FanHouse Teamusa

Team USA is making a habit out of blowing out teams that are supposed to challenge them. This time it was Spain, who many considered the second best team in the Basketball Olympiad, featuring Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, and Jose Calderon, along with 17 year old sensation Ricky Rubio. With speed, athleticism, and that vaunted European style of play, surely this would be the team that would challenge USA and expose their weaknesses.

And then they stepped on the floor. 119-82, USA.

Where do you want to start? How about three point shooting? That's been a weakness for Team USA. They shot 48% from the arc, with Carmelo Anthony as the spark plug with 16 points. Or defense? They held Spain to 39% shooting, creating 28 turnovers.

LeBron James was out of his mind today, obviously amped up and mouthing off. He finished with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists, and 4 steals. Yikes. Dwyane Wade 2.0 was again spectacular, with 16 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals (and a few more that weren't attributed because they ended up in someone else's hands). USA had 8 players in double figures.

Felipe Reyes had 19 points and 8 rebounds for Spain, and Pau Gasol chipped in 13 points, but also had 5 turnovers, as Team USA swarmed him the block. Spain's NBA-experienced guards, Juan Carlos Navarro and Jose Calderon, along with future first round pick Ricky Rubio combined to shoot 4 of 23 from the field, with 7 turnovers and 4 assists.

Well, by the grace of God, Team USA somehow survived against beat down Greece. We'll be around to talk about Team USA's chances going forward, including the huge game with Spain on Saturday, and what this team's doing right, and how it needs to improve. Join us, won't you? LiveChat is redeeming after the jump.

As we continue to find new and exciting ways to make Team USA sound inferior after twenty point wins that look like less work that mowing the lawn, the question has to be asked.

What do we expect out of Team USA?

On the one hand, everyone's quick to acknowledge that the rest of the world has made huge strides, if not caught up with, the United States in basketball talent and development. On the other, we seem to expect Team USA to blow out teams so bad that the other team's members are left unable to ever pick up a basketball again out of shame. Double digit wins aren't enough, that much is clear.

TrueHoop makes the case that making the goal equal to the Dream Team is both irrelevant and unproductive. It seems the more common sentiment, though, is that Team USA hasn't put together a complete game yet. Sure, they're rebounding and scoring and causing turnovers, but they're not playing perimeter defense well enough, and they're not knocking down their threes. There is discussion of whether teamwork is the issue, but then, there's also been criticism that the players are deferring too much and its costing them.

So what do we expect out of this squad?

The Olympics are here! The Olympics are here!

Well, kind of.

Tonight Team USA, after a hard week of practice against Team USA Select (not to be confused with Team USA Extra Crispy) takes on Team Canada in what is being billed as the 2008 State Farm USA Basketball Challenge. We thought we'd give you a little preview of what to keep an eye on tonight at 8PM EST on ESPN.

1. Redeem Team/Team Redemption/No, Seriously, We Should Be Better Than Everyone This Time: Look, I'm a big fan of globalization. I think we should embrace our brothers in the human race. And I totally agree that many of the other teams have gotten their teams to the point of being legitimate contenders.

Come. On.

Tonight is all about setting a tone and sending a message, that this USA squad has the focus, determination, talent, and devotion that the recent Team USA's have lacked. This team needs to go out and obliterate Canada. With the talent, coaching, investment, and motivation this team has, it should be able to send a clear message to the rest of the world that basketball is our game, and we're back to take it home. That's not disrespecting Canada ....

I started this post with the intent to congratulate Andrei Kirilenko and his wife Masha on the birth of their second child -- and well, I still do, congrats, Russians -- but something else also caught my little brown-eyed retinas a bit further down the page. From Phil Miller at the Salt Lake Tribune:

Carlos Boozer's summer is now officially spoken for. Boozer has been contacted by Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball's managing director, and has committed to play for the national team in its Olympic qualifying tournament this August in Las Vegas.

"He said, 'We want you there,' and I told him I'd be thrilled to play," said Boozer, who won a bronze medal with the Americans at the Athens Olympics in 2004. USA Basketball has not announced his addition to the team yet, but Boozer said that should come shortly.

To automatically qualify for the Beijing Games, the U.S. must finish first or second in a 10-team tournament made up of Western Hemisphere teams, with the gold-medal game in the Thomas & Mack Center on Sept. 2.

Ah, see, now we're talking, Papa Colangelo.

One of the major problems with last year's bronze-winning squad, besides not having an available Kobe and Billups backcourt, was the inconsistent play Team USA got from their big men. I mean, sure, Bosh had a few solid games, but other than that, Brand, Dwight and Brad Miller all struggled to hit the glass and find any sort of touch around the net. Boozer, a bronze medal winner at the '04 Olympics, should be able to help step in and solidify the team's inside presence immediately.

So, to quickly recap what we know about Team USA's summer roster: Boozer in; Wade probably out, LeBron maybe; and Ron Artest . . . well, no comment.

With Gilbert Arenas' promise to score 50 against the Trailblazers and head coach Nate McMillan, it's been asked a couple of times what Arenas would do if he played Duke. Duke, of course, employs Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of the Olympic team, from which Gilbert Arenas was cut. Well, Gilbert answered on his blog:

D'Antoni said that after I scored 54 on them and made my prediction to score 50 on the Blazers that he'd like to see what I'm going to do against Duke.

I thought it was funny because if I have the chance to go back to college, I'll give up one NBA season to play against Duke.

One college game...that's five fouls, right?...40-minute game...at Duke, they got soft rims...I'd probably score 84 or 85.

I wouldn't pass the ball.

I wouldn't even think about passing it. It would be like a NBA Live or an NBA 2K7 game, you just shoot with one person.

If Paulus was guarding him, 85 is probably a conservative estimate.

Still, and I hate to speak negatively about the blogosphere's favorite son, but I find all of this just a little bit annoying. And I don't know how serious he is about it, if he really hates Coach K, D'Antoni and McMillan, or if he's just sort of playing around, but ... I wish he'd let this one go.

It's not like being cut from that Olympic team is some kind of terrible slight. It was 16 of the best basketball players in the world, and a few of them had to be cut ... and I'm sorry you were one of them, Gil, I really am, but ... the team needed an extra forward and some guys who don't need to take a ton of shots. The numbers didn't work out for you. It's not like Krzyzewski, D'Antoni, or McMillan punched you in the face and told you that you sucked. The numbers just didn't work for you. Sorry.

Granted, at the same time, I understand that Gilbert's career -- hell, probably his entire life -- is built on turning perceived slights into motivation, and I don't begrudge him that. It works for him. But that doesn't mean it isn't just a little bit petty.