The FIBA World Cup is like an Olympic outpost. What happened two years ago will always happen two years later. Even if the U.S. team changed a wave of stars who looked better, they still lost 76-83 in the opener to France, who eliminated them in the quarter-finals two years ago. Ended his unbeaten record in three consecutive Olympic Games. Even more embarrassing is the first time since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics that the U.S. men's basketball team has scored less than 80 points in a single game, after they have scored more than 80 points in 56 consecutive games.
No matter how basketball develops in other countries of the world. As long as the proud Americans go to the World Series, the goal is only gold. The first game was lost, what was wrong with the American team? Will they still be able to win the championship? Today we will analyze it.
Popovich really can't do it?
According to The Athletic reporter Joe Vardon, the U.S. men's basketball players were disappointed that Popovich used the Spurs offensive system in the national team.
"To be clear, Popovich was shocked by the defeat he lost in charge of this team, he hated to fail and felt bad. The players were frustrated, and the news that came out after the game was that popovich had been complaining about Popovich's use of Spurs' offensive system here, and they thought the team could obviously have a better way of playing. Popovich has previously said that due to the lack of time in the U.S. men's basketball training camp, the team's offense will be more based on concepts than fixed tactics. ”
Two years ago in the World Cup in China, Popovich can indeed complain that the team is not a big name, when the United States team only had two players selected for that year's All-Star Team, and only Walker was selected for the NBA Third Team, which is the most star-studded team in the United States since sending NBA players to international competitions.
This time, the U.S. team, but durant, Lillard, such as the United States team that has been selected as a superstar in the NBA for a while. Did Popovich pinch the U.S. team into a ball? At least in yesterday's game, the American team played really chaotic, back and forth is the star's singles, always put the game in the star singles situation, needless to say in fiba, in the NBA have proved to be unworkable many times.
Popovich's selection is also not a small problem, and the entire American team is too small. Adebayor and Green have suffered a lot of losses in international play, and in yesterday's game, France relied on Gobert to turn the tide in the penalty area. Two years ago, in the victory over the United States, Gobert easily scored 21 points and 16 boards, and in last night's game, the American team still had nothing to do with Gobert, allowing him to easily cut 14 points and 9 boards.
Two years on, Popovich's only backup option in the center position is McGee, who can't play the Nuggets. Is this the right attitude towards FIBA games? Rotate center with Green and play five small at FIBA? Has Popovich studied his opponents?
Counting the warm-up games, Popovich coached the United States in 16 games, and the United States lost 6. The official match was six wins and three losses. The United States has lost five of its last eight games. Last night the U.S. wasted its seven-point lead with 3:19 left in the fourth quarter and was beaten a 14-0. With so much data in front of him, Popovich, as the head coach, can hardly blame it.
What happened to the big names of Team USA?
Popovich said after the game yesterday: "You don't get surprised when you lose a game, you get disappointed. I don't understand the word surprise, it's a disrespect to the French men's basketball team, like we should beat them by a 30-point margin. ”
It is true that Popovich has his responsibilities, but these big names on the American team are indeed poor enough.
Before Popovich took charge, Durant won 39 and lost 0 on the national team, averaged 19.4 points per game in the Olympic Games, and hit 59 three-pointers, all of which were the first in U.S. team history. He was 25 points away from being crowned the record of the men's basketball team total scorer in the history of the United States Olympic team, which may also be Durant's original intention to join the United States team. Popovich said before the Olympics that if Durant did not come, he would hold Durant's thigh and beg him to come. But what kind of game did Durant play last night? On 4-of-12 shooting, he was almost invisible in the final quarter and missed a crucial three-pointer at the end of the game.
Durant, LaVine, Booker all scored more individual fouls than athletic goals in yesterday's game. Durant left the field with 5 fouls, shooting 4 of 12; Booker made 2 fouls and shot 1 of 6; LaVine made 3 of 6 and committed 4 fouls. As the second star of the U.S. team after Durant, Lillard delivered 3-of-10 shooting. The U.S. team still had a chance in the final moments, but Lillard's direct slip and error of receiving the ball was really surprising.
Lillard said after the game: "They just played a better game than we did, hit a shot at a crucial moment and I made a mistake when I needed to score. ”
Compared with the previous team that played in international competitions, the biggest difference between the American team and the previous team that played in international competitions was that the stars at that time led by example on the defensive end, and Wade, James, Kobe Bryant, all of them first considered defense, and used defense to force out a counterattack to play a wave of streams. Now the American team, which big name can put down his body to do this? Lillard, LaVine, who need the team to allocate special defensive sappers to their bottom stars in the club, also completely exposed their defensive shortcomings in yesterday's game.
So it's no surprise that Holliday, who ended his Finals journey and arrived at 1 a.m. on Saturday, became the best player on the U.S. team (18 points, 7 boards, and 4 assists). He is the only player on the U.S. team's perimeter with his own defensive system.
The NBA plays soy sauce, and the national team is a hero
After yesterday's game, French star Fournier, who scored 28 points and 4 boards on 11-of-22 shooting, said: "They are stronger at the individual player level, but as a team they can be beaten. ”
In fact, Fournier is already very modest, in FIBA, there is no NBA big name in the absolute sense. Those who played soy sauce in the NBA are not afraid to face 40 million stars like Lillard on the international court. Vincent of Nigeria, Mills of Australia, Fournier of yesterday, maybe in the NBA they are in a precarious position, but in the international arena, they can just compete with anyone.
Lillard also said after the game yesterday: When international players play for their national team, they become completely different from in the NBA.
Two years before the 2004 U.S. team folded the Athens Olympics, they performed badly at the World Cup on their home soil, winning 6 and losing 3 in the entire tournament and being defeated by the former Yugoslavia in the quarter-finals. The 2004 U.S. team was headed by Larry Brown and the assistant coach was Brown's senior Bobovich. If this Olympics were to repeat the plot of 17 years ago, well, we could say that Popovich would not be suitable to coach the national team at all.
Are the big stars of the American team going to collectively shoot "Lost in Tokyo" under popovich's guidance? This may also be the biggest attraction of the Olympic men's basketball team.