Las Vegas – It’s a good thing Team USA wasn’t playing Brazil or Argentina on Saturday.
The Americans had trouble shooting against zone defenses in splitting a four-quarter scrimmage with the U.S. select team, composed of younger NBA players. The senior team won the first and second quarters and lost the third and fourth, the last in overtime.
“We’re not shooting real well,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
Indeed, the Americans’ inconsistent long-range shooting, a problem in last year’s world championships, crop- ped up again. Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony each missed 3-pointers in the final 10 seconds of overtime.
Though it was only a scrimmage in a high school gym, the shooting woes brought back memories of last summer’s world championships in Japan. The U.S. shot 32 percent from beyond the arc in losing to Greece in the semifinals – a defeat that forced them to play in the FIBA Americas qualifying tournament this summer.
But Krzyzewski warned against reading too much into Team USA’s struggles four days before it opens the FIBA Americas. The U.S. needs to reach the finals to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.
“I don’t think you make anything of any one thing,” Krzy- zewski said. “It’s all a process.
“The main thing is, we’re playing really good defense. We have really good players. And we’re going to use those first few games in the tournament to develop a rotation.”
On Saturday, the senior team started Bryant, Anthony, LeBron James, Amare Stoudemire and Jason Kidd. But Krzyzewski said that wouldn’t necessarily be his starting five in the upcoming tournament.
“I think the three guys you could say would start every game would be Carmelo, Kobe and LeBron,” Krzyzewski said. “And then we would look at other people. The main thing is just so they can develop a feel of playing with one another.”
They looked out of sync late in the scrimmage, and for much of the overtime, against a fired-up select team that had given them little trouble earlier in training camp.
“The first two days, we were kind of like, ‘We’re supposed to lose,”‘ select team swingman Andre Iguodala said. “But I think after we lost, guys were pretty (ticked) off. That’s a good sign.
“We want to win. We aren’t here just to get beat up.”
The senior team led 20-12 in the fourth quarter – each quarter starts 0-0 – when the starters returned with about six minutes to play. The select team whittled the lead and tied the game on Jason Kapono’s 3-pointer with 25 seconds to play.
The senior team failed to get off a shot at the other end, forcing overtime. The select squad dominated the overtime on its way to a 39-35 victory.
“That’s what you want,” select guard Aaron Brooks said. “You want to push them. It was intense out there. We didn’t want to give up.”
Had this been a real game, Krzyzewski likely would have sent in one of his top long-range shooters – Mi- chael Redd or Mike Miller – in the final seconds. Instead, he stuck with his regulars.
“I might play five minutes of how we play in a game and then put a whole different kind of unit in, and then guys are sitting for 10 minutes,” he said. “It doesn’t really simulate that.”
But the intensity of play simulated international conditions.
“Everybody’s competing,” Kidd said. “Everybody wants to win. That’s what’s going to make us better.”
