Team USA defeated the fiesty Austrailians 87-76. This was the closest game of the past 4 exhibition matches. Australia certainly put up a strong fight, causing a little unease to Americans. This was the last game of the five exhibition matches before the Olympics.
LeBron James drives the ball against Australia
The first quarter started off somewhat messy. Kobe made the first shot after making a fade-away drawing the foul. He made it into a three-point play and nearly did the same again but missed the basket along with both free throws. LeBron James lost the ball during a play and Australia was 3-on-1 against Kidd who beautifully defended the Aussies from scoring. Mills from Australia used his blazing speed to make easy lay-ups. One of the things that the commentators noticed was that Mills usually drove on the left side. During one replay, you could see him speeding right past Deron Williams. They should have work on forcing him right instead of left. But Mills’ effort was not enough to push his team to win.
There were lots of turnovers committed by Team USA. There was a deflection by Bosh but then he lost it back. Australia had great ball movement which threw off a little bit of the U.S.’s defense. Along with great ball movement, Australia plays an extremely aggressive game. It even resulted in a controntation that almost erupted into a fight but was quickly halted by teammates of both sides.
The second quarter had a beautiful deflection with D-Will passing to D-Wade for a highlight dunk. One of the problems the U.S. had was taking fast shots. Kobe was missing many of his jumpers that he usually makes. And on a side note of Kobe, I was disappointed watching lots of selfish plays by him. There were many times when he could’ve passed or move the ball around, but instead wanted to take the ball in his own hands and score by himself. However, LeBron took over the second quarter. He and Kobe double-teammed against the player coming down the court, getting a pass from Kobe for a dunk. He scored a three, and then made a three-point play right after missing his second three-point shot. He led with 12 points with nearly 3:30 left in the second quarter.
During the early stages of the second half, Australia dominated with a 11-2. Australia’s aggression was starting to pay off as they began to collect more offensive rebounds and scoring. Melo came with a huge block but then a three was made right after. Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh received a few inside passes giving them some strong dunks. I think they should work on getting the ball in the post more to get easy baskets from their centers. They have strong outside shooters with good shooting percentages. The U.S. should take advantage of Dwight’s beastly size, especially against smaller “big men” of other teams.
Despite Australia’s impressive run, Team USA caught back up. Throughout most of the remaining second half, the U.S. held a lead of 10+ points. Whenever Australia slammed dunk, the U.S. would quickly respond with an even louder slam dunk. They ball kept going back and forth, but mostly in the favor of Team USA. Chris Paul made his first few field goals in the quarter, and LeBron had a noisy jam from the assistance of Howard.
Each exhibition match after another seemed to produce less and less highlight reels for Team USA. The first game against Canada was a huge blow-out. The second game against Lithuania proved to be nearly the same. Turkey didn’t do much against the U.S. But I believe Russia was the first team to send USA a message that the world will not sit back and let them take over.
Overall, I think the Aussies put up a very good fight. They challenged many faults in the U.S.’s gameplay. One of them was working the outside when the paint was heavily covered. As you saw, when Australia locked up the paint to prevent players from driving, Melo and other U.S. players shot way too fast and didn’t take their time. King James and D-Wade were usually successful in penetrating the defense to drive the lane, but mostly relied on pure shooting. Our three-point percentage was horrible, shooting only 3-for-18. Along with that, free throw percentages were terrible as well. Team USA missed 13 of 33 shots from the line, including Howard’s 0-for-6 attempt. The U.S. and Australia could meet again in the finals so if they do meet, the U.S. will know what gaps to fill.
