Jock Jerseys’ Flash

Facing a decisive opponent early Thursday morning (U.S. time), the United States men’s basketball threw down the hammer on Greece in a 92-69 victory. Fresh in the minds of several Team USA players, including Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul, was a defeat at the hands of the Greeks in the 2006 World Championships - an embarrassing loss for the United States.

Thursday’s game against the Greek team presented the first true challenge so far for the Americans, who are now 3-0 in the 2008 Olympic Games, heading for a match-up against Spain on Saturday. Of course, Spanish team will be just as difficult for Team USA, if not more so. The team features several NBA players including Pau Gasol and Jose Calderon, so they can adequately compete.

Kobe Bryant and Chris Bosh led the Americans with 18 points apiece, while Wade finished w/ 17. A strong defensive effort in the 2nd quarter helped propel the team to victory, one that, no doubt, brings great joy to those players who were defeated 2 yrs ago.

Check out this highlight of an alley-oop on the breakaway by Wade to Bryant:

Bryant is getting all the attention in China, but it is Dwyane Wade who is really standing out so far - exhibition games & Olympics. He is showing that he has his strength back, his willingness to attack the rim and strong legs. Let’s just hope that all of this play doesn’t affect his season w/ the Miami Heat, who desperately need him at full-strength. I haven’t exactly been Wade’s biggest supporter, because I feel like the league game him & the Heat an assist in their championship run a couple years ago. But make no mistake, Dwyane is a baller’ - one of the best the United States has.

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.