Olympic Basketball Arena
London, England
Time: Sunday, 9:30 a.m. EDT
TV: NBC Sports Network
This one counts. I know we've all spent plenty of time picking apart and overanalyzing Team USA's five games to this point, and that's been a worthwhile exercise. But this is why they played those games — to prepare for the day when the games would actually matter, when the quest for another gold medal would officially begin. That day is Sunday. To be sure, it is still only pool play — a loss in this initial phase won't single-handedly doom the United States' chances like it will farther down the road. But at the same time, if you're coach Mike Krzyzewski and the crew, you don't want to risk dropping games here and drawing a less favorable seed in the single-elimination portion of the tournament. You don't want to make your road to the podium any harder than it has to be. This one counts. It's go time.
What To Watch For:
Point guard play. On its face, this shouldn't be much of a problem for Team USA. The Americans have the best point guard in the world in Chris Paul suiting up in the red, white, and blue, with Deron Williams functioning as a exceptionally competent back-up and the explosive Russell Westbrook always available if needed. It's an embarrassment of riches. Nevertheless, I can't seem to shake this feeling of uneasiness I have had over the last few exhibition games. Despite how everything looks on paper, the American point guard troika struggled mightily during the exhibition tour, particularly near its conclusion. Paul simply hasn't been his usual virtuosic self offensively, either creating for himself or for other. Williams has likewise shown flashes of brilliance (his big night against Great Britain, for example), but has been staggeringly ineffective when his shot fails to fall. And while Westbrook has played primarily in an off-the-ball capacity, his decision-making hasn't inspired a great deal of confidence as of late. All of these concerns are legitimate in their own right, but are compounded even further by the presence of Tony Parker on the French squad. No matter how you feel about him as an individual, Parker can flat-out play, and when he's at the top of his game, he's among the best point guards in the world. It remains to be seen if Parker will experience any lingering effects from the eye injury he sustained in the Drake-Chris Brown club fight last month, but if he comes to play and the Paul/Williams tandem does not, things could get a bit dicey.
LeBron. LeBron James is, without question, the best basketball player in the world. It doesn't matter where a game is played or with what rulebook, every possible scenario fits his skill set perfectly. However, despite his obvious advantages over any player who might possibly step on the court with him, LeBron's performance on the exhibition tour was uneven. There were certainly many times when he dominated, but there were also others where he simply faded into the background, becoming just another part of the scenery. If Team USA is to win a gold medal, they'll need a lot more of the former than the latter, and that means they will need LeBron to be locked in at all times. When he is focused, no one can touch him — he scores, he defends, he makes his teammates better, he is aggressive, all at the same time. The only person that can truly prevent that type of brilliance from happening is LeBron himself. No defender in this tournament will be able to unilaterally take him out of the game — only his own passivity can accomplish that. Which is to say that only LeBron can stop himself. That may be a cliche, but in this case it's also completely true. Only time will tell which LeBron James we will see on Sunday.
Bigs, bigs, bigs. This might sound like a broken record at this point, but that doesn't mean it's not an important one. If we're going to be completely honest, France isn't quite Spain down low. However, while our croissant-loving opponents may not be packing the same kind of frontcourt heat as our main Olympic rivals, they're also not terrible. The French have multiple NBA-caliber bigs (Kevin Seraphin, Ronny Turiaf) who should at least keep Team USA's depleted frontline honest, and maybe even draw a few quick and interminably stupid fouls from Tyson Chandler. I'm curious to see how many minutes Kevin Love earns after turning in a mostly solid performance against Spain in Chandler's absence against Spain. Did he show enough toughness and grit to convince Krzyzewski that he deserves more time? Or was last game merely an aberration due to Tyson's foul trouble? Similarly, if Chandler again proves to be unable to avoid fouling and keep himself on the floor, might we see a little more Anthony Davis? The Brow has been impressive in very limited minutes thus far, and many are clamoring to see him at least given a chance in non-garbage time situations. I believe he is more than capable of turning in a few quality minutes against the likes of Seraphin and Turiaf. If Coach K was ever going to give the kid a real shot, now is as good a time as ever.
This is it. Gold or bust. Go non-croissant lovers.
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