Olympics Day 4: Americans Destroy Spain

I’m going to be totally honest: I didn’t catch the first half of the Team USA game and wasn’t able to see any others this morning so this entry will be geared much more toward the future of this basketball tournament at the 2008 Beijing Olympics than it is about reviewing today’s action. There is obviously some fallout from the games today, which I’ll get to in a bit. First, here are my thoughts on the Americans’ 119-82 dismantling of the Spanish national team.

Recap: Spain Gets Blasted

From what I’ve seen and heard of the first half, it was only close for the first quarter before Team USA blew things open in the second. Is this any surprise? The Americans have been doing it all summer. I think it has something to do with a few starters not exactly being ‘productive’ in every game but regardless of what the reason is, the fact remains that it’s the States’ M.O. I really didn’t expect a 37-point loss for Spain, even if they didn’t find importance in the game. I know they didn’t come in trying to lose, but the mentality was a little different knowing that there was just a one point difference in the group standings. When it comes down to it, neither team had much to gain from winning but I think Team USA had more on the line to lose. If they had lost this game, the media would be in a frenzy right now talking about how “Spain was able to defeat the Americans in group play so what could possibly happen in the medal round?”, etc. They had to win this game and they did it convincingly and from my understanding, locked Jose down in the first quarter and that was all she wrote. I saw the second half and he didn’t do anything noteworthy.

I’m going to deviate from the system I’ve set up with analyzing storylines and looking at the CB4 radar. This game actually seemed like it was on par with the Angola game from Tuesday morning when it comes to entertainment and competitiveness. Chris Bosh didn’t have a good game on the offensive end but I’ve noticed something interesting: when have Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard had their best games? Usually, when the competition is either very bad (Angola) or the game is virtually meaningless (Spain). On the other hand, when the competition is good and the game has some semblance of meaning and importance, Chris Bosh has risen to the occasion. Everyone was waiting for the U.S. to find vindication against Greece after losing to them in the semi-finals of the 2006 World Championships. Who helped lead the team to that victory on both ends of the floor? Chris Bosh. What were Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard doing? Not much at all. When they take the floor again on Monday against Germany, I won’t be worried too much about what Bosh does. It’s Wednesday in the quarter-final round that piques my interest. If Bosh shows up there and then again in the semi-finals, that’s just food for thought without me even having to say anything.

Am I saying CB4 is the key to this team’s success? No. But he has been a top five player when you consider both sides of the ball. I’d say he’s right there at number five after Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul when it comes to making a consistent impact every game since he does so on the defensive end. Is he a game-changer in all the ways some people seem to associate with defense like blocking shots and getting steals? No. But he disturbs the opposition’s offence enough to allow his teammates to make those plays instead. Nothing matters until probably Friday morning in the semi-finals because I think the U.S. will draw Australia in the quarter-finals and we all saw what happened during the pre-Olympic tour when they played each other. It won’t even be close.

Tournament Outlook

Here are the rest of the results from Friday night and Saturday morning:

Greece def. Angola (102-61)

Australia def. Russia (95-80)

Lithuania def. Croatia (86-73)

Argentina def. Iran (97-82)

China def. Germany (59-54)

Group A Standings

1. Lithuania 4-0 (8 pts)

2. Argentina 3-1 (7 pts)

3. Croatia 2-2 (6 pts)

3. Australia 2-2 (6 pts)

Russia 1-3 (5 pts)

Iran 0-4 (4 pts)

Russia and Iran have been eliminated from contention, which is kind of surprising to me in Russia’s case. I did not see them losing to Australia last night and they seemed to lose pretty handily if the score is any indication. Their lone win was against Iran, which is pretty sad. Lithuania has locked up the top spot and they play Australia Monday. Whether or not the Aussies win the game, they’ll still be fourth in the group. The reason for that is Croatia is playing Iran and will win so if it comes down to a tie, Croatia holds the tiebreaker, having beaten Australia in their first game back on August 10. Also, Argentina will finish with eight points even if they lose to Russia on Monday (which isn’t likely with the way they’ve been playing) and they hold the tiebreaker over everyone except Lithuania so the #2 spot is theirs. To summarize, the order you see right now is most likely what you’ll see after the group stage is done on Monday morning.

Group B Standings

1. United States 4-0 (8 pts)

2. Spain 3-1 (7 pts)

3. Greece 2-2 (6 pts)

4. China 2-2 (6 pts)

Germany 1-3 (5 pts)

Angola 0-4 (4 pts)

The United States has beaten everyone in their group and I don’t think that’ll change when they play Germany, so the #1 spot is theirs. Spain has beaten everyone except the U.S. and their next game is against Angola, so it’s safe to say they’ll be second in Group B and they hold all the tiebreakers against the teams below them anyway. It gets very interesting when China plays Greece on Monday, however. I’m sure both of those teams want to avoid a fourth place finish in the group stage because that would set them up to play Lithuania in the quarter-finals, which won’t be easy. Then again, the winner would be playing against Argentina, which is just as hard and could be harder depending on individual match-ups, etc. I don’t think China has much of a chance to win this game. Greece has only lost to the U.S. and Spain, which is nothing to be ashamed of. I may be jumping the gun with that prediction but I think it’s reasonable.

Quarter-Finals

The quarter-finals will begin on Wednesday when the group stage is completed. The eight remaining teams will face off in a format where the best in Group A plays the worst in Group B and vice versa. The #2 team in each group plays the #3 team in the other. With that said, these are the match-ups we can expect to see on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning:

QF1: Spain vs. Croatia

QF2: Lithuania vs. China

QF3: Argentina vs. Greece

QF4: United States vs. Australia

It’s pretty clear to me Spain, Lithuania and the U.S. would win their games but Argentina/Greece would be great to see. It’s a shame it’d have to happen so early when the other good teams got easy match-ups but that’s how things go. The winners of QF1 and QF2 would play each other and the same goes for QF3 and QF4 on Friday.

Semi-Finals

SF1: Spain vs. Lithuania

SF2: Argentina vs. United States

Just like the U.S. wanted to avenge their 2006 loss to Greece in the World Championships, I’m sure there is still bitterness over losing to Argentina in the semi-finals of the 2004 Athens Olympics as well. That 101-95 loss stung in so many ways because the U.S. just did not have the right type of resistance. I think they’d pull it off this time, though and meet Spain in that inevitable final.

Final

Spain vs. United States

Barring some type of upset in one of the earlier rounds on Wednesday or Friday, this is what things will shake down to look like on Sunday August 24 in Beijing. If today was any indication, the U.S. shouldn’t have any problem reclaiming the gold medal they lost in Athens. The road goes through Australia, Argentina and Spain in my opinion so let’s see what happens.

That’s it for this short entry. It turned into more of a prediction/preview than anything but we pretty much have the outline for everything anyway. I’ll still be reviewing the games as they happen so stay tuned until next time..

-Mark R.

[The Raptor Core]