Next up: Team USA v Australian Boomers

The Australian Boomers shocked a lot of people, perhaps even themselves, with their thrashing of the previously undefeated Lithuania, 106-75. As Lithuanian star Linas Kleiza said after the match, "I hope they continue to do that against the United States. If they play like they did today, maybe they have a chance."

That is where Australia find themselves -- matching up against might of the Redeem Team. Both of these teams have been reviewed and analysed to death. Scroll down to the bottom of this article for some links to reviews. What we're going to discuss here is, what factors could get the Aussie Boomers a win here and what factors could see Team USA run away with an expected win; a knockout punch on their way to the Gold Medal match.

How will AUSTRALIA surprise Team USA?

1. Composure -- the Americans rely on their athleticism to run teams off the court. Even in their biggest of blowout matches, USA has started out with fairly close first quarters, with their opponents relying on early addrenalin to allow them to keep up with the more physically dominant NBA greyhounds. However after one quarter of pressure, teams tend to tire and forget what their coaching staff have drilled into them. They fall to the full court press that Team USA throws out there and start to give away steals at mid-court to Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Before you know it, USA has turned a single figure game into a 15-20 point game and their opponents put their heads down in submission.

Australia's point guard combo of CJ Bruton and Patrick Mills have to play the games of their life to ensure they keep a steady ship for the Boomers. Bruton will be relied upon in the early going to set the tempo, show his veteran savvy and hopefully knock down a couple of threes. Mills will be brought on for a change of pace and has already shown that he can blow by the best of them in this tournament. He did the same against Chris Paul in the pre-Olympic warmup between these two. Steady point guard play equals steady offence, which in turn leads to less USA fast breaks.

2. Defence -- Perhaps the most deflating thing that Team USA does to it's opponents, more than the chest-bumping, more than the strips and fast-break dunks, is the way they come back at you after you've just scored and convert on a touchdown pass within 2 seconds of you sinking a basket you worked so hard for. Brian Goorjian is renowned for his defensive strategies. He might not be the most gifted offensive coach in the world, but he certainly knows how to motivate a team to play hard-nosed D. He will be preaching to the Boomers that they need to have at least two men back immediately on every play to prevent the American fast break.

3. Bigs -- Australia (like most countries) clearly has a bigger stable of low-post players than USA does. In general this hasn't caused a problem for the Redeemers in most games, as they spend most of their time in the open court, without their interior weakness being exploited. However, if the Boomers can get some early fouls on Dwight Howard and if Andrew Bogut can continue his scorching recent form, the boys in green and gold may be able to gain a solid advantage inside. Bogut, along with David Andersen, Matt Nielsen and Chris Anstey have the ability to do some damage inside on offence. At the other end, they all stand 7-feet or thereabouts and will intimidate many shots in the paint.

4. Perimeter shooting -- the type of shooting display that Australia put on against Lithuania would come in handy again, however those types of performances (16/25 from deep) don't come along often. What the Boomers do need is for one player to spark up from the outside. If that player can be David Barlow, all the better, as he will draw LeBron James (his likely defender) out of the key where he has been a menace defensively against many teams (credit to John Rillie for this thought). Barlow and Brad Newley have both had solid Olympics campaigns so far -- coming out parties if you will. If they can pull that out of the bag against USA, the Boomers might not be going home just yet.

How will TEAM USA keep their undefeated run alive?

1. Full-court defence -- taking other teams out of their gameplan is what has kept every team at arm's distance so far for the Americans in this tournament. Even the might of Spain eventually fell prey to the USA full-court press. If they can continue to generate offence from their defence, it will be very hard for Australia to score enough points at the other end to keep up. This will also keep the interior weakness of Team USA under wraps.

2. Use matchups -- USA may have some weaknesses in overall height, but as Henry Abbott at Truehoop pointed out, they certainly have a huge advantage over most teams at the swingmen positions. In height. In weight. In terrifying atheltic power. Whilst Carmelo Anthony's well-documented alergy to defence may give Nielsen some opportunities for isolations at one end, LBJ, Kobe and DWade will have field day in many cases against the swingmen put up against them. This is the way the NBA works, it's a man-on-man game designed for athletic superstars. If any of these guys can get some room, whilst being guarded by Newley, Barlow or Mark Worthington, the like their chances of getting to the basket or at least drawing a foul from the help D of the Aussie bigs.

3. Role players -- whilst the USA superstars are the bread-and-butter for this team, their memories are not short enough to forget that to win International tournaments you have to rely on guys that do the other things as well. Michael Redd and Tayshaun Prince in particular will have to be used to knock down threes and play tight D respectively, where needed.

4. Respect -- this team has been remarkably humble to date, though they are coming from a low base given the performances of some previous USA ensembles in the past 8 years. It is important that USA continues to not lose sight of the bigger picture in this tournament and not lose respect for their opponents, even a team like Australia. For too long the benchmark in American culture has centred around how many NBA players a team has in identifying a winner. The NBA-less Greek team soon proved that wrong in recent times and Team USA better not forget that a team that plays well together needn't be a team of individual superstars. In short, don't lose sight of the chance that Australia CAN win this game -- and from here, it's like the NCAA tournament.

Further Resources

[...a stern warning] Australian Boomers Preview

[JR, On Fire] Australia v USA match preview

[Green Bandwagon] Australian Boomers Preview

[Brewhoop] Following Bogut's Progress

Great interview with Patrick Mills where he talks about his NBA ambitions and the Boomers:

Such a great, humble guy with so much talent.

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Today's Warnings : 16 August, 2008

As USA finishes off Spain (119-82), in what wasn't as close a game as what we might have hoped, let's turn our attention to what else is going on in the world of basketball:

• Ben Gordon is done with the Chicago Bulls, apparently. Now, who has the money to sign him? Or will he follow the European route?
• Australia on their way to the next round of the Men's Basketball, after defeating Russia this morning behind very solid performances by Andrew Bogut and CJ Bruton (22 points each).
• The World's best paid male athletes, with MJ still sitting at number 3 behind Tiger and Becks.
• Red's Army: Paul Pierce (the self-proclaimed world's best player) with his thoughts on everything and anything in an ESPN radio interview.
• John Rillie, who at one point took the European route himself (in Greece), talks about the trend for NBA players to head to the old world and how this may be related to Australian rugby league.
• The Hoop Doctors ask why the NY Post hates Knicks fans so much.
• Carolyn at And One gives some love to a site which I have been meaning to do the same for, Ball In Europe. Living in Europe myself, I find it great to find some other perspectives on basketball for a European, English-speaking audience.
• Talk of Tayshaun Prince playing the four position. The interesting thing is that during that Team USA v Spain match, he was shooting (and making) a LOT of threes. So, a bit of a PF in the mould of his teammate Rasheed then?
  

You've been warned.

Spain 45 - 61 USA : at the half

If you haven't been keeping up with the Ball Don't Lie live blog of the match, or watching it on TV, well you should be... but regardless, here's how the first half has panned out so far.

1st Quarter

USA seemed to be going right against their strengths by using the tried and true "get the ball to the big guy" offence, aka the Bill Cartwright offence. They kept on pounding the ball into Dwight Howard with varying success.

On the other end, Rudy Fernandez was not shy in putting up a few outside shots, whilst the ball was not yet going into Pau Gasol very much.

Spain certainly are not shy in running with USA -- taking the ball in quickly off the inbounds on more than one occasion.

Plenty of physicality early, on both sides, but in particular LeBron and Melo are dishing a bit of a beat-down out to the Spanish bigs, apparently in an attempt to disguise their lack of height.

Tight early on, with USA up 9-7 with 6:29 to go.

Dwight Howard goal-tended a shot into the stands. A shot which was well and truly short of the mark, as more of an intimidatory move. Stupid if you ask me.

Kobe shows that there is no love between NBA teammates when it comes to the Olympics, as he levels Pau Gasol!

Much of the Spanish offence is going through Rudy Fernandez and Rayez.

Jose Calderon is handling the USA pressure well. A nice fading baseline jumper over Jason Kidd. When will he be subbed for CP3/Deron?

And here we go at the 4:30 mark, CP3 and Chris Bosh come into the game. Spain replies with Juan Carlos Navarro and Marc Gasol.

USA is double-teaming Calderon A LOT. It's not doing much so far.

17-year old Ricky Rubio gets a run with 3:41 to go in the 1st. And he certainly does not look flustered against his higher profile opponents. You go boy.

3:20 to go and Wade gets a signature steal at half-court for a dunk. He follows that up with another steal in traffic in the paint.

USA is pressuring Rubio. Twice he draws fouls at halfcourt, from CP3 and then Deron.

At quarter time, it's USA 31-22.

2nd Quarter

Rubio v Kidd -- young v old. Rubio still doesn't looked fazed.

Prince comes in and hits a trey straight away.

Juan Carlos Navarro makes a foray into the paint and hits the floater.

The physicality continues as Howard gets called for a charge.

LeBron is looking very pumped in this game -- he has that look in his eyes.

As the 2nd quarter goes on, USA starts to draw this game out a bit. They are leading in three point shooting and are still killing with their patented fast breaks.

Spain ends the quarter with some full-court defence of their own, which seems surprisingly successful and pressures USA out of some shots.

54-36 USA at the half.

Team USA v Spain : Olympic Pool Match

Today we have the Men's matchup in these Olympic Games that everyone has been waiting for. USA v Greece was merely a taster -- a chance for the Redeem Team to get some form of redemption. However, everyone knows that the real redemption will not come until Team USA silences all doubters and gets on that private jet back to the land of the free with Gold Medals around their necks.

Spain represents the strongest challenge to USA standing on that middle podium at the end of these Games. This game is not important in terms of getting to the next round -- both teams will do that regardless. However, these are the likely combatants come the Gold Medal game and a huge mental edge will be attained by which ever team can come away with the W.

What can be said about these teams that hasn't already been said? Both have been covered in so much detail, both on and off the court... from unflattering team photos to battles for point guard minutes. The blogosphere and mainstream media have been all over it like a horizontally challenged child on M&Ms.

One thing to note is that Spain is very adept at handling that daunted USA press. They have one of the lowest turnover guards in NBA history in Jose Calderon manning the point and teenage phenom Ricky Rubio backing him up, along with savvy play from Juan Carlos Navarro and Rudy Fernandez. Spain will use that pick-and-roll like crazy, with the Gasol brothers rolling to the basket and giving Dwight Howard fits -- trying to get him in foul trouble.

This Spanish team should handle Team USA's strengths better than anyone else has to date. Whether they can handle them to the extent that they are winners is another story.

No doubt Kobe and LeBron will be very fired up to prove a point here. Presumably we will also get a taste from Coach K and co as to what his rotations in crunch time will be. Will we see a reduction in talisman Jason Kidd's minutes in favour of the in-form CP3 and Deron combo? Will we continue to see DWade burn up the court with his unbelievable penetration?

We all wait in anticipation. If you want to get into the spirit of the game to its full extent, regardless of whether you have vision of the game or not, I highly recommend you surf over to Ball Don't Lie blog where Skeets, KD and the gang will be live-blogging, as they have to critical acclaim for previous matches. Matching comedy with basketball -- there's nothing better is there?

Today's Warnings : 15 August, 2008

You're getting a stern warning!

• The basketball fans of Australia will appreciate you forever if you sign this petition to bring basketball back to free-to-air (FTA) television.
• Ron Ron Artest is excited about his new start with the Rockets and the chance to do some big things. "This is definitely the high point of my career," Artest said in a conference call. "It's the biggest opportunity I've ever had playing basketball."
• Some great links from Signor Rillie on his mystical tour around the basketball net.
• You may have had quite enough coverage of the Spanish basketball team's questionable photo, but you've got to love Cuzoogle's take on it all -- apparently the next racial hit from the Spanish is against the Aussies!
• Hilarious stuff from the Ethanator, as he unearths this video of Olympic mascots getting their biff on.
• World Hoops Blog shows that even Americans can get into the Australian NBL.
• This is a few days old, but I just spotted this account on SeaTown Sports of a Sonics fan who is moving allegiances in the logical direction -- Portland. As I've said before, come one, come all. Blazers fans welcome you.
• Shaq is making things work. Marriage-wise that is.
• Channing Frye is fast becoming one of my favourite players in the NBA, based on his humour, team-centric attitude and of course he has a pretty handy game on top of it. His blog is also one of the best out there. Here he talks about why bike riders better watch out or he'll say "frick" and "shoot" -- funny guy.
• Luol Deng is encountering some problems with playing for Great Britain. He got the whole passport issue sorted out. Now it's a money issue -- insurance for pro athletes cost a lot and can be hard to secure at times. I have more to say about this in the near future.

Two very important games coming up tomorrow -- USA v Spain and Australia v Russia. Looking forward to them.

Vincent goes a bit Askew

Remember Vincent Askew? Teammate of the Reignman during the good old days when everything was merry in the world of the Seattle Supersonics? Well, it turns out Mr Askew would like to turn back time as well, way back to when he was 16.

Askew has been arrested on charges of sleeping with a 16-year old girl, according to ESPN.

Askew played for eight NBA teams in nine seasons. Police said he approached the victim three months ago and told her that he was recruiting players for a Miami-Dade County prep school. Authorities said the 43-year-old and the teen later met at a hotel and had sex.

Askew was trying to get a coaching job at the school, police said.

It seems he was trying to get a bit too intimate a knowledge of the players he would be coaching.

It's not known whether he has an attorney.

Sounds like he'll need one...

Brandon Roy : surgery successful

Brandon Roy's surgery was completed today with no major dramas. Apparently it was a quick surgery, which is always a good thing. He will be out 4-8 weeks, which will allow him to start the regular season (albeit slowly).

Here's video of Kevin Pritchard's relieved reaction:

Kevin Pritchard on Brandon Roy's knee surgery

Brandon Roy knee injury : the sky is falling

You know that sinking feeling, when everything seems to spin just a little bit and all externalities are totally pushed out of your consciousness? That is the feeling I got when I read this news this morning:

The Portland Trail Blazers announced today that guard Brandon Roy will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery on Thursday to repair a tear in the meniscus of his left knee. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) taken Tuesday revealed the tear in the meniscus.

Trail Blazers team physician Dr. Don Roberts will perform the surgery at Southwest Washington Regional Surgery Center in Vancouver, Wash.

A timetable for Roy’s return will be set following the arthroscopic surgery.

Memories of Greg Oden last off-season came flooding in... thoughts of another lost season for the Blazers...and the word "NOOOOOOO...."

However perhaps that was an over-reaction. As yet, the extent of Roy's injury is unknown. This is not microfracture surgery, this is a tear of the meniscus. Two different things -- both serious, but one moreso than the other.

I then turned to the bastion of the Blazers, Blazersedge to see Dave's measured opinion on the matter. The headline "It's Not The End Of The World" went some way to calming me. Hey, if a guy who is just as, if not more fanatical than me about the Blazers, can react in this way, then surely the sky isn't really falling. Right? Go on, Dave...

If you have read the thread below this one, covering the first few hours after the news was released, you’ll notice a tendency to take this news in the worst way possible. That’s perfectly natural given what we all went through last year with Greg Oden. But this is not the same as the Oden situation. Let’s talk about what it is and what it isn’t.

He then went on to discuss all of the information that had been gathered on the topic. And came to this summation:

Brandon Roy is having surgery. It’s not an uncommon procedure. He’s going to take a while to recover, probably between six weeks and three months. There is no reason to assume at this point that it will be any more serious than that. We will know more as soon as the surgery has been completed, which should be today.

That’s it. No more, no less.

So this certainly puts a dent in the Blazers' early season plans and preparations. Portland already had a tough schedule in their first 26 games and this will make it even tougher.

However, let's look on the bright side of things. This will temporarily (in a negative way) clear the logjam at the shooting guard spot, giving a chance to throw Rudy Fernandez and Jerryd Bayless into the fire and get the minutes to prove themselves early. Okay, I'm done with the positives right about there... if you want to add others, please do so in the comments section.

Today's Warnings : 13 August, 2008

More links than you can point a golf club at. Links, links, links. Here are today's warnings:

• If you missed yesterday's action in the Men's Olympic Basketball, JR has got you covered with a quality wrap-up and some other goodies. UPDATE: Answering the question of "what is happening to the Boomers?"
• Greg Oden worked out before the media of Portland today and needless to say, they were impressed with the big man. The Oregonian has coverage here, but if you don't want to follow the link, scroll down to see reproduction of the video. And more from the Portland Tribune on Oden "exploding".
• Brian Goorjian's reaction after the Boomers first loss (to Croatia): disappointment and shock. After the game two loss to Argentina, he is adamant that they stick with their master plan and that the wins will come. "We've got these four bigs here and I think we're starting to get them going a little bit and get the ball inside," he said."We've just got to continue and get better."The game-plan we have right now of getting the ball inside we're going to have to stick with and we're going to have to beat Iran with."I don't think we can look back now."
• Shane Heal is fired up for his debut with the Gold Coast Blaze.
• A blogger following the Olympics from an Argentinian perspective.
• Patty Mills has some fans following him from the other side of the pond, near to his University.
• Iggy gets his cash to stay with the 76ers.
• WHB takes you around the world of basketball.
• Jose Calderon explains what that photo was all about, via his interpreter Cuzzy at Cuzoogle.
• SLAM interviews Nancy Lieberman on her WNBA comeback at the age of 50... can you imagine the same thing happening in the NBA? Phenomenal.
  
  

  Greg Oden works out for a crowd

  
  
  
  
  

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy, Ruuudy (Fernandez)

Name: Rodolfo "Rudy" Fernandez
Position: Shooting Guard / Small Forward
Nationality: Espana
NBA Team: Portland Trail Blazers
Reputation: Unfairly hyped? Let's wait and see...

Rudy Fernandez is a man who has been on the radar of Blazers fans for some time now. The 6'6" swingman was brought into the Portland masterplan by Kevin Pritchard by way of a trade in the 2007 NBA Draft, where deep-pocketed owner Paul Allen gave up cash in order to secure his draft rights from the Phoenix Suns.

He continued to play last season with Spanish club, Joventut Badalona, and he's had a number of eyes in Oregon following him during this period. Thankfully for Fernandez, the pressure was lessened compared to other rookies-in-waiting, as he had another big expected rookie teammate who the Blazers faithful have been sort of expecting something out of...

After an unexpectedly solid season for Portland last season, every Blazer fan's discussion has been prefaced with, "when Oden, Rudy and Bayless come next season..." and thus, as alluded to above, there's been a heap of weight placed on these relatively young shoulders (even if most of it is apportioned on the rather strong shoulders of Mr Oden).

Even future teammate Brandon Roy has been keeping a close eye on Rudy's progress at the Olympics, hoping to catch a peek at things to come. And of course, the fanatics at the centre of all Blazerness, Blazersedge have been updating his situation daily (oh okay, hourly).

After Fernandez's solid first game in Olympic competition, against the powerful Greece, Dave at Blazersedge had these thoughts on his strengths:

"Rudy has good height and appears to use it. That quickness almost makes him seem rangy. As expected he moved well without the ball when the sets called for it. He also showed good speed up and down the court. His shot and release were quick as well, both in decision-making and execution. He doesn't let grass grow under his feet when there are points to be had. He's also fast getting up in the air. One of the problems plaguing the current Blazer leapers is that their rim finishes take a long time to develop. Rudy appeared to get in the sky in a hurry. I don't have many doubts about him being able to get shots up in the NBA. Everything that's good about him happens fast."

However, he also spied some weaknesses:

"The worst part of Rudy's game by far was his defense, which, aside for a couple noticeable moments, ranged from a high of semi-adequate to a low of wholly ineffective. He was reaching, leaning, and getting beat off of the dribble with regularity in the first quarter. He got a little more active in the second quarter but still ended up getting to the spot late, getting out of position, and/or playing with his arms instead of his feet."

For the sake of Fernandez, it's nice to see all of the "wait until Rudy gets here" hyperbole (fuelled by some spectacular youtube clips) tempered with some criticism of his game. The reality is, there is a good chance that Fernandez will be a nothing more than a solid rookie next season; a player who comes off the bench and adds some punch, but also makes his fair share of mistakes. It's worth remembering after all, that the player Rudy is most compared to, in Manu Ginobili, only averaged 7-2-2 in his first year with the Spurs.

It is hard not to get caught up in some of the mild-hysteria though, especially when you look at his Olympic performances so far in Beijing, on a loaded Spanish roster.

Game 1 (v Greece): 16 points (top scorer), 2 rebounds, 3/6FG, 2 treys, 4/4FT

Game 2 (v China): 21 points (behind Pau), 8 rebounds (tied for lead), 6 assists (top), 6/11FG, 2 treys, 3/5FT

Those are solid performances in two victories against quality international competition, with the second being especially exciting. There is no doubt that the NBA game is a different beast to FIBA ball, as evidenced by Team USA's struggles in the dark 2001-2007 period. However, this still bodes well for Fernandez's NBA career.

Some points again from Dave at Blazersedge, this time on Rudy's performance v China:

"The most impressive aspect of Rudy's game--and probably THE game overall--was the way he took over when the Spanish made their comeback in the fourth. Those two drives against Yao Ming were priceless. He picked that team up and carried them on his back. Others would come along and add to the win but Rudy did it first. Brilliant. You could tell how much the coach was relying on him as well by the minutes he got."

"I still drool over how well Rudy moves without the ball no matter how many cuts I see him make. If the other Blazers will recognize the potential there and take care to get him the ball...oh boy. This showcases his quickness more than any other aspect of the game."

Walt Szczerbiak, father of Wally is the US representative (whatever that means) of the ACB League and he has seen his fair share of the swingman in action at club level. He was interviewed by the Oregonian here and had some interesting things to say.

Later that summer, Fernandez traveled to Chicago and held a private workout for several teams at the NBA pre-draft camp. At the workout, Szczerbiak said questions were raised about whether Fernandez could get past players off the dribble.

"That workout maybe brought out a few flaws in his game, and I think it maybe scared him,'' Szczerbiak said. "So even though he was on everybody's radar, he decided not to go into the draft.''

Instead, Fernandez worked on his physique and his game.

"Now, he's an explosive athlete,'' Szczerbiak said. "He had to learn to put the ball on the floor a few years ago, and he has worked on that aspect of the game to the point where the team can give him the ball and ask him to create and make a shot in a game-winning situation.''

The impression I get from all of this (and you should read the rest of that article), is that he is a player who has matured and made the right choices, in not rushing to the NBA. He refined his game with sufficient high level professional experience and stayed two years longer in the ACB than he really had to. Many kids rush to the bright lights of the NBA sooner than they should (the examples are endless). Rudy has worked his game to a level which merits his entry to the league, based on skill, not those buzz words of tremendous upside potential.

There will be many eyes on Rudy Fernandez as these 2008 Beijing Olympics play out.

Here are some highlights of Rudy in action with Spain. He gets up.