FIBA World Cup [USA vs. TUR: 9/3, 8:30 AM EST (ESPN+)]

[mr. dee]

We just got beat by some B Listers.

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come this season for BOS.

Our teamers rarely played with each other. At most, you only had 2 at a time.

[footey]

We just got beat by some B Listers.

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come this season for BOS.

Our teamers rarely played with each other. At most, you only had 2 at a time.

While I don’t agree with original post, it is inaccurate to say we only played two at a time. There were a few moments when 3 at a time played.

[mr. dee]

We just got beat by some B Listers.

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come this season for BOS.

Our teamers rarely played with each other. At most, you only had 2 at a time.

While I don’t agree with original post, it is inaccurate to say we only played two at a time. There were a few moments when 3 at a time played.

Pop barely played Kemba, Tatum and Brown together. They have most minutes playing together when there's only 2 of them at the time.

[ozgod]

Smart rules the p’n’r game.

You guys need to chill, pop played everybody and that was the whole plan, getting a W was not by all means neccecary

Plumlee, especially, is just lost out there.

Yeah Plumlee had a pretty bad game.  Gave up a lot of points to Bogut, seemed lost a lot on def.
Not sure why Plumlee played so much and Lopez didn't spell Turner more?  It seems like we have one decent big in Turner and that is it.  That is probably going to get us in trouble at some point esp if Turner gets into foul trouble.

We seemed to be getting killed in paint all night.  points in the paint Aus 46 - USA -26.  Pop threw out some serious small ball lineups last night that had Brown, Tatum and Barnes I think at one point.  Where Barnes was guarding the 5.  I don't think that any of Jaylen, Jayson, Harrison, Kuzma, or Middleton can effectively guard centers.

As someone else mentioned, I think Pop was more concerned about evaluating his guys in these last 3 games than actually winning the game.

Ultimately that's the point of exhibition games - to evaluate who should be playing when the Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. hits the fan in a high pressure situation when it counts. I think Pop, and we, learned a lot about who those players are from watching that game (if we didn't know already). It's different with Team USA because of the fact that they're expected to wipe the floor with whoever they play against. But a lot of these international teams have played together for years and have chemistry built up already. Our guys aren't good enough to just cruise by on talent alone, there's too many journeymen or unproven youngsters.

It's in Team USA's best interest to keep things in transition as much as possible because that's when their athleticism really becomes a big advantage...when they end up in half court sets thats where some confusion comes in and when that happens you see an overreliance on iso play. Which is what happened in game 2, especially when they fell behind after being up by 10. And defensively the Aussies went to a simple play over and over again in the 4th, basically either a high pick and roll with Bogut and Mills or having Bogut at the top of the key to find Mills cutting to the basket. I think they probably scored over 10 points with that play alone.

I think the team will be better come the start of the actual tournament. The best players should be playing and Plumlee, White etc should be sitting on the bench. But there's some good teams in there - Serbia, Australia, Spain. All it takes is a poor shooting night (like last night where they shot 40%) and their talent might not be enough to bail them out if they're not solid defensively. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't win gold, put it that way. I'd expect them to at least medal though, if they didn't that would be pretty embarrassing.

[Somebody]

Smart rules the p’n’r game.

You guys need to chill, pop played everybody and that was the whole plan, getting a W was not by all means neccecary

Plumlee, especially, is just lost out there.

Yeah Plumlee had a pretty bad game.  Gave up a lot of points to Bogut, seemed lost a lot on def.
Not sure why Plumlee played so much and Lopez didn't spell Turner more?  It seems like we have one decent big in Turner and that is it.  That is probably going to get us in trouble at some point esp if Turner gets into foul trouble.

We seemed to be getting killed in paint all night.  points in the paint Aus 46 - USA -26.  Pop threw out some serious small ball lineups last night that had Brown, Tatum and Barnes I think at one point.  Where Barnes was guarding the 5.  I don't think that any of Jaylen, Jayson, Harrison, Kuzma, or Middleton can effectively guard centers.

As someone else mentioned, I think Pop was more concerned about evaluating his guys in these last 3 games than actually winning the game.

Ultimately that's the point of exhibition games - to evaluate who should be playing when the **** hits the fan in a high pressure situation when it counts. I think Pop, and we, learned a lot about who those players are from watching that game (if we didn't know already). It's different with Team USA because of the fact that they're expected to wipe the floor with whoever they play against. But a lot of these international teams have played together for years and have chemistry built up already. Our guys aren't good enough to just cruise by on talent alone, there's too many journeymen or unproven youngsters.

It's in Team USA's best interest to keep things in transition as much as possible because that's when their athleticism really becomes a big advantage...when they end up in half court sets thats where some confusion comes in and when that happens you see an overreliance on iso play. Which is what happened in game 2, especially when they fell behind after being up by 10. And defensively the Aussies went to a simple play over and over again in the 4th, basically either a high pick and roll with Bogut and Mills or having Bogut at the top of the key to find Mills cutting to the basket. I think they probably scored over 10 points with that play alone.

I think the team will be better come the start of the actual tournament. The best players should be playing and Plumlee, White etc should be sitting on the bench. But there's some good teams in there - Serbia, Australia, Spain. All it takes is a poor shooting night (like last night where they shot 40%) and their talent might not be enough to bail them out if they're not solid defensively. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't win gold, put it that way. I'd expect them to at least medal though, if they didn't that would be pretty embarrassing.

I'd still expect them to gold, you guys have a huge advantage in guards and wings.

[Muzzy66]

Australia outplayed USA. Much better ball movement. Paddy Mills hot as a pistol. Was the best player on the floor. Their bigs outplayed ours decisively. Aussie team is really good, should be ranked much higher than 10th IMO.

If only Simmons didn't pull out, imagine how good they would be?

As an Australia myself this is the first year that I have ever predicted Australia would beat the USA.  I actualy put a bet on Australia for game one but lost...then didn't put one down for game two when they did win haha

Just looking at this US roster - there is really only one clear cut All Star on the roster and that's Kemba.  And he's played like one.  The fact that you could make a case that Mitchell (22) and Tatum (21) are the 2nd and 3rd best players on a USA roster is a serious concern.

The fact that guys like Brook Lopez (who I don't even consider a starting calibre big) and Plumlee (who I don't even consider a quality backup center) are the second and third options on a USA team is deeply disturbing.

Lets be honest here.  Andrew Bogut can barely get on an NBA roster these days - he's in his mid 30's, and has had so many injuries that his body is more like that of a 40 year old.  Yet he was downright embarassing Lopez and Plumlee out there.

I still remember back to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, when you were concerned about the talent level because Vin Baker (in his prime) was one of your bigs.  This was when Vin Baker was averaging like 16 and 8.  I miss those days.

I think part of the success of team USA in the past was sheer intimidation factor.  When you had a team stacked with all of the best players in the world, as an opposing team it would be hard to focus on winning because half the time you are too busy worshipping the guys you're trying to compete against.  You kinda know before you even play them that you can't win, so you just play hard and have fun.

Now days there is no intimidation factor. I don't think any internationtional team fears this lineup.  Seriously, if this USA team played in the actual NBA season, would you even consider them the favourites to win the title? Would that beat the Lakers? Clippers? Nuggets? Sixers? Bucks? I think at least a couple of those teams would beat this USA team in a 7 game series.

[footey]

Australia outplayed USA. Much better ball movement. Paddy Mills hot as a pistol. Was the best player on the floor. Their bigs outplayed ours decisively. Aussie team is really good, should be ranked much higher than 10th IMO.

If only Simmons didn't pull out, imagine how good they would be?

As an Australia myself this is the first year that I have ever predicted Australia would beat the USA.  I actualy put a bet on Australia for game one but lost...then didn't put one down for game two when they did win haha

Just looking at this US roster - there is really only one clear cut All Star on the roster and that's Kemba.  And he's played like one.  The fact that you could make a case that Mitchell (22) and Tatum (21) are the 2nd and 3rd best players on a USA roster is a serious concern.

The fact that guys like Brook Lopez (who I don't even consider a starting calibre big) and Plumlee (who I don't even consider a quality backup center) are the second and third options on a USA team is deeply disturbing.

Lets be honest here.  Andrew Bogut can barely get on an NBA roster these days - he's in his mid 30's, and has had so many injuries that his body is more like that of a 40 year old.  Yet he was downright embarassing Lopez and Plumlee out there.

I still remember back to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, when you were concerned about the talent level because Vin Baker (in his prime) was one of your bigs.  This was when Vin Baker was averaging like 16 and 8.  I miss those days.

I think part of the success of team USA in the past was sheer intimidation factor.  When you had a team stacked with all of the best players in the world, as an opposing team it would be hard to focus on winning because half the time you are too busy worshipping the guys you're trying to compete against.  You kinda know before you even play them that you can't win, so you just play hard and have fun.

Now days there is no intimidation factor. I don't think any internationtional team fears this lineup.  Seriously, if this USA team played in the actual NBA season, would you even consider them the favourites to win the title? Would that beat the Lakers? Clippers? Nuggets? Sixers? Bucks? I think at least a couple of those teams would beat this USA team in a 7 game series.

You mention Boguts. Wouldn’t mind signing him to our last roster spot. He looked quite good.

[Adelaide Celt]

You mention Bogut. Wouldn’t mind signing him to our last roster spot. He looked quite good.

I don't think this is possible as his contract with the Sydney Kings doesn't have an NBA out clause I believe. That's why he was only able to sign with Golden State towards the end of last season after the NBL had finished.

[jambr380]

...Now days there is no intimidation factor. I don't think any internationtional team fears this lineup.  Seriously, if this USA team played in the actual NBA season, would you even consider them the favourites to win the title? Would that beat the Lakers? Clippers? Nuggets? Sixers? Bucks? I think at least a couple of those teams would beat this USA team in a 7 game series.

Apparently, LarBrd (If you have comments regarding LB's suspension,
best to put it in the Remarks and Comments thread. It does not belong here. this was on Celtics Reddit, so if you are interested in following him, you can do so over there) put together a team on NBA2K using all of the FIBA players and they only won 38 games in a simulated season.

I don't know how true this is - LB does have a habit of exaggerating - but that is pretty telling if true. Especially since he used the Cs and they play in the East.

[rondofan1255]

USA leads Canada 46-31 at halftime.

Just tuned in... evidently Kemba Mitchell Tatum Barnes Turner was the starting lineup 

[The Oracle]

Canada B squad doesn't have the size to compete with the U.S.  If Canada had shot at all decent this would be sadly close, they missed a bunch of bunnies as well as terrible from 3.  Tatum hasn't been good, Smart didn't do much in the 1st half except a steal that resulted in a highlight dunk by Mitchell to end the half, Brown and Kemba have been solid.

[Somebody]

Live stream link?

[DefenseWinsChamps]

I didn't see the game. Any notes from someone who did? I'm especially interested in hearing about some of the better 5-man units. 

Boxscore notes:
- Brown was the leading scorer
- Lopez and Plumlee combined for 12 minutes. Turner played 20. That means team USA played 8 minutes with no center.
- Middleton was 0-8
- Tatum struggled, but got up shots 2-11
- Everybody played a relatively even amount. That probably won't happen when the game matter.

[Sophomore]

There was a huge talent disparity in this game. Two of the Team Canada players were named "Scrubb", and that seemed a fair description.

***

I'll show myself out.

[nickagneta]

Just finished watching.

People are sleeping on Brown for this year. At this point, I would bet way more money that Brown has a breakout, All-Star year this year than I would Tatum. They were on polar opposite ends of the "who played well for Team USA today?" question. Brown looked fantastic and he has been the best defender on the team the last 3 games. He went like 8-11 for 19 points to lead the team. Tatum was awful yesterday and couldn't hit the side of a house with a shot. I think he was like 1-10 or 2-11.

I also think Pops likes Brown. No evidence, just, Brown was the guy San Antonio was after from Boston when looking to trade Kawhi and Pops seems to be giving Brown more run than some other, maybe more established players. Of course, it appears Brown has earned that run. He is playing great.