Team USA - The Weekend

Team USA had a nice weekend, relatively easy victories over Serbia + Montenegro, and Turkey. On Friday, I gave some things to look for in these games. Let's see how they did.

Shooting - I gave them a B after 3 games, because they were shooting over 50% from the field. This weekend they shot 50% vs. S+M (stop giggling), and .596 vs. Turkey. They also shot .833 from the line for the two games combined. Finally, they missed all six three-pointers today, but hit 4 of 9 vs. S+M. We'll keep the grade at a B. The threes won't matter if they take care of everything else.

Passing - Today was Team USA's best day, 23 assists vs. 14 turnovers. Against S&M they had 19 and 19. We'll choose to be optimistic, and with the last game always being the most important, upgrade Team USA from an F to a C.

Defense - Turkey shot only .315 from the floor and .306 from the arc. Also, they had only 10 assists to go with 14 turnovers. S+M had a .350 fg%, hit only 1 of 14 three-pointers, and had only 10 assists with 17 turnovers. Opponents for the full five exhibition games are now shooting only .391 from the field and .314 from the arc. If those numbers continue through the Olympics, Tim Duncan will be standing at that podium with a gold medal around his neck. We'll give them a B+, thinking there's still room for improvement.

One more point of interest - Allen Iverson is starting to take over. Against S+M he shot 50 % with 6 assists and only two turnovers. Today he shot 6 for 7 with 8 rebounds. If A.I.'s feeling it, then life is good.