The weekend was pretty rough for Team USA Basketball – at least if you count Monday as a continuation of the weekend. They’ve now dropped two consecutive tune-ups to teams that, quite frankly, they should be able to beat. Sure, international teams have improved – they aren’t the same teams that took the floor against the 1992 Dream Team. But America is still the dominant force in the sport. The depth is incredible, even in a year when most the top stars passed on playing for the national team. The Americans should be winning every game they play.
Admittedly, I haven’t followed international basketball lately. But from what I can tell there’s not another clear-cut favorite team. Not like in 2008 and 2012 when it was clear that Spain was the second best team and could give Team USA a run for their money. Those years though, with the help of Coach K and Kobe, a resurgence of the game’s top stars wanted to play and compete. They wanted to bring back the glory days of the Dream Team. This year though, the top names on the roster are Damian Lillard, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant. It’s not quite the best of the best, but those are some great players. Take those three and combine them with almost anyone and they should be able to beat Nigeria and Australia.
Looking at the Nigeria roster there’s only 8 players in the NBA, most of which have spent significant time in the D-League. There’s no way that lineup should have competed with the bevy of all-stars the Americans have. In the end it was a 3 point game. It was only a tune-up game. So we all just need to relax. At least that’s what was supposed to happen until they fell again Monday to Australia. It was only an 8 point loss. It was only a tune-up game. But it was the second time this happened, this time to a team with only 6 NBA players. One time is a fluke, two times is a trend, if it happens again it might just be time to panic.
The last time Team USA didn’t win Gold in the Olympics was 2004. They only lost one tune-up game, to Italy. That team was a bit different than this one though, it was primarily a young team plus Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, and Stephon Marbury. That was a team that needed to use the tune-up games to come together. This team though has NBA Champions and Gold Medalists. They may not need these tune-ups and might just be working through the motions to get ready for the group stage. Just like you see in the NBA’s regular season, the top players, especially veterans, do just enough to make sure they make the playoffs then turn it up once they reach the post season. This team has some leaders and clutch players – they’re even missing a couple of players still finishing out the NBA finals. So when you’re missing two players on great teams like that losing a couple of tune-up games isn’t the worst thing in the world.
The Olympics are still two weeks away. There’s plenty of time for this team to turn it around and win the gold medal. I’m not expecting anything less than that this year either. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not overly impressed with any of the other teams. Spain is the second ranked team in the world and Australia is third. An 8 point loss without your best young player isn’t bad. I’m also expecting Durant, Draymond Green, and the rest of the veterans to turn it up an extra notch when the games really matter. The nature of the basketball tournament at the Olympics really bodes well for team USA, if they’re taking a little longer to gel the group stage will be a huge benefit for them to get rolling. They don’t need to go undefeated to win the gold, they just need to win enough to advance and then get things going. The main thing to remember is there’s still nearly a month to go until the knockout stages begin, that’s a long ways to go when the talent is heads and shoulders above the rest of the teams competing. The two losses in a row is something to keep an eye on, but it’s still not time to panic yet. Just remember, this team is closer to the team assembled in 2004 than the teams from 1992, 1996, 2008, and 2012. But don’t expect anything less than gold this time around again.