Ham Express

The Redeem Team finishes with a perfect record in Group B

The road to redemption is intact as they finish their preliminaries with a perfect 5-0 record after stomping Germany 106-57.

Within a few minutes into the first quarter, it was already over. Germany stood no chance from the beginning. With faulty errors and several turnovers, USA ran over the entire team. Dirk couldn’t find his rhythm, while LeBron scored four 3-pointers in the first half. Even Jason Kidd shot his first three-pointer, boosting the U.S. to 5-0 early in the quarter. Germany couldn’t stop Dwight on the inside, who scored 10 in the first half. Kobe created unselfish plays, dishing to several of his teammates for the dunks. The first quarter ended with a 19 point lead held by the U.S. and by halftime it was 53-29.

Kobe found his shot in the third quarter after nailing three consecutive three-pointers which made up for his two missed dunks. LeBron james had a huge signature dunk with about 4 minutes into the quarter as well. And of course, D-Wade did not keep quiet as he took the highlight dunk after a long pass from James for a ride on the hoop.

Team USA coasted through the entire fourth quarter, ending it with a cycle of alley-oops from what seemed like the entire bench. One with Paul, and one with Redd right after.

Dwight dominated with 22 points and 9 rebounds

Dwight had a huge game today with 22 points and 9 rebounds. Germany had a really hard time defending Howard. LeBron James scored 18 points; and Kobe scored 13 points. Every single player on the U.S. roster scored against Germany. Yes, even Jason Kidd did. Surprisingly, D-Wade did not come in as one of the top three scorers.

There’s nothing much to say about the game against Germany today except that the U.S. are looking very good heading into the medal rounds. They completely shut out Germany and played with them. They started to throw some sloppy alley-oops and off-the-glass passes which failed. I think it’s okay for them to try and put on a show for the crowd as long as they have a solid lead (which they did). Dirk was limited to only a14 points. That didn’t affect Nowitzki as he had his dream come true. His country qualified to play in the Olympics, which was already a victory to him.

The medal rounds start on Wednesday. The U.S. plays against Australia. They had already met earlier in the exhibition matches. Throughout the preliminaries, Team USA pretty much coasted through every fourth quarter. No team really stood a chance by the end of the game. So honestly, the U.S. have not been seriously tested yet. They have not experienced pressure late in the games. That’s a good and bad thing. Good that the other team doesn’t get that close, but bad that they may be in trouble when they encounter it. But overall, I’m sure the U.S. will have a very good medal round run. Only a few more games til the gold is within reach.