Steve Kelley: At the Olympics

Steve Kelley, a Seattle Times sports columnist for 25 years, is covering his eighth Olympics. He'll share news and tidbits as the Beijing Games unfold.

E-mail| Subscribe | Blog Home

August 14, 2008 8:38 AM

What pick and roll?

Posted by Steve Kelley

Even before the national anthem, when the U.S. still was going through warmups, there was a different feel to the men's game with Greece. The Americans were grim-faced through the player introductions. There was no pre-game laughter. No special handshakes.

This was the meeting the Americans have anticipated since Japan in 2006, when a team from Greece that had no NBA players on its roster, ran the most elemental play in basketball, the pick and roll, perfectly, over and over again, against a U.S. defense that was helpless to stop it.

Greece beat the United States in the semifinal of the World Championships and U.S. basketball has been smarting from that loss ever since. And because it came in the wake of the United States winnng only bronze in the Athens Olympics, the loss was even more devastating.

This was the rematch. And it was a mismatch.

On Thursday night, in the third preliminary round game of the Olympic basketball tournament, the United States was committed to its defense. It was hell-bent on stopping the pick and roll. It was swarming and angry and almost scary in its approach to Greece.

And it got revenge, smothering Greece, 92-69.

This win was practically dream teamy.

"Defense just requires energy and brains and we had a supply of that tonight," U.S. assistant coach Mike D'Antoni said. "I'm just really proud of the way they came out here tonight and just took care of business. Sure there was a little bit extra tonight.

"Two years we've been listening to everybody talk about how we can't defend the pick and roll. We couldn't do this. We couldn't do that. Well, not true. We proved we can. We pressured them more today and we knew that was going to be a key. We really stressed that. Watching what we did in 2006, they ran it to perfection back then."

The U.S. is turning this Olympics into some kind of redemption tour. It will take a team -- maybe Spain, maybe Lithuania -- playing better than it has ever played to beat the United States. It's going to take something like Greece did in Japan two years ago.

Digg | Newsvine

Comments

No comments have been posted to this article.

Read all comments / Share your thoughts

nwhomes

Find a Home

For sale
New Homes

Search properties for sale

Rent a home or apartment

Post your property or rental

Open Houses

Find all open houses.

nwautos

Concept car: Sho Case is a rolling entertainment stationnew
(Daihatsu) Daihatsu FC Sho Case This futuristic four-seater debuted at the Tokyo auto show in December. Its seats can fold flat into the floor and th...
Post a comment