US practices, expects to look sharper
September 4, 2010
ISTANBUL (AP)—After one lackluster victory during pool play, MikeKrzyzewski encountered some feistier competition in his news conference than theU.S. faced on the court.
“Why didn’t the USA score more?” one reporter asked.
“Why isn’t the team practicing?” questioned another.
Maybe the two issues were related.
The Americans finally got into the gym for practice Saturday, the first stepin what they believe will be cleaner play during the elimination round ofbasketball’s world championship.
“We haven’t played as consistent in the preliminaries as we wanted to forthe most part, but I think this practice helps us get our execution and timingback and our aggression on defense,” guard Stephen Curry(notes) said. “So I likewhere we’re at going into Monday.”
The U.S. will play Angola that night in the round of 16, which beganSaturday with Serbia ousting Croatia 73-72 and Spain taking on Greece. TheAmericans earned some extra time off by winning Group B with a 5-0 record.
Krzyzewski said the practice Saturday was the Americans’ first since Aug.27, the day before the tournament started. They then had games on three straightnights, opted not to practice on the group’s off day before closing with gameson consecutive days.
The players were given a day off Friday, with Krzyzewski saying “theyneeded to just get away from everything” before finally having what he called ahard practice Saturday. They’ll work out again Sunday.
“Somebody said, ‘Well, why aren’t you practicing?’ Well, we’re playinggames,” Krzyzewski said. “And that’s just the nature of internationaltournaments, how they bunch everything up at one time and all of a sudden you’vegot time. But hopefully it’ll be productive time for us.”
Forward Rudy Gay(notes) of the Memphis Grizzlies took part in the entire practiceafter sitting out the second half of the Americans’ 92-57 victory over Tunisiaon Thursday with a sore right groin.
That was just a four-point game early in the third quarter after a sluggishfirst half by the U.S. The Americans weren’t impressive in the 88-51 victoryover Iran that preceded that, but they believe the lack of sharpness was becausethey were playing overmatched opponents in games that didn’t matter to theirseeding.
“These practices are going to really help us, because we really didn’t haveany practice time in those games,” forward Kevin Durant(notes) said. “None of thosegames, actually.”
Krzyzewski had warned that teams can have slippage when just playing gamesand not practicing, so the players welcomed the chance to work, even in thesteamy gym belonging to a Turkish club team.
“You can get better in the games, but when you have time to break downplays, run repetitions, just compete against each other, I think it definitelywill get us excited and prepared for the next four games,” Curry said.
Four games would mean the Americans would be playing next Sunday for thegold medal, and they have a draw that gives them a chance. They should beheavily favored against Angola and the Russia-New Zealand winner before theywould likely face either unbeaten Lithuania, Argentina or Brazil, which the U.S.beat 70-68 in pool play.
“It’s not so much about who we play, it’s about how we play,” USABasketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said. “And if we take care of our businessand we improve the way we feel we need to improve in those certain areas, thenwe’re going to be fine. Do we win it? Time will tell. I think we have a greatshot. I said that from the beginning and I believe it even more so now.”
Krzyzewski said he expected Angola to attack on offense, and that’s probablywhat the Americans need to bring out their best. They knew they were going tobeat Iran and Tunisia no matter what, so they rarely even pressed and didn’t usenormal rotation patterns, not interested in embarrassing their opponents.
“They’ll do better in a game where they know they can lose than in a gamewhere you know pretty much, those last two, they’re not going to lose thosegames,” Krzyzewski said.
Unlike his NBA players, who play best-of-seven series in the postseason,Krzyzewski is used to playing games in a single elimination format from coachingin college’s NCAA tournament. So he knows the consistent play that often wasabsent in the last round must arrive right from the start of this one.
“We need to play really well and get into the mood for this week, thatone-and-done mood,” he said.
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