US Mens Team Prepares to Face Russia after 3-0 Start

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US Mens Team Prepares to Face Russia after 3-0 Start

2 August 2008 1 views

The US Mens basketball team is set to face Russia in the USA Basketball International Challenge, a precursor to the Olympic games which start on August 10th against the hosting Chinese basketball team. To date, the US team hasn’t really been challenged, nor do I think that Russia will challenge them either. The best player for the Russian team is Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko, but who knows which one (of him) will show up – the malcontent or the great all-around player that he shows in flashes.

There have been a couple surprises in the previous exhibition games, including the resurgence of Heat guard Dwyane Wade, who’s alley-oop windmill dunk against Lithuania (1:25 into the video) will be in the highlight reels for quite awhile. Check out the great block by Wade in the video – he’s got his legs back for sure.

Kobe is playing well as a role player, getting assists left & right. He’s still forcing a lot of bad shots, a sign that he’s still a bit selfish, but overall a great showing so far. Lebron James is also playing well, despite an ankle sprain suffered about a week ago.

The team is averaging 118 pts/game, which is not too bad for International play. Opposing teams have been limited to 77 pts/game, but they’ve also been giving up more points each game (max. of 84 vs. Lithuania). It will be interesting to see if they can continue to dominate as well as they have. Russia is surely a better test for them, but tougher battles await them (China, Greece, Spain and Germany).

Game tip-off is at 3AM EST, so most people will have to watch the replay (including me). The time difference sucks royally, but what are you going to do… the games are in China. At least w/ the Internet, we’ll know what happens almost immediately.