Dwight vs. YaoLet us know when this starts to sound familiar: Team USA looked alright, they won by 30, but if they play like that against Spain or Argentina they’re gonna get smoked. Sunday’s Olympic opener against China had all the symptoms of a typical 21st-century Team USA outing — a slow start marked by a bunch of missed jumpers, the opposition hitting a lot of deep J’s, the Americans unable to buy a three-pointer, but eventually the U.S. talent and depth proves too much. D-Wade led the way with 19 points, making literally every shot he took (7-for-7 FG’s, 5-for-5 FT’s). LeBron had 18, six boards and three blocks, plus one bananas tomahawk alley-oop finish, and Dwight Howard and Kobe added 13 points apiece, but struggled in their own way; Dwight was a non-factor on the glass while Kobe went 1-for-7 from three … Yao had 13 points, 10 boards, three blocks and stuck a three-pointer in the process. We remember him taking one in the All-Star Game and not even coming close. It’s kind of weird knowing how serious Yao takes international game — especially these Olympics — and yet he’s taking multiple three-pointers. Needless to say, that’s not a high-percentage look for him … Yi Jianlian was invisible except for one huge putback dunk on Carmelo’s back-neck, and Sun Yue caught Dwight with a block for his standout moment … Continuing our Team USA coverage during the Games, we looked back at Jason Kidd’s feature story in the April ‘08 issue of Dime. J-Kidd talks to Pat Cassidy about what it takes to be a “lion,” and why he’s a better shooter than you may think … The best game of the day from Beijing was Lithuania/Argentina. Manu and crew were down double-digits in the fourth quarter, but came back to tie it up in the final seconds. With a chance to hit the go-ahead bucket, Manu (19 pts) forced a bad shot, and Linas Kleiza came down and nailed a three with 2.1 seconds left that proved to be the game-winner. This is still pool play, so Argentina isn’t out of the medal race, but it’s still a big upset. Kleiza led the way with 13 points for Lithuania, while Andres Nocioni added 15 and nine boards for Argentina … Spain handled Greece pretty easily, and the scary part is that it didn’t even look like they were trying that hard. Future Trail Blazer Rudy Fernandez led Spain with 16 points, while Jose Calderon had 13 and Pau Gasol added 11 and seven boards. 17-year-old phenom Ricky Rubio played a few minutes off the bench for Spain and hit some shots, but he also had a hard time breaking Greece’s press …Croatia beat Australia, as Andrew Bogut had a quiet 10 points and one rebound, one less than Dwight grabbed in the USA/China game … Russia smacked Iran, forcing tons of turnovers and flirting with a 20-piece nugget during the first quarter. AK-47 went for 15 points, five boards and three blocks, while J.R. Holden put up 19 points and five steals … Finally, after playing the whole rebounder/sidekick role during Germany’s Olympic qualifying run, Chris Kaman stepped up and led the team in their opening win over Angola. Kaman scored 24 against Dirk’s 23, but did get out-boarded by Dirk 5-2 … Did you know that Carlos Boozer’s nickname in China translates out to “Betrayal Skull Dude”? At least that’s the story according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Would the people in Cleveland even remember what happened between Booz and their front office if he was averaging 9 and 6 instead of 20 and 10? … Some of the Dime crew spent this weekend in Portland for the Nike Global Challenge, where 30 of America’s best high schoolers — including John Wall (think Derrick Rose), DeMarcus Cousins (will be UAB’s version of Mike Beasley) and Jordan Hamilton (Baby ‘Melo) — were split into three teams and put in a FIBA-rules tourney along with international teams from Serbia, Lithuania, Puerto Rico, Canada and Senegal. We’ve got the whole event covered on HighSchoolHoop.com, from game recaps to Q&A’s with the players … Off-topic, but somebody’s gotta do something about the Olympics/international boxing scoring system. We’ve been watching the matches here and there, and but it’s ultimately just frustrating because we see case after case of guys getting screwed in the scoring. A few times yesterday you’d see a guy land a clean punch that had enough sting on it to snap his opponent’s head back and that even caused a crowd reaction, and yet it wouldn’t even get scored. We know it’s very risky to go with subjective scoring in this setting (the 10-9 system), but the current deal makes you not want to watch the matches, which can’t be good for anyone … Not much happening on the non-Olympic NBA front. Francisco Elson is close to signing a deal with the Bucks to be Bogut’s backup — or at least compete with Dan Gadzuric for the job — and eventually fade into obscurity. If he’s not there already … We’re out like Elson …
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August 11th, 2008 at 12:33 am
obmb says:
first
August 11th, 2008 at 12:46 am
daquest?on happy bday to meee! says:
yoooo spain is real good and they dint even start pau gasol, they have a lot of talent in their team, when u have garbajosa, navarro, rubio, fernandez, and pau gasol coming out of ur bench thats crazy and not to mention calderon who is their starting point guard and then raul lopez who is good and got some nba tick
August 11th, 2008 at 12:48 am
daquest?on happy bday to meee! says:
and baby shaq is only 23!!!!! have u seen that dude he looks atleast 40 but it was funny watching him play , dude is like a bulldozer running over players
August 11th, 2008 at 12:48 am
snoop_robb says:
I hope ya’ll are gettin to watch these games in the U.S, cos down under we gettin f*kd royally!
The one (and only!!) channel that has the rights to show the Olympic bball on Aussie TV, Channel Seven, hyped the Aus v Croatia all day thru the coverage… Then didnt show ANY of the game till the start of the 3rd QTR, chucked a long-ass ad break in the middle of the play, then cut off at the end of the 3rd and just showed the final score.. WTF!!!!!!!!!
But we did get to see USA v China, except for the parts where they decided to show 5min of ads too, right in the middle of play!!! argggh i hate aussie TV..
peace.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:51 am
snoop_robb says:
Is baby shaq REALLY 23?? i remember them sayin sum foolery like that at Athens 04, like he was 21-22 then… so he should be like 25-26 by now..
Denver should have tried to atleast get his rights from the Clips for Camby, he woulda been SOMETHING for those fools.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:34 am
daquest?on happy bday to meee! says:
yea man baby shaq is surprisingly 23 he was 19 on that 2004 team
August 11th, 2008 at 1:45 am
MaMba says:
why did Marc Gasol start instead of Pau?
August 11th, 2008 at 1:52 am
knoc says:
we get even less here in nz than in oz.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:55 am
daquest?on says:
i really dnt know but marc isnt that good
August 11th, 2008 at 2:01 am
doc says:
Yeah Dime that boxing shit is crazy.I seen a good rumble and they had the score 15-2.Spain let Lithuainia hang tight in the first half,if they play like that against the US they better watch out.Did you see their defense? That Greek guard was going down the lane like it wasnt nothing.They should fix that before they face them USA boys.The only team in history to get blasted for constant double digit wins.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Damon says:
@snoop_robb
just watch the games online, they have great quality.
btw, did baby shaq even play in 2004?
August 11th, 2008 at 3:40 am
bill says:
how crazy was the croatia v Australia third quarter though. Croatia COULD not miss (basically passed around until they got open shot/layup OR took an offbalance shot that would go in he he)
August 11th, 2008 at 3:49 am
souss says:
Ricky Rubio had absolutely no problem breaking the mild greek press thrown at him…
August 11th, 2008 at 5:50 am
Arno says:
The Argentinian loss isn’t such an upset if you consider that Lithuania has been a European powerhouse for years and that the Argentinians are no longer what they were four years ago : they lost W.Hermann and their excellent PG R.Sanchez, have aged (no fresh blood at all) and, mostly, seem to loose their passing game. Yesterday, the centers were not screening and the guards were playing selfish (Manu, C.Delfino).
The Lithuanians play as a team and are all good shooters (watch the 6′11 Lavrinovic brothers drop 3s). They have a wonderful PG. Contrarily to the US team, you CAN’T play zone against those guys.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:52 am
Arno says:
Croatia was 12/15 for 3s.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:31 am
josh says:
whats the site for watching the games……..i hate 7!!!
August 11th, 2008 at 7:00 am
imung lolo upaw says:
dude herrmann is nasty — big big loss for argentina
August 11th, 2008 at 7:52 am
dimemag says:
Hi, our name is Dimemag, and we love to hate on foreign players. You’re up Ricky Rubio.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Amar says:
croatia went nuts, their bench guys were getting double doubles. they are a deep team. in defense of bogut, his team only got him the ball three times. he made all of his shots though. still . . . he didn’t intimidate, and the other guys were driving all day long.
russia is all defense, with their long guys, they kill in zone. still iran managed to shoot above 40% from three on them, does america have the shooters to do that?
germany was just too big for angola, they wont have that height/size advantage against lith/russia/spain/china and crew.
spain was just too athletic and talented. greece is a good squad, but they did not look like it against calderon/navarro and the rest of their guards. (fernandez, rubio, etc)
manu, noce, scola, oberto, delfino and crew all had solid games, but lith just has more shooters.
for more information on these, and the rest of the games check http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/08/men-olympic-basketball-day-1-2.html
August 11th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Al says:
You did a bad job comparing those high school players
August 11th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Dime Magazine says:
@ Al -
how would you compare those guys?
August 11th, 2008 at 10:15 am
that's whats up says:
why is Ricky Rubio’s boyfriend on here ALWAYS trying to convince us the guy is great?
Stay off the blogs sweety.
If he’s the real deal he’ll get his due eventually
August 11th, 2008 at 10:30 am
schoops says:
@ Damon… yeah baby shaq played on the “pick and roll” team that coach K could not figure out back in 04. He was a tank ass back then, I’m afraid of what that dude looks like now.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Big V says:
If you want to see the WORST screwing in Olympic Boxing history, check Roy Jones Jr. in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Absolutely ridiculous.
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=UsgY99FtWsU&feature=related
August 11th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Celts Fan says:
@Big V, you mean 2nd worst screwing. 1972 Basketball Gold Medal game is by far #1. A do-over? Come on…
August 11th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
YOUNGFED says:
Damn Dime it’s been kidding dead in here w/o the YOUNGFIZZLE.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Young Lebron 23 says:
If Ricky Rubio is considered the next Pistol Pete, how tall is he to be Pistol Pete’s height?
August 11th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Damon says:
@schoops
sorry but you are wrong. the team you talk about is the one of 06.
04 was the larry brown team. the greeks lost to team usa and i don’t remeber schortsianitis playing back then.
August 11th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
rell says:
Kidd proved yesterday why he should be on this team. The last two game CP3 couldn’t stop anyone from penetrating. Even though he was missing, #4 from China was taking CP to the goal everytime. When Kidd was on him #4 couldn’t do nothing. Also when the US went on that run in the 3rd, Kidd was getting everybody easy buckets. If he didn’t get the assist, Kidd pass would lead to the assist. Kidd was making passing Paul and Williams couldn’t.
That block Lebron had where he grab the player layup out of the air with both hands was straight ugly.
August 11th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Skeeter McGee says:
LeBron got filthy on China yesterday and I think he has improved in defensive areas of his game.
On an Olympic note but not basketball note, I have to ask if any of you watched the Men’s Swimming 4×100m free relay? The French (of all pu***es) said they were going to “smash the Americans” and then our last dude on the last leg outwills the French twat to win in World Record fashion. It was tight for all those who missed it…
August 11th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Ice Cube says:
with all of these swimming world records falling I would bet anything the Chinese messed with the water in that pool too.
I mean they even alter the weather over there, so why would they not whip up some water-lite, or make slicker water or something.
After that opening ceremony you could just tell that Beijing wants ALL the glory and they’re gonna do whatever to get it.
Water-lite. It’s in Wikipedia.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Ice Cube says:
…or maybe they shave off a hundredth of a second every 20 seconds or so. The country is rumored to be great in math
August 11th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Celts Fan says:
@Skeeter, I missed it live, but turned it on just in time to see the entire last leg replayed (and didn’t know what happened, so it may as well have been live.) Just to add to that, the clown that ran his mouth was also the guy who got out-swum by the American. that guy also holds the World Record for fastest leg in that relay, so yes, choke job by them.
@Ice Cube, the reason most of these swimming records are falling (one of htem anyway) is that Speedo just developed those new suits you see people swimming in. They’re this new, space age material blend that apparently lets you slice threw the water with less resistance than ever before. Over 40 records have fallen since it was unveiled in Feb. (I’m quoting PTI’s numbers/info for this, so it may be slightly off, but that’s what I heard.)
August 11th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
that's whats up says:
angola is going to be a tough game.
to watch.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Kobe says:
Does it occur to anyone that Dwight might be getting less boards because the US are dunking every damn possession?
August 11th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Skeeter McGee says:
It’s a toss up right now between D-Wade and King James for Most Outstanding Player on the Olympic team, am I wrong to say that?
I hope the U.S. playing Angola doesn’t end up hurting us in the long run. They don’t have a player taller than 6′8″ so I hope that we don’t get lethargic on the boards leading into the game after Angola. We got to stay sharp even if that means 50 piecing them…
August 11th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
IGP says:
haha nice that’s whats up
August 11th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
me says:
haahahah that was jokes