Luka’s Corner

The US team finished their exhibition schedule against Australia on Tuesday, beating the Bogut-less Aussies 87-76 in Shanghai. While the US finished their exhibition schedule with a perfect 5-0 record, there were several troubling aspects in the Australia game (and the Russia game before that) that need to be fixed before playing a top-tier opponent like Spain or Argentina. Here are the two things that truly surprised me while watching the game:

Selfishness by the US

Throughout the game, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, and even LeBron James at times were trying to take on the whole Australian team by themselves. They reverted back to what had plagued the team in recent international competition: selfishness. Watching the highlights of these warm-up games is much different than actually watching the whole game and I was shocked to see Kobe trying to beat one Australian after another to get to the rim, instead of moving the ball (like the Australians did to the US) and finding the open man.

For the past eight years now, it seems like if a team is "surprisingly" not backing down from the US and its famed superstars, then the United States reverts to just putting the ball into the hands of their best player and getting out of the way. This may work in the NBA, where isolations and simple pick-and-rolls are key, but international basketball (which the US has to respect and adjust to) is based around perimeter and inside passing. Although many are blaming the game on poor shooting, it is not a wonder that a team shoots poorly if they fall back on contested jumpers. In the first three minutes or so, Jason Kidd tried one or two backdoor passes to the wing players and they did not work. Australia packed in their five defenders to prevent any chance of penetration and that was where the game plan fell apart for America. No more back-door passes were attempted and the team reverted to Kobe’s or Anthony’s quickness. That will not bring home a gold medal.

Poor Defensive Execution

In past games, the US team remained strong on the defensive end. They allowed little penetration against Russia, Lithuania, Turkey, and Canada and even kept other teams’ three-point shooting at a very low percentage. However, against the Aussies, that defense did not look as confident. Australia guard Patrick Mills drove to the basket at will against the "quick" point guards on the United States, finishing with 13 points (Chris Anstey also finished with 13). Mills looked like he could do anything to the US guards, whether it was driving to the rim or posting them up for a turnaround jumper. This is not a comforting sign for US fans, who expected a team with Kobe, LeBron, Chris Paul, and Deron Williams (Kobe and Paul are All-Defensive Teamers) to be able to stop the opposing team’s guards, especially when these guards are not even Manu Ginobili and Jose Calderon.

The big men for Australia were also successful in stretching out the US defense by stepping out and hitting outside jumpers. When the Aussie guards successfully drove against the US guards, they kicked it out their forwards and, because Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh were unable to get out to them quickly enough, they burned the US team for more than 25 points. This is troubling because Howard and Bosh are considered to be two of the most mobile big men in the entire NBA. They are well-known throughout the league for their surprising quickness at the power forward and center positions. This was not the case in the final exhibition before the Olympics, giving US fans and US basketball plenty to worry about during the games.

Looking at the problems this past game, I do not believe that this is a "just one game" problem. Selfishness cannot be fixed quickly and it is also difficult to fix poor defensive rotations against a team without its best player (Milwaukee Bucks’ center Andrew Bogut). To add to the troubling signs, results have become closer and closer during the exhibition schedule. Following a 55-point destruction of Canada, the United States has beaten Turkey and Lithuania by 32 and 36, Russia by 21, and Australia by 11. The US desperately needs to reverse this trend during the games, especially when it actually plays against the world’s best teams (Spain, Argentina, and Greece) and not against a Turkoglu-less/Okur-less Turkey and a Bogut-less Australia.