Wednesday Bolts – 8.8.12
Tom Ziller of SB Nation on rooting for Team USA: “But this American team isn’t anything like that team. Are there enough similar elements that the anti-razzle dazzle sector of basketball fans can find fault? We know how easy it is for a large swath of people to hate LeBron. Carmelo Anthony is not widely popular. Russell Westbrook has detractors. The team’s current play is quite cocky, via all of those damn three-pointers. Is this team unlikable enough that there would be glee if they lost? I don’t mean glee from the truly irredeemable like Skip Bayless — I mean widespread glee, widespread schadenfreude? Would some fans be happy if Team USA lost?”
Zach Lowe of SI.com: “It’s nice to trumpet the NBA’s anti-big man evolution, but the two teams held up as the primary examples of killer small-ball play also happen to have arguably the league’s two best players — LeBron James and Kevin Durant, both of whom can conveniently play power forward for extended minutes (or in LeBron’s case, entire games). If you don’t have one of those guys, possessing a big man is basically essential. Remember: Indiana outscored Miami in the playoffs when Hibbert was on the floor, and even if the Heat reversed that trend over the last three games of the series, the Pacers were still miles better in that stretch when the big fella played.”
A very cool picture of KD done by Vince Chang.
KD returns home to Seat Pleasant in a pretty cool video.
Dan Devine of BDL previewing today’s game: “It needs bigs Aleks Maric and Aron Baynes to bang America’s frontcourt early and often. It needs Team USA to play the brand of defense that nearly netted Lithuania an upset and kept Argentina close through two quarters. It needs multiple U.S. shooters — Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Kevin Love, take your pick — to continue settling for 3-pointers and go ice-cold from long range. It needs USA coach Mike Krzyzewski to forget what the numbers say and refuse to go big. If all that goes Australia’s way, the Boomers should be within 15 in the fourth. From there, who knows what can happen?”