US routs Angola and now aims for Spain
ATHENS -- Well, they're entitled to least one blowout, aren't they?
The US men's basketball team, which had played four tough games entering yesterday's preliminary round closer, got a much-needed lift with the arrival of Angola on the schedule. The result was a predictable thumping, 89-53, even if we've seen that nothing is predictable with this team or in this tournament.
Now the US awaits the next round, with a quarterfinal date Thursday against undefeated Spain, the champion of the A Group. The final pairings became more bizarre by the hour yesterday, starting with the shocking elimination of world champion Serbia & Montenegro by -- of all teams -- China, and continuing with Italy edging Argentina and Greece pummeling Puerto Rico.
When the dust finally settled around midnight, following Greece's 78-58 victory over Puerto Rico in the preliminaries finale, the US emerged as the No. 4 seed in Group B. The US was in a three-way tie with Greece and Puerto Rico with 3-2 records, but finished third in the tiebreaker, which was point differential in the games among the three teams. If the Yanks survive Thursday's game, they will face the winner of the Argentina-Greece game Friday.
"It doesn't matter who we face or when we face them," Allen Iverson said. "We just want to beat everybody we do face. We just want to beat everybody and get the gold medal. We just have to play basketball and that's it. We should have all the losing out of our system. We already lost two games. Hopefully we won't lose any more."
As for yesterday's games, US coach Larry Brown can be glad he's not his Serbian counterpart right about now. They were dancing in the streets of Belgrade two years ago when the Serbs won the world championships in Indianapolis. This time around, they'll likely be unhappy with coach Zelimir Obradovic for his mind-boggling substitution patterns down the stretch in a 1-point loss to China. Even without six NBA players, Serbia & Montenegro seemed a sure bet to beat China. "It was a big shock for us," Obradovic said.
No kidding, coach. With the win, the Chinese advanced, despite having been outscored by 79 points in five games. "It's a great day of joy," Chinese center Yao Ming said.
The US, meanwhile, was coming off its tough loss to Lithuania and needed a game like this. For starters, the US had seen nothing but zone defenses in this tournament, but the compliant Angolans opened with a man-to-man. Brown said he wasn't all that surprised because Angola had not played much zone in the previous four games. But, he added, "I don't anticipate us seeing much man-to-man for the rest of the tournament."
The US also had a 2-0 Olympic record against Angola, which was winless in five games here and has distinguished itself as the elite of Africa, but not a whole lot more. But, ever concerned that his lads might think this one was a walkover, Brown showed them some tape of the Angola-Lithuania game, which Lithuania won, 78-73.
"There's always that worry for any coach when you see a team that's 0-4 and they're out of the pool and you wonder if we have any respect, and especially with a young team," Brown said. "But we handled that pretty well."
Uncle Sam's lads never trailed, as Tim Duncan (15 points in 13 minutes) converted a 3-point play on the first possession. The US led, 23-14, after one, 46-26 at the half, and then turned it into overdrive in the third quarter with a punishing 23-4 run that ended any semblance of competition for the day. The US shot 55 percent, had an astounding 36-12 advantage on the boards, and might have won by more had it not turned over the ball 18 times.
Everyone got plenty of time, with LeBron James, mystifyingly held to five minutes against Lithuania, going for a team-high 27 this time around. Emeka Okafor even got in for 12 minutes -- or 10 more than he had played up to yesterday. Duncan, James (11), Carlos Boozer (11), and Iverson (10) all hit double figures and the US made three of its six 3-pointers, always a cause for jubilation.
"We got out on the break, we used our quickness, reversing the ball, we did a great job on the boards," said US forward Richard Jefferson, who hurried from the game to catch the US women's softball team win the gold against Australia. "The best part is that we just competed. We played with the intensity that we know we're capable of."
