The Destruction Wrought was total and utterly complete.

Entering the final game of pool play, Team USA had little to play for. They could not improve their seed and in past competitions might have let up a bit, playing a sloppier game.

Germany had only pride to play for. Two days after losing their most important game in the Olympics to China, they were just bidding farewell to long time stars Dirk Nowitzki and point guard Patrick Roller.

The Americans came out strong with a 20-3 run and led by 19 after the first quarter. After that they kept rolling, the lead growing to 30 and then 40. By game’s end the US defense had hounded Germany into 30 percent shooting and carried home a 106-57 victory.

The half-court offense looked especially sharp but that may have been linked to the German defense. They ran a 2-3 zone which needs quick players who can move and shift fairly well; these are not the kind of players the Germans specialize in. 

Furthermore most of the German bigs model their game around Dirk’s soft perimeter oriented style. This is not conducive to good defense and as such the middle of the court was vulnerable.

One US player who took advantage of this was Dwight Howard who recorded the first double-double for Team USA with 22 points and 10 rebounds in just 19 minutes on the court. Howard had been struggling before this game but when he commits to moving more without the ball and flying around for rebounds he becomes a very valuable asset.

Four other players scored ten or more for the US including LeBron James who had a sub-par game with only 3 rebounds and zero assists (he did however hit four threes). It’s a testament to the lack of competitiveness of the game that no American played more than 20 minutes and that was Tayshaun Prince, the consensus 11th man on the team.

The only real flaw for the US was underwhelming free throw percentage of 61.1 percent. They were the second worst shooting team in pool play, finishing better than only Iran.

The worst performance for the Germans during pool play had to be Chris Kaman. After a 24-point first game, he shot just 35 percent and never scored more than 10 points. He broke double digits in rebounds against Spain and China but did not have much of an impact for a team than failed in their primary goal of getting out of pool play.

 

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