With this current Team USA roster, you didn’t know what to expect. You knew that they would continue to dominate as former USA teams have in the Olympics, with a bolstering roster of NBA players compared to any other international team, the advantage is and will be Team USA’s when it comes to international basketball. But with a large amount of their current roster as first time Team USA players, you knew they would face their ups and downs. Last night against Australia, it was obvious that Team USA would get tested a lot more than they thought through out this tournament.
Down 5 points at halftime, the USA basketball team led by Carmelo Anthony turned things around in the second half and ended up winning the game to make them 3-0 in the Olympics so far. That being said, a 10 point victory for United States Basketball is somewhat alarming. With hopes of making a medal run in the tournament, Australia’s Head Coach supposedly limited the starters minutes and also used only half of their playbook in order to not show their full capabilities in the event the teams meet later for a medal. According to Marc Stein of ESPN:
How confident is Australia that it has a real shot at a medal here? According to the pregame rumbles in circulation in the media tribune, Australia showed up with some loose plans to hold back some against Team USA … in the hope that it’ll have a second shot to play the United States with a medal on the line next week.
One team source went as far as telling ESPN.com that Australia coach Andrej Lemanis was prepared to limit his starters’ minutes in the second half — while using only half of his playbook — so as not to give away too much in this group-play encounter.
Yet Lemanis had no choice but to detour from the Gregg Popovich-style subterfuge route as the evening wore on.
This was the first real challenge for Team USA in the Olympics. A hurdle. A hurdle that they overcame, nonetheless, but their game against Australia does deserve some attention. If it weren’t for the late game heroics of Carmelo Anthony, the game could have gone completely differently. Australia played a great game against the much more talented USA team and they have strength where USA lacks, in the paint. If Australia were to use their advantages, like they did Wednesday night, the potentially for a medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics is very possible.
