My Big Fat Greek Blowout: USA's principled play leads to demolition of Greeks

In their first real Olympic test, the US earned stellar marks.

The Greek national team hung with the World’s best basketball team for more than a quarter and then the flood gates opened.

Simply put, the US made their own breaks and then took advantage of them. Unlike in past games, dribblers were harassed coming down the lane, attacking the drivers and forcing worse passes rather than attacking the passing lanes themselves.

The USswitched a lot on the perimeter, so the defense was a sort of matchup zone at times. Credit must go to Coach K for keeping this in his bag of tricks.

The defense also viciously spiked so many Greek shots off the backboard that they should consider moonlighting for the US men’s volleyball team.

Four members of the Team USA scores more than ten points in the first half led by Chris Bosh, who has such immaculate feel moving around and finding holes in international zones. LeBron was a good transition scorer and was great as a passer as well.

Another great transition player was Kobe, who looks like he wants to just annihilate everything on earth when he dunks. In the second half, however, fell in love with low percentage fade always (which he made, mainly of because he is, in fact Kobe, Bryant). His only first half three was from, of all places, NBA range. Maybe you just go with what you have a feel for.

Kobe also authored one of the best plays of the first half when he forced a turnover, and then while saving the ball form going out of bounds, lofted a beautiful pass to the rim for a D-Wade jam.

Wade was nothing short of spectacular, finding rebounds against the Greek zone and more importantly driving and dumping off for dunks when the defense reacted. His NBA game does not fit with the traditional international game (many free throws, the international 3 is just out of his comfort range) but he is making it work with good passing and understanding of what the defense is giving him.

Once a flurry of transition scores blew the game open and gave the US a 19-point lead at the half, the contest was all but over. Every time the Greeks managed to string together a few scores in the latter half, Team USA emphatically responded, closing the door.

This game had a few other lessons for the astute basketball fan. First, guard Vasileios Spanoulis is the key to the Greek offense. He is their only real scorer and the US completely shut him down in the game’s first 20 minutes en route to their big lead.

The other big lesson is that maybe American commentators will come to understand that Sofoklis Schortsanitis is just not that good. The game's on-line commentary said, “baby shaq cant produce down low. his best bb seems to be behind him”

This would be true if he was, you know, ever that good to begin with. The guy had one good Euroleague season (didn’t play last year) and on the national team has not been particularly. His best moment was the 2006 game against the US (when he was a monster on the pick-and-roll) and really is not close to as good as he was in that game.

The 4-for-18 3-point shooting also goes a long way in dispelling the myth that the Greeks field a good shooting team. They don’t. They lack shooters and are easily worse at it than Lithuania, Argentina, Spain, the US and maybe Croatia as well.

The US won this game by doing the simple things. Forcing the defense to adjust, moving without the ball and above all, playing energetic, forceful man defense. When the US plays like that, no one can stop them.

The next challenge is a Spanish team that boasts the second most talent in the whole tournament and a bevy of NBA players. The Spanish play a more up-and-down style that should be right in Team USA’s wheelhouse.

This win however assures the medal round so the US is just playing for a better draw in the knockout stage.