USA! USA! USA!

Some unorganized thoughts from Team USA’s exhibitions this weekend against Lithuania and Spain. Bullet time!

-USA looked awful in the first half against Lithuania and trailed by two at the break. The key difference that led to “The Tale of Two Halves*”? Lamar Odom eschewing his headband in the second half. It’s either that or America’s athleticism on the defensive end wore down the Lithuanian guards. One of the two.
*Thankfully this boring game ended within two hours instead of many hours and 400 pages later. No offense, Mr. Dickens.

-Kevin Love may not be fully healthy but deserves more playing time. He is the best rebounder on an undersized team, an excellent outlet passer on a team that wants to push the pace and his defensive shortcomings aren’t as noticeable because the other options are Rudy Gay/Kevin Durant at power forward or Tyson Chandler getting extended minutes. It’s odd that Chandler has been able to play for this team; I could have sworn I saw him washed up while at the beach this summer.

-The Lithuanian team takes a page out of Herb Brooks’ book and realizes that “the name on the front is a hell of a lot more important than the one on the back.” Sure, the name on the back is their team sponsor, pokerstars.net, but still. It’s all about the L(ithuania), fellas.