One Down, Two Remain for Team USA

(Boulder-CO) The USA Basketball Team continues to roll over the competition with their latest victim being Australia 113-73. Carmelo Anthony continued his brilliant play against the Aussies by finishing with 20 points, four rebounds, three dimes, and a team leading three steals. ‘Melo was an impressive 9-11 from the free-throw line, and 3-6 from downtown. When asked if the USA has been challenged in these FIBA championships. Carmelo replied with, “Yeah, we’ve been challenged. We played Brazil in China on the way here and they were tough. Italy was probably our biggest challenge in Sapporo. Today in the first half, Australia was a challenge until we picked it up defensively. We know that Germany will be a challenge on Wednesday. They beat Nigeria tonight. We have to do our research, look at our scouting report and figure out our game plan.”

Team USA now faces Dirk Nowitzki and the German national team on Wednesday in the wee hours of the morning. As long as Carmelo keeps dominating, I will keep forgoing any type of sleep schedule to document it.

A critical point to mention about the way that the bracket is structured is Argentina and Spain are seeded on the other side of the bracket. This means that the USA will not have to potentially face either of the other two powerhouse teams until the gold medal game. Argentina is anchored by San Antonio Spurs star Manu Ginobili. Spain has NBA All-Star Pau Gasol and his seven-foot younger brother. Both teams are considered very dangerous due to their great outside shooting and team chemistry.

Other performances of note for the USA were Chris Bosh with nine rebounds and twelve points, Dwayne Wade with 15 points and four assists, and Joe Johnson with 18 points and two steals.