Ty Watches USA vs Serbia Men's Olympic Basketball

I was able to catch one hell of an ending in the men's Olympic semifinal yesterday between Serbia and the US. I was doing other things when the game started, but I would check my phone periodically, looking for the score. Serbia was in total control of that game, from what I saw. through the first three quarters. I saw that Serbia was leading by 16 at one point, and they took an 11 point lead into halftime. I wasn't too nervous because I figured the US would turn it on in the third quarter and roll to an easy victory. I forgot to check the score for a good 10-15 minutes, and boy was I stunned when I saw Serbia had a 13 point lead going into the fourth quarter. I figured the US was cooked and they would be playing for bronze. I finished the recording I had with RD, and when signing off he told me that the US cut the lead to five. This was when I decided I had to turn it on. I told my son to come watch the game with me. He likes the Olympics and he loves basketball, so he was more than happy to watch the end of the game with me.

When we turned it on the lead was four in favor of Serbia 76-72. But it looked like the US had turned the lightswitch on on both ends of the floor. I saw Embiid get a paint touch, on soft ass Nikola Jokic, and he made an easy turnaround jumper to cut it to two. The US then suffocated Serbia, got a rebound and LeBron drove to the rim with no issues. Not one Serbian player tried to step in front of him. He cruised to the hoop to tie it up. Serbia got a couple free throws, but then it was Steph time. He came off a screen, had as wide open a look as he may ever get and he rimmed in a three. The US didn't look back. Serbia had a few chances to tie it, but the US tightened up and hit some clutch jumpers and clutch free throws. The US won 95-91 and will face France in the Gold medal game tomorrow afternoon.

I will admit that I was frustrated watching the end of the game. I'm a child of the 90's, I think Jordan is the GOAT and I am of the firm belief that the 92 Dream Team is the best assembly of basketball talent the world has ever seen. I did lean over to my son and say, "the Dream Team would've been up by 30 at this point". I was heated, I like this collection of current players and I expected a total blowout. That is not the case anymore. The talent has evened way more than back in 92. I need to check myself and calm down when making big statements like that. The US did what they had to do and they won. Steph was absolutely incredible on the offensive end. I think he ended up with 36 points. LeBron was the leader he has been throughout his entire career. He ended with 16 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. He is the only Olympian to record multiple triple doubles in Olympics play. He is truly astonishing to watch play the game of basketball. Embiid finally showed up and showed out. He is so much better at basketball than Nikola Jokic, and he showed as much yesterday. I don't care what the Zach Lowe's and stats nerds say, based on pure eye test, Embiid is a better defender, a better shooter, he cares more and he loves the game. What more could you want from a basketball player? Kevin Durant continued his wonderful run off the bench for Team USA. He has been a mid range killer in these games and he continued that trend yesterday. He had this beautiful moment where he flashed open for an elbow jumper and hit nothing but net to put the US up by four late in the fourth. He has been the guy that can get you a bucket when you most need it in these Olympics. Devin Booker did his job spacing the floor and bringing the ball up. Jrue Holiday, when he locked in, played incredible defense. Anthony Davis played his part in less minutes than he is used to. I mean, it has been so cool watching these superstars let go of egos and play the game as a team. They are doing what is best for everyone on the squad, not just themselves.

I do want to give Bogdan Bogdanovic a shout out. He was the only Serbian I saw yesterday that looked like he wanted to win. I feel like the rest of that team took on Jokic's ho hum attitude. Not Bogdanovic. He was out to win yesterday. He stayed attacking. He wanted the victory more than any of his other teammates. He was the best Serbian on the floor by a million miles. I've grown so tired and so bored of all the love that Jokic gets, so it was refreshing to see a different Serbian going all out yesterday. But it still wasn't enough.

The US survived and advanced. They have a very tough gold medal match coming up against the host country. France is big, they protect the rim and they have the fans and refs in their favor. I hope the US comes out with some fire in their bellies and puts away France early. If not they are in for another battle. But the US really showed some pride and grit and it was damn exciting to watch yesterday. I can't wait for the Gold medal game now. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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Watch out for Team France at the Olympics

The men's Team USA basketball team won their first scrimmage last night against Team Canada. Let’s discuss.

Team USA looked a little discombobulated at times, but they also looked good. Anthony Edwards played a solid game. LeBron and Steph seemed to have nice chemistry. All the bigs, with Joel Embiid being the exception, played okay. Embiid had a rough go, but I feel like he will figure it out.

This is a good group of pros for this team, and I do feel like they should be the favorites heading into the summer olympics. This will not be an easy go though. I understand we didn't have our absolute best at the FIBA Championships last summer, but they did not medal. That was worrisome. Germany is good. Spain is solid. Brazil has some decent players. Canada is loaded. But, I think the biggest obstacle, the hardest country to play is going to be France.

France is stacked. They have current and former NBA players up and down their roster. They have youth and they have size. They have chemistry. They play loose and have fun. They are not the favorites going into these games, so they are playing with house money. I had to look up their roster just to see how well put together it actually is. This is a solid group of players. Rudy Gobert, Victor Webanyama, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum and Bilal Coulibaly are all currently on NBA rosters. Gobert, for all of his warts, is a very, very, very good defender. He has multiple DPOY's. He is one of the better rim protectors currently in the game. He can rebound and he can run a pick and roll. Wemby is the best young prospect in the NBA. He is the unicorn of unicorns. He is my favorite player to watch. He literally does it all. He is already as good a defender as Gobert. He is an excellent rebounder. He can shoot the three and attack the glass. He is an amazing player to watch and will be for a long, long time. Fournier and Batum's best days are behind them, but they always up their game in the Olympics. They can both shoot, and Batum plays solid defense. Coulibaly is coming off an okay rookie season, but he is playing with his home country and teaming up once again with Wemby. They have wonderful chemistry and they made the Metropolitan 96ers a team to watch last season. The rest of their roster is full of overseas pro players. The overseas players play on some of the best pro teams overseas and are integral parts of those teams. This France roster is almost as well constructed as Team USA. The French roster has much better chemistry than the US. These dudes use their offseasons playing together. They get together and work on their team building. They know how to play off one another. They have set plays that have worked time and time again. There is something to all of that. It is useful to have that kind of camaraderie and knowing your teammates abilities.

Team USA has some time to get a bit of chemistry, but it is not like the years that all of these other countries have played together. The US is going in as the betting favorite, but it is going to be an absolute bloodbath. They are going to play at their peak night in and night out. And even if they do that, France is going to come to play. I would not be shocked at all if these two meetup in the gold medal game and France won. That is how much respect I have for their roster. The US cannot go into a matchup with France and expect to win. They need to be ready for everything the French will throw at them. And I cannot wait to watch. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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It Does Not Look Good For Team USA Basketball

I think it is time to start worrying about Team USA winning any medal at the Olympics this year.

I got up early yesterday to watch Olympic basketball. I love basketball, and if it is on and I am up I will watch. I particularly like Olympic basketball because of the different rules. They play by FIBA rules and that means they can play a bit rougher, faster and pull rebounds off the rim, even if the ball looks like it is going in. I would love for the NBA and college basketball to adopt some of these rules. The best thing about Olympic basketball is the fact that the games are done within two hours. It is close to perfect.

So I got out of bed to watch Team USA. I saw the exhibition games and kind of shrugged off the losses to Nigeria and Australia. They rebounded nicely against Argentina and Spain, and I even went on the pod and said they should be a lock to win gold. Even without guys like LeBron and AD and Steph, they still have KD, Dame, Tatum, Draymond Green and Bam Adebayo, to name a few. Most of the twelve guys on the team are super stars and some of the best players in the world. I know that other countries are catching up, but still, the overall talent on Team USA's roster is chock full of upper tier NBA talent. Look at a team like Slovenia for example. They have Luka Doncic, and a bunch of dudes I have never heard of before. Spain has Ricky Rubio and the Gasol brothers, then a bunch of dudes that had a cup of coffee in the league. Nigeria has some young NBA talent, but no one that really even starts on an NBA team. Australia has a really good group of players, a lot of which are in the NBA still, but none of them are even close to being the best players on their teams. And France has some good dudes, namely Rudy Gobert, but again, Team USA, on paper, has way, way better talent.

I saved France for last because that is who beat Team USA yesterday. The USA came out strong, led by double figures at one point, and then totally melted down. They couldn't hit the ocean. They couldn't get a stop. They kept making stupid fouls. KD fouled out of the game, and only scored ten points. Team USA was an absolute mess in the second half, and France jumped all over them. Rudy Gobert was stifling them at the rim. Evan Fournier could not be stopped. All the other guys on France's roster did what they were told to do, and France came away with a fairly easy 83-76 win. After the game Evan Fournier said that Team USA is a great collection of talent, but they can be beaten as a team.

Therein lies the problem with USA basketball at the moment. We are entitled. We are egotistical. We think we can just walk on the floor and win because our jersey says USA across the front. That isn't the case anymore. Evan Fournier is right. This current USA team is not very good. They are constantly complaining to the refs which is causing them to get beat on defense. These guys are so used to getting minor calls that when it doesn't happen in the Olympics, they get flustered and instead of getting back, they gripe. That needs to stop. Another alarming thing I saw was Jrue Holiday was the leading scorer and about the only guy that played good defense. I love Jrue Holiday, but he just came off the Finals, had no practice with the team and he should not be the leading scorer on a team that has KD, Dame, Tatum and Devin Booker. Hell, his teammate Khris Middleton would be a better top scoring option on this team. Then, after Fournier's comments, Dame came out and said that these guys play differently when they are playing for their home country. That may be true, but I do not think it is a bad thing. They are playing pridefully and they want to represent their home country. That is what I want out of Team USA. Look at when Carmelo played for Team USA. He was instant offense off the bench. When LeBron did it he did what was asked of him. Same with Kobe. Michael Jordan played total shut down defense on the Dream Team. Those guys did what was needed because they realized the collection of talent they had around them. They didn't need to be the top scorer or rebounder or shoot a million free throws. They found a way to mesh.

And now some of the current players are complaining, anonymously, about having to run the Spurs offense. Greg Poppovich is Team USA's head coach, so he is going to instill the offense he has run for almost 3 decades now. And you know what, that offense works. Pop is the greatest NBA coach of all time. He knows how to utilize the talents of everyone on his teams. He has won so many rings. The Spurs are always in playoff contention. So why would running his offense be a problem? I think it has to do with ball movement. The Spurs are the best passing team of all time. I'm not saying that these players don't pass, but the offenses they run in the NBA are built around them. KD goes one on one most of the time with the Nets. Same with Tatum. Damian Lillard is the face of the Trailblazers offense. Draymond Green is, maybe, the only guy on this team that is a willing passer. That needs to change. They don't need to complain about the offense being run. That is an excuse.

The simple fact is Team USA is not playing good basketball right now, the world has caught up to them and they are finding ways to make it seem like it is not their fault. It is though. Something has to change. They need to get their act together. If they don't they could wind up not winning a medal at all. France, Nigeria and Australia all exposed this iteration of Team USA. The playbook is out on how to beat them and how to get in their heads. I hope they get it together soon. But if they don't this team is going to be coming home from Tokyo early and empty handed. I still have faith that they can right the ship, but that faith is a mere flicker. KD is my main hope for a turnaround, but that will only happen if he starts to make shots. I hope he does or this team is done.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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Should We Worry About Team USA Basketball?

It was bound to happen one way or another, and probably sooner rather than later, and this team felt like the one it would happen to, but Team USA got beat very early this morning by France, and they will not medal in the 2019 FIBA games.

This is the first time in a very long time that USA will not win gold, let alone any medal. I believe I heard that this was their first loss in 58 games. Even when they didn't have that good of a team, well, good but not cohesive, they got bronze. This team though, they won't even come home with that. They will get zero medals of any kind.

This is sad, but not all that surprising. I did think, even though every great American player decided to skip the FIBA games this year, that Team USA had more than enough talent to win out. I mean, Kemba Walker is an All Star. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have the potential to be stars in the league. Myles Turner is one of the better bigs in the modern NBA. Harrison Barnes has played in these games before. He has the experience. Joe Harris can shoot threes. Marcus Smart is one of the best defenders in the NBA. Derrick White had a great playoffs last year, and looks like he can become a viable starter in the league. I mean, the team was filled with NBA players, and they have some talent. But, when they had to go to overtime to beat Turkey, and Australia beat them in a scrimmage and they didn't really hammer teams like other USA squads did, this loss felt almost inevitable.

I thought, if anyone was going to beat them it was going to be Serbia. But, they blew their semifinal game a day earlier. Don't get me wrong, France has some good guys, guys that have legitimate NBA talent, but Team USA should have won. Yes, France has Nic Batum, Frank Nkilitina and Rudy Gobert, but not much else. I thought this game would have been close for a half, then the talent USA has would win out, but it didn't. They got beat, and they got beat pretty soundly. It didn't help that Kemba missed 2 big time free throws, and players were late on switches and France knows each other so much better. But still, USA should have won, and they should have won gold.

Again, I know that this was like the G squad. If this team had just one of LeBron, AD, KD, Kyrie, Damien Lillard, CJ McCollum, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, DeAaron Fox, I could go on and on and on, they would have coasted. But they didn't, and they were scrambling just to keep guys on the final roster that they settled with. This was a poorly constructed team, but a lot of that is due to players dropping out. But you know what, I don't blame the super stars for pulling out. We are talking about FIBA. This isn't the Olympics, and when the 2020 games come around, I would be shocked if Team USA is in a similar bind trying to get guys to stay. LeBron will most likely play, I'd imagine, if healthy, KD would come aboard. I'm sure Kyrie will want to play. Same with James Harden. Team USA in the 2020 Olympics will look so much different, and better. But, this if definitely an upset, and should shock a lot of casual basketball fans.

Bottom line, with the caliber player they had, USA should have won, and should have won easily. But they didn't, and they won't win anything of note at the FIBA games. What a bummer.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.