BEIJING — It was halftime, which was a nice break for Team USA, because continuous slam dunking can take a lot out of a man.
At that point in the Americans’ 97-76 rout of Angola, stat sheets were passed out to all the sportswriters, who were unanimously amused by the numbers of Angola’s Carlos Morais — zero assists, 10 turnovers.
Team USA “held on” to beat Angola, an opportunity to iron out some wrinkles before Thursday’s game against Greece, which defeated the Americans in the semifinals of the 2006 world championships.
Tuesday’s game was also an opportunity for the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony to actually contribute. Anthony, who struggled against China, made long-range jump shots and attacked the basket. He hit 4-of-6 shots, scored 12 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds in nearly 21 minutes.
“I think Carmelo is getting progressively better,” Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He’s getting really in good game shape. He hasn’t been shooting well. But today he didn’t concentrate on shooting, he concentrated on rebounding. And then the shots came. We haven’t shot the ball well from the outside since we’ve been here, but I believe we will. To see Carmelo come on like that, it’s encouraging.”
Yes, it was against Angola, a team Krzyzewski probably could have scored double figures against. But it was important for Anthony to get his confidence back.
“I told Coach before this tournament, I’m going to try to get the record — 16 rebounds — in one of these games,” Anthony said. “I know I can score at any given time, but I’ll leave the scoring up to Kobe (Bryant), Le-Bron (James) and Dwyane Wade — he’s playing fantastic right now. So if I can go out there and grab 16 rebounds, that’s a whole lot better for the team than scoring 20, 25 points. That’s my role, rebound and defend.”
When the game mercifully ended, Angola’s players headed to the locker room. But Morais, who had the dubious distinction of being his team’s top scorer with 24 points, was stopped by a television reporter for an interview. During a team meeting in the locker room, an Angola assistant coach realized Morais wasn’t there. The coach stormed down the hallway and, sure enough, there was Mr. Turnover, hamming it up for the camera.
If, as seen in cartoons, steam could actually shoot out of a man’s ears, such would have been the case.
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
