Game 4: Sat. 8/16 - USA vs Spain- Predictions/Comments

Another reason why Spain would've want to win today and give it their all, seedings.

Group A has:
Lithuania
Argentina
Australia
Croatia
Iran

Group B has:
US
Spain
Greece
China
Germany
Angola

In the quarterfinals the #1 ranked team in group B would play the #4 ranked team (same with Group A1 vs Group B4). If I were Spain, I'd rather play Australia or Russia in the first round and have an easier semi-finals. If you are ranked two in group B you'll have to play the #1 seeded team in Group A in the semi-finals (assuming they don't lose in the quarters vs the #4 ranked team in group B).

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/08/oly ... cRank.html

Weezy wrote:What happened to the loose foul calling and rough play? All this game is is foul after foul after foul. That 3rd foul on Kobe was BS, he didn't do jack.

International refs. Enough said.

LOL, what was that on the free throw line, Kobe?

Man, the US made Spain look like Angola. Way too easy.

Wow, that was some seriously horrible officating. Even for FIBA refs.

Best all round game by the US so far. Nothing to criticize. If there were a few bum calls (or non-calls) by the refs, so what. The team brought it on defense (7 steals in the first quarter alone), they broke Spain's zone with their 3pt shooting. After that, Spain was not competitive.

If they play again in the Final, I expect a closer game as Spain will fight harder and with everything they've got.

Well, it's back to boring games again.

Greece at least put up a fight for awhile.

two0one7 wrote:International refs. Enough said.

And I thought NBA refs were bad.

E.T Gasol wrote:

bumrusherer wrote:E.T Gasol....Are you enjoying the game??

No, i like european style, sorry. I do not like to see players running and make a dunk in 4 of 5 plays, but is my opinion.

It's called high percentage shots. Believe me if the European teams can do that they would. They just don't have nearly the same athleticism the USA has.

Why would anyone want to take a jump shot over a dunk?? You can have 30 3 point attempts per game while I'll take 30 dunk attempts.

anyone know where i can watch this game online?

Weezy wrote:We're tearing their zone apart, bunch of flopping, zone playing losers. Screw Rudy Fernandez, telling the ref to give LeBron a tech, what a baby, shut the heck up.

You sound like me earlier in this thread. I kept complaining about all the damn flopping they were doing, but I assumed no one else here saw the same thing because I was the only one talking about it.

Glad to know I'm not COMPLETELY blind.

If that's Euro style ball....they can keep it. Fallin', floppin' and stumbling all over the place.....they ought to be ashamed of themselves.

I wanted to see a competitive game, was kind of a letdown, even though I enjoyed watching the team usa play so well. I think some people like, I don't know, Chris Sheridan, are at fault for making it seem like Spain is the supreme basketball superpower. ha.

So what's the concensus on Rubio? The kid is pretty good.

He's still young though, I think 2 more years, and he becomes a very good player. Needs a jumpshot though.

I like how he is very stable with the ball, and can already run a team offense.

He would look good in Purple and Gold. And the name is straight up, hollywood pron staresque.

Rubio is already pretty good at the offensive end, very good instincts and a bit of flair for the position. He may be 2 years away from being good enough at that end of the floor for the NBA. But defensively, he was getting burned routinely by Chris Paul and Deron Williams. On the other hand, those two along with Tony Parker are the best young PGs on the planet, they're gonna burn everyone. I think if Rubio continues to improve that he will become the best PG in Europe in a few years and maybe a top 10 pick in the NBA draft if he comes out at 19 years old (that would be the 2010 draft).

And good gosh, I love that name....

I see great composure from Rubio, he played better than Calderon, Navarro or that chucker whose name escapes me..that pass to Fernandez was inspired..

As for the game, my prediction came true of US blasting Spain in the early quarters unfortunately for Spain they got blasted a lot more later..

Hopefully they face each other again in the gold medal game..

Weezy wrote:What happened to the loose foul calling and rough play? All this game is is foul after foul after foul. That 3rd foul on Kobe was BS, he didn't do jack.

man i think kobe running thru pau's screen was a clear foul

loved the message sent to pau as well!

absolute THRASHING....loved every second of it...i actually watched the game in MALAYSIA and there were some ppl from spain watching the game too....man we were going NUTS chanting USA every time they got a sick dunk or a sick block....it feels good to see USA KILL teams like the old days....lets keep it going tho....

I'm not talking about the Spain game here, be clear.

But you guys stop blaming the refs about non-calls. It's FIBA rules. They let americans do some things other countries can't. And if they call every traveling US does ... i mean, in an early pre-olympic game there's a video in youtube which counts dozens and dozens of travelings. That's a TO per traveling. With your extra-step, sure US players look like Bolt. Also they do did several illegal screens in the tournament, ...

FIBA rules guys, and US plays half game with that half game with NBA rules, since ever.

So let the refs alone.

bystander wrote:I'm not talking about the Spain game here, be clear.

But you guys stop blaming the refs about non-calls. It's FIBA rules. They let americans do some things other countries can't. And if they call every traveling US does ... i mean, in an early pre-olympic game there's a video in youtube which counts dozens and dozens of travelings. That's a TO per traveling. With your extra-step, sure US players look like Bolt. Also they do did several illegal screens in the tournament, ...

FIBA rules guys, and US plays half game with that half game with NBA rules, since ever.

So let the refs alone.

I'm sorry but WTF are you talking about? It is widely known that FIBA officiating is the worst officiating in the history of basketball officiating. If they called the three thousand moving picks, screens and shoves that the FIBA teams get awasy with on the Americans the games would be over in 10 minutes because all the other team would have fouled out.

The Refs suck but no one has been complaining about it. I suppose you like inconsistant officiating where a team can't even adapt to the officiating. I suppose watching half of the PG's in this tournament carry the ball 50 times a game with no calls should be ignored. Lets not forget the "I am not planted" defensive charges the other teams are getting on the Americans. You can count atleast 6 of those a game. Oh, and how about the "let me grab the big centers arm and hold on for dear life and then flop" play that seems to keep D. Howard out of the games. Did I forget to mention the "they are on a break let me clothesline the man with the ball" play that is often thrown out there for good measure.

Yeah you are right we should give the refs a break.

In retrospect, I don't see any travel, its just blinding speed..I was not really too sure of USA's chances before the games because I thought they were too small but now I understand why they put the King at PF...