LaPorta’s Olympic Swing
July 31, 2008Did We Offer Anything for Artest?
July 31, 2008
I was able to watch the first half of Team USA’s exhibition against Turkey before coming to work this morning (a bright spot about the Olympics being on the other side of the world.) The US beat Turkey because of defensive pressure and superior athleticism. It certainly wasn’t because of offensive creativity.
Did I miss an announcement that Mike Brown was team USA’s offensive coordinator? The offense consisted of one or two passes at best, with a lot of isolation ‘plays’. It looked more like an all-star game to be honest with you, than an organized offense. The announcers even used the phrase “hockey assist” when referring to a play involving LeBron, Derron Williams and I believe Dwayne Wade. Surely that has Mike Brown written all over it right? (For the record, Mike Brown has no actual involvement in team USA.)
LeBron finished the game with 20 points, going 8 of 9 from the field, to lead the US. It was his first real action since spraining his ankle in practice over a week ago. He certainly looks ready to play. Team USA plays Lithuania tomorrow, then has tune-ups against Russia and Australia Sunday and Tuesday.
5 Comments
Did they do a lot of dribble-dribble-dribble?
I saw “Mike Brown’s New Job?” in Google Reader and got really excited that he was perhaps leaving the Cavs.
Darn you, Rick…
This is as much as a problem with LeBron as it is with Mike Brown.
Surprising with Mike D’Antoni being an assistant coach that the offense is so stagnant.
Probably just giving foreign scouts a false look before the games.
As a side note, Wade looks like he’s bulked up significantly during his time off.
I’ve read Kobe contributed towards that stagnation, and that rotations with LeBron moved the ball pretty well. I missed the game, but also read that LeBron looked fantastic. He’s the best player in the world, hands down, and he’s gonna prove it in Beijing