Morning Basketball!

Over the years, I’ve watched a lot of basketball, but I can definitively say this is a true first for me: waking up before 6am to catch a bball game on TV. It’s halftime of the US vs. Australia game at the Olympics and the US just hit a halfcourt shot to go up 12 right before the half. If you’re the Australians, don’t you have to wonder about those basketball gods?

I mean, shoot, they have Lebron, Kobe, AND you give them crazy hits like that?!

Really though, so far the Australians have effectively followed the playbook for how you stay with the Americans:

• Neutralize ball pressure by attacking the basket with the dribble (sort of a staple of any offensive gameplan against Coach K teams).
• Don’t turn the ball over (I think they have 7 or 8 turnovers at half, which against Kobe & co. qualifies as low turnover basketball).
• Try to make all the US shots difficult (or make the US shoot free throws). Hope the Americans get one of those free throw bugs, which seems to be working (I believe the US is 10-20 from the line in the first half.
• Slow the game down as much as possible by getting everyone back on defense and sagging off the US shooters (and hope they don’t shoot like they did against Spain, working so far).
• Bring in a thug to hack at the US star players to try to get someone thrown out. Dwight Howard almost fell for it when Carmelo was over-aggressively fouled.
• Pray and get lucky.

Despite all that, they’re still down 12 at half (though they were within 6 or 7 for most of it).

Here comes the second half!