Image by Getty Images via @daylifeMADRID, Spain -- Safe to say Team USA is not going to have to worry about peaking too early.After one of the worst quarters ever played by a senior U.S. national team -- a seven-point first quarter in which it missed 18 of 21 shots and even went just 2-for-3 on dunks, Team USA righted itself in the second half of a 77-61 victory over Lithuania on Saturday night that will go down as exactly the learning experience this inexperienced team needed.
Rock-hard, slippery ball? Check.
Brand new logos on the court that made the playing surface not just slippery, but outright dangerous? Check.
A level of physicality more common to UFC than the NBA? Check.
All in all, a reality check.
"I would rather have it started like it started," Chauncey Billups said. "We couldn't have played any worse.
"I would rather start like that and have to fight and have to grind and scratch and claw your way back in the game, as opposed to coming put on fire and getting a false sense of where we're at right now. So it was a good lesson we had to learn."
Indeed, with a roster that is not only short on size, but short on international experience, this was probably the best thing that could have happened to Team USA -- as painful as it was to sit through it in person, or to watch it on TV back in the States.
The Americans played a slow tempo and didn't run a single pick-and-roll in the first quarter. They were repeatedly burned by backdoor cuts. They struggled in the halfcourt when they went up against a zone. The missed a third of their free throws. There were countless missed box-outs.
To say they looked ordinary would be to give them an undeserved compliment.
Led by Rudy Gay (14 points) and Russell Westbrook (12 points on 4-of-5 shooting), the bench scored 48 of the 77 points and vastly outperformed a starting five comprised of Kevin Durant (0-for-4 on 3s), Rajon Rondo (1-for-4, two points, one assist, four turnovers), Andre Iguodala (2-for-5, five points), Chauncey Billups (1-for-4 at the line, seven pts, no assists, four turnovers) and Tyson Chandler (0 points, five rebounds in 22 minutes).
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=sheridan_chris&page=TeamUSA-100821
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