16-08-2008

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King James and U.S.A. Team Handle Spain a Blowout Loss »

The U.S. Men’s Senior National Team should have no doubters now. Coming into Saturday’s much anticipated matchup with Spain, the U.S. had won their first three games comfortably, but they’d done it while shooting just 29 percent from three point range and just 64 percent from the foul line. The doubters thought that poor shooting would be their eventual downfall. Others wondered what would happen if they started shooting well. Well, what would happen is that they would beat Spain by 37 points. The victory clinched first place in Pool B for the Americans, who complete opening round play against Germany on Monday, then they likely face Australia in the quarterfinals, then Argentina or Lithuania in the semifinals. James could find only one fault with Team USA’s performance, saying it had three or four unforced errors when it tried to force outlet passes to the point guards when Spain hung back on defense. But he rated this overall performance as superior to the one two nights earlier against Greece. “We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well against Greece, from the free-throw line or the 3-point line,” James said. “But we shot 45 percent from 3 and almost 80 at the line, so that’s a plus. We know we’re going to defend, we know we’re going to get fast-break points, but when we can shoot the ball from the outside like that, and shoot free throws, it’s going to be tough for anybody to beat us.” Info via NBA.com.

Photos Copyright Notice: Copyright 2008 NBAE via Getty Images. Photos by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images, Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images, Streeter Lecka/Getty Images .