Tag Archive for 'Carmelo Anthony'

Redemption! Team USA wins the Gold.

Published
by
Bob
on August 24, 2008
in Lebron, Olympics and Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

I have to admit.  The beginning of this game had me worried.  Team USA seemed far to anxious to blow this game open.  A couple quick fouls on Lebron and then one by Kobe on a three point attempt saw both players sent to the bench only 4 minutes into the game.   

But the second unit deserve a ton of credit for coming in and calming the team down on offense while keeping up the defensive intensity. Chris Paul immediately made two huge plays on “and ones”, Bosh fought tirelessly for boards and offensive position, and Dwayne Wade made some timely steals and forced the Spaniards to foul.  By the end of the first quarter, the unit of Paul, Bosh, Deron Williams, Dwayne Wade, and Tayshaun Prince took control putting the Americans back up 38-31. Wade had 13 first quarter points.

The second quarter saw the first unit return much more keyed in.  Their shooting continued to be hot from outside, and despite the fact that Carmelo Anthony’s face has been a landing pad for elbows throughout the medal rounds, he kept his composure, and the Americans slowly but surely stopped turning the ball over, fouled less frequently and starting getting some transition buckets off of steals themselves (with Wade, Lebron, and Kobe all getting in on the act).  With four minutes left in the second quarter, Team USA was firmly in control up by 14.

Rudy Fernandez, the Blazers rookie, looked great in the first half going 4 for 5 from the floor, including a perfect 3-3 showing from downtown. Largely due to his play, Spain was able to cut the lead to 8 by halftime trailing 69-61.  As for Dwayne Wade’s statline at half…yeah, nothing spectacular…just 21 points on 7-9 shooting (one of which was a last second heave at the buzzer).  Did I mention 4 steals?

Coming out of the locker room at halftime, I’m always worried.  It has nothing to do with America.  I’ve been trained watching basketball to dread the third.  The Cavs are notorious for choking away leads in the third quarter forcing Lebron to put the team on his back in the fourth.  James made a couple of uncharacteristic turnovers right away, Kobe got tagged with a travel, and next thing you know the Spanish team is down by 4 with Dwight Howard on the foul line.  Not exactly a sure thing.  Those of us watching on the internet feed got to enjoy a string of profanities from Coach K about shitty team defense.

From their we saw a lot of back and forth baskets.  There were some Americans lapses on the defensive end as Juan Carlos Navarro hit some runners, but Carmelo kept Team USA in front forcing a turnover which he converted as well as following up the inevitable Howard missed free throws I referenced above with a putback.  Lebron made two straight big baskets at one point and Wade continues to slash to the rim.  With two minutes left in the third, the Americans led by 10 (86-76).  Carmelo may not dominate the box score tonight, but his baskets came at crucial times.  He hit another three late in the shot clock to get the Americans an 11 point lead.  As the third quarter ended, Navarro hit a runner to cut the margin to 9 and that brought him to 15 points on the night at the end of the third.  The score was 91-82.

The fourth quarter did not start well.  Rudy Fernandez has come out absolutely destroying the USA defense.  He continues to hit his outside shots, and that set up some slashing pick and rolls, one of which ended in a Pau Gasol crush.  With 9 minutes remaining, the lead was 91-89 for Team USA.  Lebron picked up a fourth foul, and the Americans found themselves desperately trying to hold off the Spanish rally.  

Big bucket by Kobe.  Big three by Deron Williams.  Big dunk by Dwight Howard! Don’t look now.  The Americans are back up by nine with 6:30 left.  As Kobe dropped in yet another three pointer (making it 11-22 for Team USA at that point), you could feel it coming.  USA needed to drive a nail into the coffin.  Lebron missed, got his own board and puts it back in.  Was that it?  Nope.  Rudy Fernandez threw a dunk down on Dwight Howard and got the foul.

But the dagger would come, courtesy of Kobe Bryant.  And it came with a pose.  Rudy Fernandez fouled out as Kobe Bryant got him in the air, nailed a three and tagged Fernandez for his fifth foul.  Bryant put a sole finger to his lips as if to hush the crowd.  With three minutes left, Team USA led 108-99 looking like a gold medal is moments away.  Two straight baskets by Spain cut the lead to 4, but Lebron drives the lane  and kicks it to Wade, who hits a three with a scowl on his face.  Points 25…26… and 27.

USA! USA!  The chants started.  The obligatory David Beckham cutaways began.  Gasol was forced to foul Chris Paul in the backcourt.  And then it was just a matter of moments.  Rudy Fernandez was spectacular.  Juan Carlos Navarro had something to prove.  Pau didn’t play soft.  Marc Gasol is a brute who I can’t wait to see in NBA action.   But the best team in the world is once again the United States of America.

As for the statlines, it almost seems wrong to even spend time on this, but Lebron finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals.  Kobe scored 20 with 6 assists.  Chris Paul added 13 points and 5 assists, and Melo scored 13.  The three-point shooting that past incarnations of Team USA had lived and died by?  Well USA shot 46% from 3 (13-28), while Spain shot 47% (8-17).  This was a great game, and with FIBA making changes that will bring international ball more in line with American basketball, don’t be surprised to see USA repeat in 2012.

Update:  This picture is great.  If I didn’t know better, I’d think Lebron James had a lazy eye. 

 

Team USA and Lebron advance to Gold Medal Game

Published
by
Bob
on August 22, 2008
in Lebron, Olympics and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

“That’s it Kobe. That’s it Kobe. Play ball.”

That what you heard from Lebron James standing across form Kobe Bryant at the foul at the 3 minute mark of the first quarter when Kobe was at the line shouting with what I can only assume was Luis Scola or any other Argentinean who had rubbed him wrong, saying something close to “I’m gonna show you some english”.  At that point the game was close.

The Argentineans came out rubbing guys on screens, shoving guys just to disrupt inbounds plays, and just being the general nuisances you would expect from a team led by renowned flopper Manu Ginobli (who made a brief appearance in the first half and then was not seen again). The Americans weathered the initial emotional burst of the Argentineans to blow open the lead with some timely steals, some transition baskets, and then a barrage of three pointers, many of which came as the result of crisp passes around the perimeter. By the end of the first quarter, the team lead 30-11.

But from there, foul trouble towards the end of the first half saw the lead trimmed all the way to 6 (46-40) before getting three free throws to end the first half in the lead 49-40. The Americans outside shooting went cold and the Argentineans went to the line A LOT and got some effective low post scoring.

The second half started out completely differently. Some of Lebron. Some of Carmelo. Some of Kobe. And a lot less shooting from deep. The Americans blew the lead back open, picking up a flagrant foul and a technical foul on Andres Nocioni in the process.

At one point Lebron had two three-pointers, and a slashing left handed layup in succession to finish second on the team in scoring with 15 points. That went along with 5 rebounds and 2 assists, but the player of the game was Carmelo Anthony, who despite a poor shooting night got to the line for 13 free throws, converting all of them. He finished with 21 points and 4 board. Chris Bosh had a monster game as well scoring 11 points, but adding 10 rebounds (4 offensive).

The Argentineans were clearly frustrated and unable to overcome the loss of Ginobli. Luis Scola played incredibly, finishing with 28 points, but from the middle of the third quarter on, the Americans continued to distance themselves and held off Argentina to win 101-81.

Next up is the rematch with Spain.

Lebron and Team USA roll over Australia

Published
by
Bob
on August 20, 2008
in Lebron and Olympics
. 0 Comments

Lebron again showed his all-around dominance as Team USA coasted by Australia by a score of 116-85.  This time he led the team in rebounds (9), steals (4), and assists (tied for the lead with 3), while scoring 16 points.  Kobe added 25 points in a great outing and Melo and Wade chipped in 15 and 8 respectively.

ESPN recaps the game:

As the US expected, with the gold medal getting closer, the games are getting tougher.

Australia stayed with the United States for the first 15 minutes of the game, duplicating the strong performance it had against the Americans in an 87-76 exhibition loss in Shanghai on Aug. 5 — a contest the Americans led by only seven points midway through the fourth quarter.

U.S. players picked from a list of excuses, including fatigue from too many games and looking past the game while thinking ahead to Beijing, but it was clear early on that the Australians gained confidence from that effort.

Showing no fear of the Americans, the Australians delivered hard fouls and attacked the basket instead of settling for jump shots. They trailed by just a point after a quarter and five more than halfway through the second — and would have been closer if not for four missed chippies in the half.

A hard foul on Carmelo Anthony by Mark Worthington late in the second quarter fired up James, and maybe triggered Bryant’s burst.

Bryant had two buckets in a late run that turned a five-point lead into a 12-point halftime advantage, then helped the Americans make it a rout to start the third.

Next up for the Americans is the winner of the Argentina and Greece matchup Friday morning.

Sporting News: Lebron is the world’s best basketball player.

Published
by
Bob
on August 19, 2008
in Lebron and Olympics
. 4 Comments

I’m not going to editorialize on the merits of Lebron vs. Kobe or Lebron vs. Wade.  They’re all great.  But Sean Deveney of Sporting News wrote an article focusing on how dominating Lebron James has been during Team USA’s Olympic performance thus far.  It’s worth a read, especially if you live in Los Angeles and are subjected to Lakers fans who make comments like you’ll hear in the audio below. 

One of these was lifted from the Lakers Radio Network during the post-game call in show.  The other is a parody songed penned by yours truly featuring my rap skills and audio I pulled from LA sports talk radio station KLAC.  The show in questions features two pandering homers and former Laker Mychal Thompson, whose the only host sounding remotely objective in this whole stupid “Kobe is better than Lebron” debate: 

 
icon for podpress  Lamar Odom is Better Than Garnett [0:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
icon for podpress  Lebron James sucks says LA Talk Radio (KLAC) [2:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’m getting sidetracked.  Let me return from my inferiority complex and get back on point.  Lebron has played great.  His defense has been great.  Maybe that will put to rest some of the holdover criticism from his rookie year, but probably not on the radio airwaves of Los Angeles.  Here’s some of the more flattering excerpts from the Sporting News piece:

He’s the leader. He’s the one whose voice is heard when a teammate commits a defensive breakdown. There’s a sense on this team that you don’t want to disappoint James. “He’s definitely the vocal leader of our team, the guy that brings energy every day,” Williams said. “Not just [on the court]. You don’t see the stuff behind the scenes. He’s a great teammate, a great guy to have in the locker room and keeps us focused.”

If this edition of Team USA is called an unselfish bunch, that’s because James is so unselfish. If it’s called a tough, focused defensive team, that’s because James is so tough and focused. If he’s aggressive, they’re aggressive. “We know when he’s aggressive it puts the rest of us in an aggressive mode,” Paul said. “He’s the one starting out who really gets us going. When he picks it up, everyone usually follows.”

It’s chuckle-worthy that, in the pre-Olympic exhibition games, coach/analyst Fran Fraschilla called Anthony the best international player in the world. It’s obvious where Fraschilla was coming from. Anthony can shoot from the perimeter, score inside and has the size to be an international power forward. But if we’ve learned anything from Team USA’s first five games of these Olympics, it’s that the all-around ability and consistency of James — at both ends of the floor, whether dunking or passing or rebounding or stepping into the passing lanes — makes him, by far, the world’s best international player.

Team USA’s outside shooting has been inconsistent. Its rebounding and free-throw shooting only so-so. Kobe Bryant has struggled with his shot. But the team has gotten incredible play from James, every night. Just peek at the Olympic stat leaders. James ranks in the Top 10 in scoring, at 15.8 per game, despite taking just 10.2 shots per game. He is fifth in assists (4.4) and third in assist-to-turnover ratio. He’s tied for fourth in blocks (1.4) and tied for third in steals (2.4). He’s got just about every category covered. One exception? Minutes. He’s tied for 34th there, which makes his presence all over the leaderboards even more impressive.

“This is what he’s been dreaming of, to get the chance to play in the Olympics, go out there and lead a team, and he’s doing a great job of that,” Howard said. “He’s been very consistent every night on the defensive end and on the offensive end. I really appreciate the way he leads the team. He makes everybody around him better.”

Put all of that together — offense, defense, consistency, leadership — and Howard’s right. James is doing a great job. He’s doing the best job in the world, in fact.