USA vs. Slovenia - SPOILER

[Kings113]

SAPPORO, Japan (AP) -- LeBron James and the rest of the U.S. starters were yanked less than halfway through the first quarter. They hadn't done anything wrong; it was just time for the second team to come in.

That one was better than Slovenia, too.

Using both units to wear down and outrun the Slovenians, the Americans rolled to a 114-95 victory Tuesday, remaining unbeaten and clinching a spot in the round of 16 at the world championships.
"It seems to favor our team," Elton Brand said. "You don't have to pace yourself at all because you know you're going to get a certain amount of minutes. You know you're going to be in there, and you know you're going to play. So once you're out there, you play hard, and you can try to wear down teams."
Dwyane Wade scored 20 points for the U.S. team (3-0), which plays Italy, also unbeaten in Group D, on Wednesday. James added 19 in his most impressive performance of the tournament.
James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Shane Battier started the game, but U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski sent Wade, Brand, Antawn Jamison, Kirk Hinrich and Joe Johnson out together midway through the first period.
The second unit put a stop to Slovenia's strong start, and both groups contributed to the big run that blew open the game in the second quarter.
Brand finished with 16 points, and Anthony had 14. All but one of the U.S. players scored.
Slovenia, with four NBA players on its roster, was widely considered the second-most talented team in the group. But the Slovenians have lost consecutive games to the group co-leaders after beating Senegal on Saturday in their world championships debut.
"We did our best, but once the Americans started playing their defense very strongly, that was our problem," Slovenia's Saso Ozbolt said through a translator.
Sani Becirovic led Slovenia (1-2) with 18 points. Primoz Brezec and Bostjan Nachbar each added 15.
Running its offense crisply to get open shots, Slovenia led 21-16 after Rasho Nesterovic's follow shot with 2:47 left in the first quarter. Wade and Brand then each had four points in an 11-0 burst, and the Americans were ahead 30-27 after one.
"We had to wake up a little bit. We came out a little flat," Wade said. "They came out very aggressive early in the first quarter. We've got a deep team. We can bring different guys at them. Once we had the lead at the end of the first, we kind of took it from there."
Slovenia was within four points early in the second before the Americans blew it open with an 18-4 run, fueled by steals and dunks. Jamison's basket after Johnson's steal made it 55-37 with 4:20 left in the half, and the U.S. led 66-49 at the break.
"It's a game of adjustments," Brand said. "They were executing very well. Once we stepped up our defense and adjusted, we played better. Much better."
Slovenia shot 52 percent in the first half, but the U.S. turned 16 turnovers -- the Slovenians had only 15 field goals -- into 22 points. The Americans had 17 steals and forced 25 turnovers overall, leading to 28 points.
James and Howard were among the U.S. players who drew "Oohs" and "Aahs" from the crowd with a series of pregame dunks. Then the game started, and the Americans really put on a show.
The U.S. team had little trouble getting the game to the fast pace they wanted and had few problems even when forced to slow down. Wade got behind the zone to dunk an alley-oop pass from Paul on one play, and the U.S. was 7-of-11 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes.
Slovenia coach Ales Pipan sat Nesterovic, Nachbar and Beno Udrih, three of his NBA players, to open the second half. They watched as the Americans pushed the lead to as much as 29 points in the third quarter.
Pipan said his team played well but "our mind was already on our next game that is tomorrow against Puerto Rico."
The Americans shot 56 percent from the field and were 10-of-20 from behind the arc. They are averaging 115.3 points in the tournament. The Slovenians, who got within 11 in the final minutes, got 14 points apiece from Nesterovic and Jaka Lakovic

USA goes 3-0.

Of course didn't get to see the game again, but am intrigued to see the repeat later. Best team the USA has faced in the WC, as well.

 

[Warhawk]

Any news on if Brad played? I don't think I see his name in there....

 

[twocents]

of all the teams i have seen so far, argentina and spain are the only ones that can come close to beating team usa. greece, although vastly experienced and incredibly lucky, lack firepower. germany will not get very far unless dirk convinces his body that he is not tired, which he most certainly is. turkey is the cinderella of the tournament so far. i am not sure how long they can keep grinding out wins, but it has been a really entertaining bunch of games. all of a sudden, everyone seems to be talking about basketball in a country where sports is synonymous to football (soccer to you).

 

[Kings113]

Brad was said to get a few touches and played some minutes.

 

[VF21]

Box score:

http://www.usabasketball.com/seniormen/2006/06_mwc_box3.html

 

[Warhawk]

8 points in 8 minutes isn't bad for Brad. One rebound is a little anemic, though.

 

[Spike]

If you look at the percentages, both teams shot fairly well. Rebounds were low all around, except for Hinrich, who somehow came up with 7 rebounds.

 

[Kings113]

From what I read... The US shot over 50% and the Slovenians shot near 50% so there weren't a lot of rebounds to go around, plus Howard, Bosh and Brand only played 13 min each, plus there were parts of the game where the guards were letting their man get by them and the bigs were having to play lots of help defense which took them out of position to rebound any missed shots.

 

[Variant]

Looks like the US had this one well in hand for most of the second half. Too bad they tend to ease up in the 4th quarter to make the games look closer!

Also I wish NBATV would replay these games right away at more civil hours instead of two days later...

I'm gonna try and drag myself outta bed at 3:30am tomorrow to watch USA / Italy. Should be a good game.

 

[HndsmCelt]

Ok so will SOMEONE post why this means notight and how the US team will not win against (name country here) please! The anticipation is just too much!

 

[d0rkus]

i recorded the game and watched a good portion of it and FF it a lot pass the FT's etc.

brad got the garbage minutes in the 4th. most of his points were from the FT line. the announcers praised/said good things about miller about what he did in the exhibition games (100% ft, 6-7 from the 3pt line), they even said they were surprised that he wasn't playing that much and if he was to play for the slovenia team he would have been their leading scorers.

Slovenia made a run in the end of the 4th, w/ the lineup of Miller, Bosh, hinrich and 2 others i can't remember, but it was pretty much bad D or no help on D that led them to easy fast break points.

US shot like 54% or 56% and Slovenia shot like 48%, their guards were just overpowering Paul (had 4 fouls in the 3rd i believe) and Hinrich.