Basketball

[JTMacc99]

Your topic to discuss Olympic Basketball!

[Lady Whistleup]

Peacock TV has a nice documentary on the USA Basketball team.

[Rickster]

I have to say, I don't understand why 3 on 3 basketball is an Olympic sport. Growing up, this is what you played if you didn't have enough people for a full court game, or (like me) were not athletic enough to play full court. I don't think there are any unique skills to distinguish it from regular basketball. So why is it here?

Next, I suppose we'll have the 5 on 5 soccer with a single goal that I see people playing in my local park. Or maybe this too is now in the Olympics.

[Lady Whistleup]

I don't get 3x3 basketball either and have no idea why it's a thing. 

[DesiJF]

I Like It!  First time I've ever seen it and frankly, I much prefer it to full court Bball.  Bang, bang, bang, no messing around, and doesn't go on forever.  Maybe this is just my short attention span talking but I thought I was awesome.

[Magog]

USA Mens Team have just lost to France 83-76. I actually enjoyed watching this game.

Who does USA play next?

 

[xaxat]

Not a good debut for the US men. Booker, Middleton and Holiday flew in to Tokyo last night to fill out the roster. Durant got into foul trouble and the result was an inconsistent effort for the US. 

Until I saw them together, I didn't realize the depth of NBA talent on the French team. 

[SnideAsides]

Iran on Wednesday afternoon Tokyo time, then the Czech Republic on Saturday night.

Should win both fairly easily, but it's crazy to think that the country that's won medals in every basketball tournament since the sport was added to the Olympics (except Moscow obviously) now has to win both of its next two matches to even have a chance to get out of the pool stage.

[Lady Whistleup]

So does this mean they;re out of medal contention?

[emma675]

Australia looked sloppy, too last night/super early this morning (the time difference is killing me). They won over Nigeria but it was kind of a mess. 

I'm not surprised the US lost. They haven't played together enough, three players literally just arrived, they've had unexpected substitutions due to Covid issues, and France is a damn good team. Hopefully this makes the US buckle down. I'm interested to see how the women do.

[SnideAsides]

No. The twelve countries who qualified were split into three groups of four for the opening matches. Once the four countries in a group have all played each other, the two best performers advance to the quarter finals, as well as the two best countries who finished third in their groups. Since Iran scored more and lost by less than the US, Iran is currently third and the US is currently fourth in this group. The US mathematically can't finish top two if it loses either upcoming match and would need to rely on the results of the other groups to take one of the third-place places; even if it wins the next two matches, if France beats the Czech Republic and loses to Iran, it's not a guarantee the US will make it to the quarter finals.

[xaxat]

If you are familiar with the culture of pickup ball, this article is hilarious.

The Nine Things Wrong With Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball

I would change number 9 to "Some dude who looks like he's too old to run the court but was a bench contributor when Hakeem won the title with the Rockets."

ETA Oops, wrong link. Corrected. 

Edited July 28, 2021 by xaxat

[Crashcourse]

I clicked on that link and it said not secure, so I immediately clicked off. 

[Lady Whistleup]

Well the US men seem to have gotten their mojo back. Granted their opponent was Iran but ...

It was also nice to see how at the end of the game the Iranian men looked really happy to be on the court with team USA and there were lots of hugs and high-fives all around.

[LexieLily]

I'm not sure how the group rankings work; the top two of each group move on but what if the two and the three are tied? If it's point differential the USA is in good shape thanks to their sixty-point blowout.

[Lady Whistleup]

17 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

I'm not sure how the group rankings work; the top two of each group move on but what if the two and the three are tied? If it's point differential the USA is in good shape thanks to their sixty-point blowout.

It's point differential as the tie-breaker.

[Lady Whistleup]

The game between USA and Iran was fun. At the end of the game many Iranians asked the NBA for selfies. Such a nice moment between the players.

[greyhorse]

23 hours ago, xaxat said:

If you are familiar with the culture of pickup ball, this article is hilarious.

The Nine Things Wrong With Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball

I would change number 9 to "Some dude who looks like he's too old to run the court but was a bench contributor when Hakeem won the title with the Rockets."

ETA Oops, wrong link. Corrected. 

LOL, this was a good read.

I like the one about drafting a player standing on the sidelines.  Calling Billy Hoyle?

I don't see the appeal.  Watched Russia vs Serbia last night.  I think Serbia was undefeated in regular play, despite all their players looking like they are 40 years old?  

I know the US didn't qualify, but why didn't they?  Why can't they some of the NBAers that didn't make the main team and put them in this?

 

[xaxat]

1 minute ago, greyhorse said:

Calling Billy Hoyle?

Yes! Add the hustler element!

[SophiaD]

I enjoyed the 3-on-3 women's competition.  Shoutout to Kelsey Plum, the NCAA scoring record-holder, who just won her first gold medal!  I'm hoping she'll be on the (regular?) basketball team, after Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi retire.

[Lady Whistleup]

Kevin Love's not a favorite of mine but this is harsh:

Quote

Colangelo on Kevin Love: “I didn’t think Kevin Love was gonna play. I wasn’t even sure he had much left to play. He reached out to us and said he was in shape and said he felt he owed us. And on the basis of that, we’re looking at someone with international experience who at one time was a heck of a rebounder and could still shoot the ball. You know, being like a 12th man on a roster. Well, it didn’t work out. He wasn’t in shape. And he was way behind as it turned out. So you move on. Call it a mistake. Call it giving someone an opportunity. Someone who had equity with us. Guys who play for us get a little plus.”

 

[AimingforYoko]

2 hours ago, Lady Whistleup said:

Kevin Love's not a favorite of mine but this is harsh:

2 hours ago, Lady Whistleup said:

Colangelo on Kevin Love: “I didn’t think Kevin Love was gonna play. I wasn’t even sure he had much left to play. He reached out to us and said he was in shape and said he felt he owed us. And on the basis of that, we’re looking at someone with international experience who at one time was a heck of a rebounder and could still shoot the ball. You know, being like a 12th man on a roster. Well, it didn’t work out. He wasn’t in shape. And he was way behind as it turned out. So you move on. Call it a mistake. Call it giving someone an opportunity. Someone who had equity with us. Guys who play for us get a little plus.”

 

I'm not a huge Kevin Love stan or anything, but I can't wait for Grant Hill to replace Colangelo.

Edited July 30, 2021 by AimingforYoko

[choclatechip45]

I don't like Colangelo, but Kevin Love should never have been on the team. Not sure why Colangelo or Love thought it was a good idea. 

[Lady Whistleup]

Team USA made it into the quarterfinals with a blowout of the Czech Republic. Kevin Durant passed Melo Anthony as highest USA basketball player. 

[Lady Whistleup]

Javale McGee has been vlogging Tokyo:

 

[SnideAsides]

There's a very plausible chance (indeed, the most plausible chance) that the men's gold medal match is going to be between Slovenia and Australia, which is a sentence I don't think anyone would have said two weeks ago.

[Lady Whistleup]

41 minutes ago, SnideAsides said:

There's a very plausible chance (indeed, the most plausible chance) that the men's gold medal match is going to be between Slovenia and Australia, which is a sentence I don't think anyone would have said two weeks ago.

Australia has to beat the US first. 

Spain lost last night.

[LexieLily]

Ricky Rubio went nuts and got 38. It wouldn't have been close, otherwise.

[emma675]

Quote

There's a very plausible chance (indeed, the most plausible chance) that the men's gold medal match is going to be between Slovenia and Australia, which is a sentence I don't think anyone would have said two weeks ago.

I would LOVE this! Unfortunately, Australia has to play the US next. 

This is the first time I'm pulling for another team (or teams, I would love to see Slovenia win) over the US. It took a while, but I'm done with the "all stars" US teams; it's just not as fun for me as watching scrappy teams who aren't full of NBA superstars, who have worked so hard to get to the Olympics, and play as a unified, excited team. Granted, I realize Luka Doncic, Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Matisse Thybulle, etc. are all NBA players, but their entire team rosters aren't NBA players, so it seems more exciting. 

[Minneapple]

3 hours ago, emma675 said:

This is the first time I'm pulling for another team (or teams, I would love to see Slovenia win) over the US. It took a while, but I'm done with the "all stars" US teams; it's just not as fun for me as watching scrappy teams who aren't full of NBA superstars, who have worked so hard to get to the Olympics, and play as a unified, excited team. Granted, I realize Luka Doncic, Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Matisse Thybulle, etc. are all NBA players, but their entire team rosters aren't NBA players, so it seems more exciting. 

The US team is hardly a bunch of all-stars. Kevin Durant is the biggest star on the team. None of the big guns like Lebron James or James Harden or Steph Curry are there.

[SnideAsides]

Yeah. We've established already that this particular US team is not unbeatable (and, to be honest, has not been playing particularly well even when they do win); meanwhile, the Australian team is undefeated and last night opened up a 40-point lead in the space of minutes with a court full of substitutes. I don't think this is the usual formality this time around.

[greyhorse]

On 7/30/2021 at 3:06 PM, choclatechip45 said:

I don't like Colangelo, but Kevin Love should never have been on the team. Not sure why Colangelo or Love thought it was a good idea. 

Word.  Why was he even picked?  There was a lot of chatter that he was the "token white guy" and he likely couldn't avoid hearing that.  The optics were bad.  I think he was probably relieved to have pulled out because he knew that he didn't deserve to be there.

Watching the US-Spain game I was shocked to see that PAU GASOL is still playing?!  I guess at 40+, he went back to Spain to play there since the NBA moved on without him?  He only played a handful of minutes, but pretty surprising to see him.

 

[choclatechip45]

14 minutes ago, greyhorse said:

Word.  Why was he even picked?  There was a lot of chatter that he was the "token white guy" and he likely couldn't avoid hearing that.  The optics were bad.  I think he was probably relieved to have pulled out because he knew that he didn't deserve to be there.

Watching the US-Spain game I was shocked to see that PAU GASOL is still playing?!  I guess at 40+, he went back to Spain to play there since the NBA moved on without him?  He only played a handful of minutes, but pretty surprising to see him.

 

Popovich said they needed Kevin Love against France. There was also an article that said Durant wanted him on the team. As a Nets (since 1998 btw so not a bandwagoner) I find that funny. 

[Lady Whistleup]

15 minutes ago, choclatechip45 said:

Popovich said they needed Kevin Love against France. There was also an article that said Durant wanted him on the team. As a Nets (since 1998 btw so not a bandwagoner) I find that funny. 

I like Pop but there's a part of him that's a bit ... old fashioned. I notice a lot of old-school coaches are more comfortable with having a token white guy around. 

[greyhorse]

47 minutes ago, choclatechip45 said:

Popovich said they needed Kevin Love against France. There was also an article that said Durant wanted him on the team. As a Nets (since 1998 btw so not a bandwagoner) I find that funny. 

He said they needed him to match up against the 7 foot Rudy Gobert at center.  Meh, I don't buy it.  He's played for them before, so yes, he has international experience, but come on, plenty of capable players in the league who could hold their own.  He didn't deserve to be picked, showed up out of shape and got bounced out.  

[cambridgeguy]

1 hour ago, greyhorse said:

Watching the US-Spain game I was shocked to see that PAU GASOL is still playing?!  I guess at 40+, he went back to Spain to play there since the NBA moved on without him?  He only played a handful of minutes, but pretty surprising to see him.

I guess the logic is that if you have a 12 man roster you can afford to burn one on a legacy guy - let's face it, you're probably not counting on your 12th guy to win you the game.

[LexieLily]

Team USA on a 28-4 run to take the lead in the third over Patty Mills/Australia.

[greyhorse]

How crappy is it that USA-Australia is being shown on Peacock right now but it's only available to the Premium subscribers?  I don't know how much it costs to subscribe per month, but I just refuse.  I remember the Triplecast for the Barcelona 1992 games that failed utterly.  I doubt people are going to sign up for Peacock just because they want to watch a few Olympic events.  

Pretty soon there's going to be no such thing as free network tv, or at least live free network tv.  Every network seems to have their version of a streaming app.  I could see a day where if you wanted to watch live, you'll have to pay, and then it'll be reshown for free a day or two later.

Edited to add: Just found a Yahoo banner and I guess I can watch the final few minutes of the game...

Edited August 5, 2021 by greyhorse

[Lady Whistleup]

Aww Australia blew a 15 point lead and ended up getting blown out.

[emma675]

Ugh, US advances over Australia. Not a surprise but I was pulling for the Aussies. Hopefully they can get the bronze on Saturday. 

Now let's go, Slovenia!

[cambridgeguy]

US-cheese-eating surrender monkeys rematch!

[katisha]

I never thought the Boomers could actually beat Team USA but if we leave with another fourth placing, that is gonna suck. I hope they can scrape themselves back together enough to beat Slovenia and at least get bronze.

[emma675]

Oh, Slovenia, what a heartbreaker for them.

[Minneapple]

8 hours ago, greyhorse said:

Pretty soon there's going to be no such thing as free network tv, or at least live free network tv.  Every network seems to have their version of a streaming app.  I could see a day where if you wanted to watch live, you'll have to pay, and then it'll be reshown for free a day or two later.

There will always be free network TV; that's mandated by the FCC. Live sports have gradually moved off of broadcast television to cable and now streaming, I guess, though there are still live sports on broadcast TV. NFL football, college football, some baseball games, college basketball. Though NBC just announced yesterday that Notre Dame's home opener will be exclusively on Peacock, and ESPN has a ton of stuff on its ESPN+ platform.

Anyway. Murica, fuck yes.

[Lady Whistleup]

There was apparently some poor sportsmanship from Luka after the game:

 

[emmawoodhouse]

FIBA didn't block that shot. 

[xaxat]

I really appreciate the fact that NBC brought back "Round Ball Rock".

 

[LexieLily]

Anyone watching the gold-medal game? After a little bit of hand-wringing by Vince Carter and the other announcer that the threes weren't falling for USA, they are now up six halfway through the second.

Edited August 7, 2021 by LexieLily

[greyhorse]

10 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

Anyone watching the gold-medal game? After a little bit of hand-wringing by Vince Carter and the other announcer that the threes weren't falling for USA, they are now up six halfway through the second.

Watching but just don't have much excitement for this team.  You've got Kevin Durant.  But then where are all the other mega stars of the league?  Yeah, they got Booker and Tatum and some exciting young stars.  But clearly this is the not #1-12 in the league.  I feel fortunate to have been able to watch the Dream Team.  Nothing will ever compare to that level of Olympics excitement.

I don't watch much regular season NBA, so I'm just now learning that Vince Carter finally retired last year.  I thought he was still playing, lol.

[legaleagle53]

What are the US men THINKING? We had a 13-point lead, and they're pissing it away by constantly fouling and giving up free throws to France. Come on, guys -- you're better than this!