Even though a lot of people might suggest (probably correctly) that the Olympic Gold really only has one destination - to the United States - that doesn't mean that the rest of the tournament has been something that the fans are not interested in. Yesterday in front of a completely packed crowd for all games - not just the one with the USA in it - we saw a wonderful display from all nations involved. Well, except for poor Brazil who did just fine but were out of their element.
One thing that I really enjoy about the Olympics as opposed to NBA games is that there are no commercials or forced time-outs for the sake of commercials. Therefore the games go by a lot quicker with less mucking about while we get ads from everything under the sun. Considering that US politics are out of control right now I am extra-grateful for this, because I didn't have to be subjected to another stupid Presidential advertisement. Get out of here! This is the criticism that foreigners have for a lot of American sports and when it comes to that, they are not wrong: The US market for sports is absolutely inundated with advertising and it is annoying as hell.
In the games Serbia eeked past Australia, Germany beat Greece convincingly after controlling the entire game, and France had an upset win over Canada, sending them packing out of the tournament. The real story of the night was the absolute domination shown by Team USA with their massive win over severe underdogs, Brazil.
I can't help but feel bad for Brazil, because just like everyone predicted, this was an absolute blowout the likes of which don't often get seen in Olympic basketball. The performance on the part of the Americans makes me wonder if they were capable of doing this, and perhaps worse, to everyone that they have faced up to this point. I made a point earlier about how I didn't feel as though Team USA was really even trying to win until they had to up until now. Instead, I think they kind of sit back and treat the game like an exhibition until the heat is on and then they actually start trying. How else do you explain that they have been trailing in several of their games in the first quarter but then go on to win the game by 30? I am thinking that they likely could have won all or most of those games by 50 points if they had really been going full speed the entire time.
While this game was exciting, it was actually a bit humorous how easily the USA made shots and as the above picture exhibits, how it almost seemed like kids playing against adults as far as how simple it was for USA to prevent scoring. This was a day that Brazil was probably both excited about and terrified of and when team USA decided to, for the first time this year, not take it easy in Q1, the rumors of an absolute blowout was shown to be true to the world after just 10 minutes of play.
When USA went into the locker rooms up 63-36 at halftime, there wasn't any question about who was going to win this. Then when they came back out in the 2nd half they were outscored 35-31 but if you were watching it was evident that the Americans were allowing a lot of scoring and were using the counter-attack for some showboating dunks. You don't just accidentally allow your opponents to double their score in the 3rd quarter - this was allowed because as I mentioned before, extreme blowouts are frowned upon in the international basketball scene. The end score after 3 quarters was 94-71 and if you know anything about basketball, basically nobody ever comes back from that sort of deficit.
I really think that USA continued to allow Brazil to score as they let them get within 8 at one point before USA went on a 21-2 rally to finish the game. When I see those sorts of rallies, it again makes me wonder what this side is actually capable of if they are trying to not allow ANY scoring like they do with many NBA games.
The only downside for USA was Lebron took an elbow to the face (it was an accident) and later had to get stiches to deal with the wound. James was cool about it and this is just such a different Lebron that we are seeing here in the Olympics. In the NBA, he catches a lot of deserved flack for being a bit of a crybaby and a favorite of the referees. In the Olympics, he is playing real ball and actually being a bit considerate in his play. I guess that is the difference between the respect levels that happen at the Olympics and the kind of ghetto-trash-talking nature of the NBA that encourages such behavior.
USA ended up winning the game 122-87.
Next up the USA will face Serbia and while I think there will be some exciting moments provided by one of the NBA's finest players Nikola Jokić, it takes 5 people to win a game and he doesn't really have any teammates the likes of which every single USA player exhibits. I don't think it will be as much of a blowout as it was vs. Brazil, but I do believe that it will be USA's toughest match of the tournament. I also believe that Germany will upend France's run and we will have a USA v. Germany final that is respectable, but will only be close because the USA side chooses to play nice.
I honestly believe that every one of these games could be blowouts if USA was aiming for that.