USA Basketball

Game 2 against Australia will be broadcast on NBA TV at 12:00 AM

I am hoping to see Marcus Smart get some run.  Would like to see him knock Deli on his ass.  I like Deli (would be a Celtics fan favorite if he was on the team)

Well I got my wish as Marcus Smart finally played and the final roster has been set with the ankle injury to Kusma

The Boomers won a hotly contested game by 4 points  98-94.  I'm posting the box score below.  Takeaways from the game.  Team  USA bigs were manhandled.  The Boomers played an aggressive and physical games and took advantage of Team USA defensive lapses.  Team USA rushed shots and did not move the ball very well (only 11 assists)

Plumlee and Lopez are defensive liabilities.  The USA may struggle against teams with more athletic bigs.  Miles Turner is the only really good center on this team.  Keep in mind however that POP has been changing his starting lineups every game to give different guys a chance to start and also give him a feel for how things mesh.  

One last exhibition game coming up with Canada on the 26th and then it is off to Jhina. (lol) 

https://www.usab.com/usavaus

That starting line up by Pop is clearly not the best players....

Key stat Bogut 9 rebounds in 19.39, Turner 1 rebound in 17.45.

Another Tatum and Middleton combined 0-6 from 3.

Those Australian announcers are a hoot!!!! They are really into it. You would think this was the World Championship game..

Paddy Mills is the reason they won, he has played fantastic, hard, and enthusiastic. They deserve the W

Tatum had a rough game, and actually, Mitchell too. He fouled out. Brown and Walker played well. They are playing the Canadian team this week. Let;s see you they rebound

In the final tuneup for the FIBA tournament, the USA Team beat our friends from the North 84-68

Here is the box score  https://www.usab.com/usavcan

Canada looks a bit small and were physically dominated by the USA team.  Team USA pounded the glass 55-37..  The USA team shot a dreadful 2-14 from deep.  Coach Pop had them focus more on midrange scoring, getting to the rim and pushing the tempo.  They went 30-59 on 2p FG for 50%.  

Jaylen brown lead Team USA with 19 points on 8-11 shooting.  Miles Turner carried the load in the paint scoring 10 points and grabbing 15 rebounds (5 offensive)  

Our other guys had mixed results.  Tatum struggled going 2-11.  Marcus got 4 rebounds and 3 steals and played solid defense.  Walker went 3-5 as he was not looking to shoot a lot.

Team USA was really sloppy with the ball.  19 turnovers is pretty awful.

They head to mainland China now with plenty of room for improvement.

Let's get our boys home healthy.  That is the most important thing to me.

worcester wrote:Team Canada was full of Scrubbs.

Reason for optimism - Jaylen has been playing great. Superbly efficient scoring.
Reason for concern - Jayson has been profoundly inefficient scoring.
Reason for joy - Smart with three steals. He'll bedevil the opposition in China.

Team USA has not established a starting 5 as Pop has used several different starting units and rotation guys.

I agree that JB has been pretty solid scoring the basketball.  He went into the Canada game making 12-17 FG.  After the Canada game he has shot 20-28 or .714%.  Brown has been scoring very efficiently on 2 pointers and has not been taking a lot of 3 point shots although he has made 3-4 (75%)

Tatum has struggled scoring the ball.  Going into game #4 he was shooting 9-24.  His 2-10 vs Canada brings his totals to 11-34 or .324%.  His 3 point shooting has been solid (4-10) 40%.   He is forcing things a bit too much and is not finishing well.  One really bright spot is that Tatum is 2nd on the team in assists behind walker.  That is an area of his game that needed to get better.

Watching Walker play he is a guy that can score on all 3 levels.  I have not seen as much playmaking as I would have liked to see.  He is the lead PG on a team with a lot of shooters so his assist totals should be higher. (13 assists in 4 games bot only 3 total turnovers)  Walker will need to become a better facilitator.  

The 4 games do not add any W's or L's.  

I hope the experience for our 4 guys (1) helps them develop chemistry and (2)  Improve in areas that need improvement.

Jaylen Brown scores 19 in Team USA's bounce back win over Team Canada

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/jaylen-brown-scores-19-team-usas-bounce-back-win-over-team-canada?cid=Yahoo&partner=ya4nbcs


After Team USA's 78-game win streak came to an end in a stunning exhibition loss to Team Australia, the squad was able to bounce back against Team Canada. The USA won the contest, played in Sydney, Australia, by a score of 84-68, and they got a strong outing from Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown.

In the game, Brown was able to net 19 points and was the USA's leading scorer. And after the contest, he spoke about his performance.

"It felt good," said Brown in an interview with NBA TV. "Just trying to come out, play my game, and be aggressive."

Brown wasn't the only member of the Celtics to find success against Canada. Kemba Walker, who led the team with 22 points in the loss to Australia, was able to score 12 and played generally solid basketball en route to victory.

Despite his success, Brown was focused on the improvements that the USA can make moving forward as they look to live up to the standard set by the Team USAs of the past in the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

"It's a process, but we've got to speed up that learning curve," Brown said. "We can't have any drop-offs. We have a great responsibility on our shoulders so we got to come out and play good basketball."

Of course, given the extensive history of Team USA's success, they are entering the World Cup as a favorite. But this team hasn't played together much in the lead-up to the tournament, as many of the regulars for the squad over the course of the past decade elected to sit out.

Still, Brown was optimistic that the team would have a chance to succeed moving forward.

"The sky's the limit for this group," Brown said. "We just gotta be able to lock in and believe in each other."

This experience with Team USA should be a net-positive for Brown and the other Celtics on the squad, as chemistry was an issue for the team last season. Having to build chemistry quickly with a lot of new teammates should prepare them for the same challenge they will be facing ahead of the 2019-20 season, as the Celtics will return just eight players maximum from last year's squad. And only two members of the starting lineup will return.




Jaylen always seems to be the over-looked guy, both on the Celtics and on Team USA. I bet if he were on a less talented team where he was more of an offensive focus he would average close to 20 ppg

Last year Jaylen's development was short circuited.  He was a casualty of being on a roster with a ton of talented players.  

Things will be different this year.  He should get back to being a 30+ MPG player and get more opportunities on offense.

Sometimes you can have too many scorers in a given lineup and that can actually dilute their effectiveness.

With all the A list stars dropping out what great fortune for the four Celtics players and hence this year's team. All four players can be pillars of the USA team. It's been a while (since the 2018 playoffs) that Jaylen, Jason are going to be go to fourth-quarter players. In 2018 they got to LeBron and couldn't finish; this is a reset of sorts, a new stage and two years later, it's time. Jaylen has a history of being a disappearing act in the fourth quarter and Jason has simply not been nearly as good or consistent player since his rookie year (his points were up last year but the eye test and his win shares say otherwise). Huge opportunity for one or both of these guys to step up and truly take their game to the next level - the I (we) can beat LeBron level. Kemba and Marcus I already trust as basketball players at a championship level but clearly this opportunity is there for them as well. Go USA!

I looked for this game today, What happened, not televised? I have NBA channel as well as regular cable with ESPN, nothing on

ESPN + is the mobile offering. I signed up for a free trial that expires with nothing owed. Only caught the highlights and commentary from reporters but sounds like Pops is stressing team defense and Game 1 didn't disappoint. As to the highlights, I liked Jason Tatum's mutton chops and putting some muscle on his frame; looks like he's ready for the 4 on the Celtics small ball lineup. He lacks grace but not everybone can be James Worthy at the 3/4; what he has is desire to prove and improve and I'll take it! And obviously lot's of near-elite NBA talent.

From what I read, Mitchell was the big scorer for this game, Kemba got 12 or 13.
I agree with you about Tatum, he looks like a man now, not a boy!! He looks to me like they could put him at the four at times, has the size for it.

Here’s the box score from the game this morning.

https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2019/game/3108/Czech-Republic-USA#tab=boxscore

The Czech republic hung with Team USA midway through the first QTR.  USA was playing fast.  They were able to turn it up when they wanted to.  When Marcus was paired in the backcourt with Mitchell it was like have two bulldogs up top.  

USA shot the ball well and went 15-0 in fast break points.  

The USA team is playing a lot of small ball.  They switch everything on defense and their substantial speed and quickness advantage is the key for them to win.  They only had 7 turnovers, played great defense on the perimeter.  The only thing that I saw that they still need to work on is defending those back door screens and cuts to the basket.  

All of our guys played hard.

Jaylen and Jason have been hitting the weights.  

They have 2 more games during the group phase (Tuesday against Turkey and Thursday against Japan)


From what I have seen so far Team USA is hard to slow down.

Serbia looks really good (blew up Angola and the Philippines)  They are freakin huge.  They have 4 guys playing in the NBA.  

https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2019/team/Serbia#tab=roster

I think they are the #1 challenge to Team USA.  Team USA will have to run them off the court to win, if they get a chance to play.

Our boy Daniel Theis threw down one monster dunk yesterday. I don’t think his team will go too far, but he really got up thereQQQQ