Connect with us

Dick Weiss

Team USA has had its share of close calls since 1996

BILBAO, Spain– When Team USA defeated Turkey, 98-77, Sunday in Group C pool play at the FIBA World Cup of Basketball here, they quickly established themselves as the team to beat in heir side of the bracket. Despite the absence of established NBA stars in a non-Olympic year, the American senior men’s national team, which faces winless New Zealand today at the BEC, is 2-0 and conventional wisdom suggests they should not be tested until they reach the gold medal game when they most likely will meet powerful Spain in Madrid with an automatic Olympic bid on the line.

    Team USA, which beat Finland, 114-55, in the opening game of this competition, struggled for three quarters before they finally knocked out the determined Turks, who outplayed them in the first half and actually took a 40-35 lead before eventually collapsing under the weight of the American’s inside power game, provided us with a reminder not to take anything for granted in international competition.
    “I guess we felt like last night’s game was pretty easy and tonight was going to be the same way, but Turkey came out and they gave us their punch from the beginning,” forward James Harden said. “We took it and we were sluggish. That second half we played a lot better.”
    The Americans haven’t lost since the semi-finals of the 2006 World championships. Turkey played without their best player Hedo Turkoglu and NBA veteran Ersan Ilyasova, but they had eight players back from the 2010 World championship team that lost to the USA in the gold medal game in Istanbul and remained competitive until the start of the fourth quarter when the Americans put the game away with a 10-0 run to take a 76-60 lead. This was the same Turkish team that was outplayed and had to rally for a victory over New Zealand the day before.
   Afterwards, Craig Miller of USA Basketball was quick to point out that although the USA completely dominated the competition in the early ’90s when there was a huge gap between the NBA legends of the Dream team and the rest of the world. But since 1996, the USA has seemingly been involved in at least one tight game in every major international competition.
     Miller has since put together his memories of the closest games the USA has been involved in that resulted in a victory, along with a quick recap of each game. 
     — 1

996 Olympics – USA 95, Yugoslavia 69
In the gold medal game, witnessed by an Olympic men’s basketball record crowd of 34,600, the U.S. finished strong to hand Yugoslavia its only loss of the Games 95-69 and earn the gold medal. Struggling with its shooting early, the U.S., which trailed by seven points midway through the first half, fought back to take a 43-38 lead at halftime. Leading 51-50 with 14:03 remaining, the U.S. recorded an 18-4 scoring run to take control 69-55 and went on to earn a 95-69 victory and the Olympic gold. The USA was paced by game highs of 28 points and seven rebounds from David Robinson, while Reggie Miller finished with 20 points and Tim Hardaway added 17.
     — 2000 Olympics – USA 85, Lithuania 83
After the U.S. posted an 85-76 victory, the closest margin since NBA players began competing in 1992, in preliminary play against Lithuania, the two teams met a second time in the semifinals of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The U.S. was forced to rally back in the game’s final 90 seconds and only after Lithuania’s Sarunas Jasikevicius desperation 3-pointer fell short as time ran out did the U.S. claim a tight 85-83 victory. Vince Carter paced the U.S. scoring attack with 18 points, Alonzo Mourning had 16 and Kevin Garnett finished with 12 points, 14 rebounds.
    — 2001 Goodwill Games – USA 106, Brazil 98 (OT)
Fielding a team that featured top young NBA players for the 2001 Goodwill Games, the USA team battled to a hard fought 106-98 overtime victory in the semifinals and went on to claim the gold medal. The United States led 79-67 heading into the fourth quarter, but Brazil tied the game 90-90 with 40.7 seconds to play. Brazil got the ball back with 16 seconds to play for a chance to win the game, but guard Dementrius Ferraciu was tightly defended by the USA’s Baron Davis and was unable to get a shot off sending the contest into overtime. Brazil led 96-94 with 3:20 to play in overtime but Andre Miller stepped up for the USA. Scoring eight points for the U.S. in the overtime, Miller found Jermaine O’Neal inside for a basket that gave the Americans the lead for good 97-96 with 2:52 remaining and the U.S. went on to earn the 106-98 win. O’Neal led the offense scoring 22 points, Kenyon Martin finished with 18 points and Andre Miller added 16 points.
    — 2003 FIBA Americas Championship (Olympic Qualifier) – USA 94, Argentina 86
In the much anticipated game with Argentina, the team that had ended the U.S. senior team’s 58-game win streak with an 87-80 win in the 2002 World Championship, Jermaine O’Neal finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, but it was a defensive play by the center that helped the U.S. prevail for a 94-86 victory. With the U.S. leading 87-83 late in the game, O’Neal blocked Fabricio Oberto’s shot with 1:13 left which started a fast-break that was finished off by a dunk by Vince Carter that pushed the USA ahead 89-83.
     —

2006 World Cup– USA 95, Italy 85.

The USA trailed by nine points, 45-36, at halftime in its pool play matchup with undefeated Italy at the 2006 FIBA World Championship. Italy hit a three to start the third and push its lead to 48-36. From there the USA blitzed the Italians, outscoring them, 25-6 as Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade combined to score 21 of those points. Behind Anthony’s 19 points in the quarter, the USA outscored Italy 35-19 in the third to take a 71-64 advantage into the fourth quarter. Italy closed the gap to three, but could never get any closer.  Anthony finished with a USA World Championship single-game record 35 points and Wade added 26 more.
     — 2008 Olympics – USA 118, Spain 107
In a gold medal classic where the winner was never certain until the final minutes, the U.S. dethroned reigning world champion Spain in a fight-to-the-finish 118-107 victory that earned the USA the 2008 Olympic gold medal in Beijing, China. With the U.S. leading 91-89 and just over eight minutes left in the gold medal game, Kobe Bryant scored two points out of a timeout, Deron Williams sank a 3-pointer and Dwight Howard dunked off a Kobe Bryant assist to cushion the USA advantage to 98-89 with 6:48 left. With 3:32 remaining Spain had closed the gap to five, 104-99. Bryant answered with a 3-pointer while drawing Rudy Fernandez’s fifth and final foul. Bryant sank the free throw for a four-point play that upped the U.S. advantage to 108-99. Spain’s Carlos Jimenez‘ 3-pointer at 2:25 cut the U.S. lead to 108-104 but that was as close as Spain would get as Wade made his fourth 3-pointer of the game at 2:04 to put the USA back up by seven, 111-104. Wade finished with 27 points and Bryant had 20 in the gold medal victory.
   — 2010 World Championship – USA 70, Brazil 68
In its closest game of the 2010 World Championship, the USA held on to edge Brazil 70-68 but only after Brazil missed several scoring opportunities in the final seconds. Brazil led 46-43 at intermission, but the USA went on an 8-0 run to take a 55-50 lead after three quarters of play.  The game remained a tight affair and when Brazil’s Leandro Barbosa scored with 51.4 remaining the contest was a two-point game, 70-68. The U.S. missed a three with 11 seconds to go that would have sealed the game and with 3.5 seconds left Marcelo Huertas was fouled in the lane. Missing his first free throw, on the second attempt he purposely threw the ball hard off the rim and then came up with the rebound. Passing the ball into the lane to Barbosa, the guard’s game tying toss rimmed out at the buzzer and the USA had the win. Kevin Durant led the U.S. with 27 points and 10 rebounds and Chauncey Billups added 15 points.
    — 2012 Olympics – USA 99, Lithuania 94
Facing Lithuania in preliminary play, the USA found itself trailing Lithuania 82-80 with 6:48 left in the game. With the USA leading 87-86, LeBron James made a 3-pointer with 3:58 remaining, then added a fast-break dunk, and when Deron Williams nailed a three at 2:49, the USA was up 95-88. While Lithuania scored three more field goals in the last 1:55, the USA cleared out the key for James who scored twice more to bring the game to it’s 99-94 final. James and Carmelo
    — 2012 Olympics – USA 107, Spain 100
In a game that featured 16 lead changes and six tied scores, 30 points from Kevin Durant led a balanced attack that helped the U.S fight off Spain for a 107-100 win to capture the 2012 Olympic gold medal. In a rematch of the 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medal game, the U.S. led 35-27 at the first break, 59-58 at half and 83-82 entering the fourth quarter. Chris Paul hit a three and drove in for two points to put the USA up 90-84 at 8:46, and the USA went on to post the win as its lead never fell below six points. LeBron James recorded 19 points, seven rebounds and team-high four assists; Kobe Bryant added 17 points.
 The fact that the USA faced six different countries– Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Brazil, Argentina and Spain– during that stretch is an indication the rest of the world, particularly Spain, is catching up.

    Spain, which buried Egypt, 91-54 Sunday in Granada, is a legitimate threat to win the gold in this competition. The Spanish are the only team that can match up with the Americans up front with the Gasol brothers — 7-1 Pau and 7-0 Marc– and 6-0 Serge Ibaka, all of them NBA stars. Pau Gasol, who has played internationally for Spain since 2001 and has a pair of NBa rings with the Lakers, is averaging 22.5 points. Ibaka is averaging 18 points and 8 rebounds while Marc Gasol is averaging 11 points and 7 rebounds. Spain has more experience than the young Americans, whose averaged age is just 24.5, their unselfish guards and wing shooters– Rudy Fernandez, Ricky Rubio and Jose Calderon and Juan Navarro– have enough NBA and Eurobasket experience they will not be intimidated.
    Team USA’s greatest strengths are their coaching, depth and lethal pressure defense, which has been a game changer. 

Related Topics

Dick Weiss is a sportswriter and columnist who has covered college football and college and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He has received the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the national Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has also co-written several books with Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and authored a tribute book on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Advertisement

Latest Articles

Advertisement

More in Dick Weiss