The best thing, actually the only good thing, about missing the 10 o'clock bus back from the basketball venue to the Main Press Center is that you have a half hour to talk hoops.

Outside the Beijing basketball gym, I bumped into Doug Collins, former NBA all-star, former coach at Chicago and Washington and the commentator for Olympic basketball for NBC. I believe he and Hubie Brown are the best teachers of the game on television.

We were talking about how this U.S. basketball team is different from all of the recent teams. This team seems to respect where it is and respects the coaching staff. It hasn't been worn down like the 2004 team was by coach Larry Brown's relentlessness. It has had three summers to play together, to learn each other, to feel more like a team.

And this summer, everybody is here. Kobe Bryant missed the World Championships, where the U.S. lost to Greece and got bronze. Dwyane Wade, who missed last summer's America's tournament in Las Vegas is healthy. The players have embraced the three-year commitment USA Basketball asked of each player and they are playing a much more cohesive game.

The one nagging problem remains outside shooting. Bryant is 1-for-15 on his jump shot through the first two wins over China and Angola. That is hard to believe. LeBron James hasn't been sharp outside. Neither has Wade. Collins believes it's because these guys aren't used to just catching and shooting the ball. On their NBA teams, they're the guys who penetrate and kick to other players. They're the guys who create their own space, create their own jump shots. As hard as it may be to believe, they aren't used to merely receiving a pass, squaring up to the basket and shooting a barely-contested jumper.

My guess is they'll figure it out soon.

Greece is looming. The team that beat the U.S. in the semifinals of the World Championships two years ago, by slicing apart the defense with non-stop pick and rolls, plays the Americans on Thursday night.

"That's our only loss in three years," USA assistant Nate McMillan told me after Tuesday's yawner-of-a-win over Angola. "That's stayed with us."

In that tournament, the U.S. didn't have a zone in its defensive package. A zone could have slowed down Greece. Now the U.S. has a zone. The coaches thought about test-driving it against Angola, but decided not to show it to their next couple of dangerous opponents. (Spain looms after Greece).

McMillan, whose main responsibility is defense, said the team has put a much more comprehensive defensive package together since the worlds.

(BTW, McMillan would have loved to have played zone in the last meeting with Greece, but head coach Mike Krzyzewski, like his mentor Bob Knight, devoutly believes in the man-to-man.)

"The pick and roll is stil the hardest play to defend in basketball," McMillan said.

The United States got lazy -- as it still sometimes does -- in its loss to Greece two years ago. The Americans got a lead and then feel asleep.

Redemption can get ugly. Greece should discover that on Thursday.