In an early game (started at 8pm Eastern time) the USA beat Turkey 114-82. Turkey stayed close through most of the first half, but just like Canada, they were blown out.
The thing they really have to work on is defense. I think they will do fine with getting steals and getting out into the open court, but they need solid half court defense. Just like Fran was saying, the teams they’re going to be faced with in the future will be a lot better. According to the box score, there were no turnovers, but the USA can’t count on that in the future.
I am still very much impressed with the play of Dwayne Wade. It looks to me like he is more focused and hungry than ever. He had a solid 13 points today and I think what was great was his fast break dunks.
In this game, team USA shot almost 71% from the field. Again, another stat you can’t count on. If I remember correctly, they shot a little over 60% against Canada and I can assure you, it won’t be the same in tomorrow’s game. They will face Lithuania, a team that John Hollinger thinks they might wrongly underestimate (talks about a couple of minutes into the video).
Set your alarm clocks, Friday’s game against Lithuania starts at 8pm Eastern time on ESPN2. Also tonight, another episode of the Road to Redemption series at 7:30 pm Eastern on ESPN2 (sorry to sound like an ESPN promo, but this is good stuff!).
Photo by: Andrew D. Bernstein
Nice article. All your points are solid. No way we’ll continue shooting so well and definitely need everyone to lock down more on D. I haven’t checked out the ESPN promo yet but definitely plan to.