Olympics Basketball 2012: 6 Lessons Learned from Team USA's Exhibitions

Team USA thumped Spain on Tuesday to wrap up an undefeated record in exhibition play this summer, giving the Americans no shortage of confidence heading into the 2012 Olympics.

Exhibition play wasn't without its challenges for Team USA, though.

In facing Brazil, Argentina and Spain, the Americans battled three of their strongest competitors for gold this summer, as each opponent made apparent at times.

The close calls against Brazil (80-69) and Argentina (86-80) spoke to the vulnerability of Team USA, but the 22-point victory over Spain demonstrated why the Americans head into London as gold-medal favorites.

What lasting lessons can we draw from Team USA's five exhibition games? Try these six on for size.

1. No One Stands a Chance Against Team USA in Transition

Team USA will be at its best this summer when running the fast break. The athleticism and speed of the Americans in transition will overpower any opponent they face.

The Americans relied heavily on their full-court pressure to generate turnovers in exhibition play, leading to transition buckets on the other end. Against Brazil, Argentina and Spain, Team USA's fast-break game propelled it to double-digit leads to open each game. (Granted, its defense often gave them right back).

It's not rocket science here. With Chris Paul or Deron Williams running the offense, the all-star point guards have the option of passing to superstars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant or Carmelo Anthony.

Put me in a four-on-three fast break in that situation, and even I'm getting the ball to a teammate for an easy deuce.

Team USA needs its pressure on defense to harass their opponents into careless turnovers throughout the Olympics. If they do, and they get their transition game flowing, the Americans will make quick work of any opponent this summer.

2. Kevin Love Is the Odd Man Out of the 10-Man Rotation

Unless Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski plans on suddenly upping Kevin Love's minutes before the start of the Olympics, it's become clear that the Minnesota Timberwolves forward has become the last regular member of Coach K's rotation.

Wisely, Coach K appears to have settled on a starting lineup of Paul, Bryant, Durant, James and Tyson Chandler. In the past few games, Anthony, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook and Andre Iguodala have been the first four off the bench, in that order.

That left Love, heading into the scrimmage against Spain, with the third-fewest minutes of any Team USA member, trailing only James Harden and Anthony Davis. After averaging 11.8 minutes per game in the first four scrimmages, Love only earned 13 against the vaunted Spanish frontcourt. (He pulled down 10 rebounds in those 13 minutes, to his credit.)

Love's combination of dominant rebounding and floor-stretching ability with his three-point shooting would appear to make him an ideal international big man, making his absence in the rotation that much more surprising.

As ESPN's Fran Fraschilla said during the USA-Spain broadcast, the Americans will likely need at least one monster game out of Love, who averaged 26 points and 13 rebounds per game this past NBA season, to win the gold medal.  

3. Weak-Side Defense Needs Some Work

If there's one place Team USA needs to focus defensively for the next few days, it's weak-side defense.

Throughout exhibition play, the Americans' rotations weren't always crisp, which led to an abundance of gimme shots in the paint for opponents.

With Team USA lacking enough conventional bigs to routinely make up for blown rotations, the Americans can't afford to fall apart defensively when opponents start swinging the ball.

Opponents know that Team USA's strength lies in its transition offense, which will have them desperately attempting to force the Americans into a half-court game. Especially in times when Chandler rests on the bench, opponents should be able to pound the ball inside against the U.S. team.

If the Americans shore up their defensive rotations and stop allowing so many easy baskets inside, they'll only generate more easy offensive opportunities for themselves. That's a major key for them this summer.

4. Foul Trouble Can Cripple Team USA

A day after I wrote how foul trouble for Team USA's bigs could spell trouble, Tyson Chandler got two fouls in the first five minutes in the scrimmage against Spain.

He earned his third foul late in the first half and ended up fouling out in the fourth quarter after only seven total minutes of play.

Against Spain, Chandler's absence didn't come back to haunt Team USA, thanks to an offensive explosion from Anthony (23 points in the first half, 5-for-8 from three overall) and James (28 points).

That's not guaranteed to happen again in the medal rounds, especially with Marc Gasol back and roaming the interior for Spain.

I said it before, and I'll say it again: Chandler, of all Team USA members, can't afford to fall into early foul trouble. He can't afford ticky-tack fouls or fouls out on the perimeter, like his fifth against Spain, or Team USA's gold medal quest becomes unnecessarily difficult.

5. Live by the Three, Die by the Three?

Through its five exhibition games, 138 of Team USA's 357 shots were three-point attempts. That's nearly 40 percent of its offensive tries.

For a team as stacked offensively as this one, that distribution seems a bit high, despite the international three-point line being a foot-and-a-half closer to the basket than in the NBA.

Durant, who's knocked down 16 of his 29 tries from three, should keep firing away from deep. Excluding Anthony Davis (who's 1-of-1), he's leading the team in terms of three-point shooting percentage with a 55.2 percent average.

Westbrook, with his 2-of-10 three-point shooting, on the other hand, might need to find a new way of earning his points. For what it's worth, Kobe only hit 5-of-18 from three in the five games, too.

Opponents shot less than 36 percent from deep against Team USA in exhibition play, but the Americans only hit at a 40.6 percent clip. They'll need to start showing a bit more consistency to justify their strategy moving forward.

6. It's No 'Dream Team,' But They're Still Favorites

After Argentina only lost by six points to the Americans in exhibition play, it seems like the "Could the 2012 team beat the 1992 Dream Team?" talk has finally come to a rest. As it should.

If Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chauncey Billups and Dwight Howard weren't all rehabbing from injuries this summer and tried out for Team USA instead, that team might have legitimately been in the conversation.

This one isn't.

Don't take that as a knock against them, though. Spain coach Sergio Scariolo called Team USA the "best team in the world" after the exhibition Tuesday, according to ESPN's Marc Stein.

"There is no question about it," he said.

If Team USA sustains a continued effort on both ends of the court, it's going to be extremely difficult for any team to beat the Americans in the 2012 Olympics.

Size, meet athleticism.