Team USA Basketball 2024 (Men's)

#31
congrats to USA team.

3p shooting, 18/32 vs 9/37 says everything about this game.

bogi was bad, micić still trying to find his role, and our bench cannot cope with AD, edwards, jrue... durant's shooting killed our defense and especially painful were jrue's threes. only embiid was bad in USA team, I wonder why did he get selected anyway?

i kinda hoped that lebron's persona can destroy your team chemistry ...
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#34
"team first" - I think ingram and hart can add some thoughts to it
I mean, JJ Hickson probably can, too, but why would I listen to them?

In any case, I don't buy LeBron allegedly using his stroke to trade Ingram and Hart (which TTBOMK has never been proven) for Anthony F. Davis, a move that won them a championship, as any kind of proof that he's not "team first." That's just the cost of doing business.
 
#35
congrats to USA team.

3p shooting, 18/32 vs 9/37 says everything about this game.

bogi was bad, micić still trying to find his role, and our bench cannot cope with AD, edwards, jrue... durant's shooting killed our defense and especially painful were jrue's threes. only embiid was bad in USA team, I wonder why did he get selected anyway?

i kinda hoped that lebron's persona can destroy your team chemistry ...
I definitely enjoyed watching Serbia's offense over the 3pt spamming from the USA side. You guys really held your own for a while there, despite KD and Lebron being nearly perfect from the field.
 
#37
Half of this Serbian lineup is made up of guys who are technically ex-Kings
Bjelica was missing to add more ex-Kings power.

There was an amazing stat in that match... with Jokic playing 31 minutes the score was 81-81
Without Jokic in those 9 minutes the score was 3-29, and it wasn't his best game for sure, many missing 3s at some point, hard for him to find space for himself or his teammates when there is nobody else being a threat in the attack.

Kerr told that Tatum didn't play cause it's hard to use all players in a 40' game, so there was no injury/health issue for him.

The AD, Bam duo is the one making a huge impact for USA, especially when coming off the bench and facing the opponents' substitutes. Embiid doesnt fit well at all, I don't know if Kerr will keep starting him in all the matches and perhaps KD will be promoted in the lineup instead of Booker or Holiday.

Will be interesting to see if the match vs South Sudan will be different from their recent friendly some days ago. The main difference from Serbia is that they are more athletic, many bigs going for offensive boards, they got way too many second chance points vs Puerto Rico, at one point it was 24-2 in favor of them, and once they started hitting 3s they turned the match around and won the match with ease at the end. Still the Puerto Ricans were hitting many 3s in the first half (10/15 at halftime) so if USA does the same that has much more better shooters they can win easily this time.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#38
Going back and reviewing the box score and, apparently, the difference between "spamming" three-pointers and good offense is hitting them: USA attempted 32 threes yesterday. Serbia?

 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#49
Windy's great because the 40% of the time when he gives out lucid basketball takes and behind the scenes reporting has made him ESPN's second most important basketball reporter after Woj but the other 60% of the time he's dishing out takes that are so incredibly stupid that you question whether he's ever watched basketball before.
 
#57
I watched parts; Embiid either looked like the best player ever or someone who didn't belong on the court. It was a drastic difference.

EDIT: I also really hate that he is on this team. I am very tribal when it comes to the Olympics. You should represent YOUR country.

I at least sorta get the things like Sabonis, who I think was born in the US, but has deep ties to Lithuania playing for them. And if Embiid home country doesn't have a team, playing for France makes sense because of the French Mandate Terriory. Playing for the US just doesn't make any logical sense to me in this context.

/diatribe
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
#58
I watched parts; Embiid either looked like the best player ever or someone who didn't belong on the court. It was a drastic difference.

EDIT: I also really hate that he is on this team. I am very tribal when it comes to the Olympics. You should represent YOUR country.

I at least sorta get the things like Sabonis, who I think was born in the US, but has deep ties to Lithuania playing for them. And if Embiid home country doesn't have a team, playing for France makes sense because of the French Mandate Terriory. Playing for the US just doesn't make any logical sense to me in this context.

/diatribe
It is strange because many times a US born player will play for a parent's birth country if they aren't good enough for the US team, or in soccer Euro based players that were born on foreign soil to US citizens will play for USA, but rarely would they be good enough to play for Germany or Italy.

In basketball I can see why you'd want to play for Team USA as the highest honor, but it is a foreign concept to me. However I should note my step-father came to US from Iran and completely adopted USA culture and shunned his Iranian heritage. I am pretty sure he never returned after leaving.
 
#59
It is strange because many times a US born player will play for a parent's birth country if they aren't good enough for the US team, or in soccer Euro based players that were born on foreign soil to US citizens will play for USA, but rarely would they be good enough to play for Germany or Italy.

In basketball I can see why you'd want to play for Team USA as the highest honor, but it is a foreign concept to me. However I should note my step-father came to US from Iran and completely adopted USA culture and shunned his Iranian heritage. I am pretty sure he never returned after leaving.
Emi is as good as he is, always seems a bit to chase the stat a bit to me especially during his MVP campaign. I feel like having a better chance at Gold playing for the US team probably play a bit of a role.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
#60
Emi is as good as he is, always seems a bit to chase the stat a bit to me especially during his MVP campaign. I feel like having a better chance at Gold playing for the US team probably play a bit of a role.
Only way he's ever going to win anything.


yeah, I said it