toughness and size needed to handle the boards along with Superman’s cape, Dwight Howard.

My main reservation is the number of point guards Team USA have. Do they need three PG’s? Granted, Chris Paul showed everyone how good a playmaker he was this year but at the Worlds he was, well, quite ordinary.

In any event, pencil in Team USA for at least a medal, and most lilkely gold. But just like last year, I am holding the eraser ready if the Greeks make it out of the qualifying round and meet up with Team USA. Watch out for the Pick and Roll.

The advantages of using press defense in basketball

The press defense system is commonly used in the high school varsity level. It can be defined as defense that extends the defense into the opponent’s back court. Before decide to use press defense, the coach need to think about team quickness, the stamina from the players, and the bench order. There are a lot of press defense systems in basketball. From man to man to zone press defense has their own advantage. It is depending on the player’s defense level and the tempo of the game.

Generally, a good press defense can produce back court turnovers, steals, and lead some easy baskets for the team. The fast break offense after a good press defense can be a superb offensive weapon. The press defense system can increase the tempo of the game. It will give some extra troubles for the opponent big man. The opponent will lose their tempo and they may do some silly and simple mistakes. The track racing basketball game will make the opponent with a good big man become confuse since they cannot maximize their big man. Implementing a good press defense will frustrate the opponent offense so that the team can get many easy baskets and control the game.

Doing press defense in basketball needs a well conditioned player with a deep bench. When the team has more quality bench player, the press defense system can be used all night long. With the press defense system, the team gets more chance to dictate the tempo, controlling the game, and winning the game easily. Rick Pitino, the legendary coach from Kentucky, has able to prove that using press defense can help to win the game. Rick and his team, Kentucky, won many games and the national title with using superb and well organized full court match up press system, one of the most famous press defense systems.

Three points shoot in the basketball

In the modern basketball game, three points shoot is vital and one of the most important thing in the offense. When the pain area has surrounded by the enemy, the perimeter area can be a good alternative. There are a lot of players that become a big star because mastering the three points shoot technique. Let say Larry Bird in the 80’s, Reggie Miller in the 90’s, Peja Stojakovich in early 2000, and Jason Kapono in the 2006 until now. They offer superb three points shoot and clutch shoot in the perimeter area.

Three points shoot can be very efficient since nowadays basketball defense has a tendency of using zone defense. Zone defense will be mark the paint area with so tight. In that moment, the three points shoot can be a good alternative since in the zone defense scenario perimeter area will be free or has a less guard than in the pain area. Usually, the big man in the pain area will draws the defense inside then suddenly, they throw the ball outside for an excellence three points shoot. This simple strategy can give many points for the team.

In the other hands, the percentage of three points shoot is much lower than simple shoot. The NBA teams usually average 40% on their three points shoot. The best three points shooter in the NBA also only average for about 45% – 50%. However, the lower percentage is not reducing the importance of three points shoot on basketball. Every team needs three points shooter. Let look USA national team as a good example. In the dream team, there is a lot of three point shooter that called. The name like a Michael Redd, Tayshaun Prince, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, and other big man that able to do the three points shoot like a Carmelo Anthony.