why is it that none of the teams i like can defend a goddamn pick and roll?
even as team usa rolls over mexico in a beating about 1/2 as dominant as expected, they display a frustrating--and continuing--weakness for one of the simplest and yet almost (apparently) impossible plays to guard: the pick and the roll. one would think that with a team full of hyperathletic strong men capable of killing with a stare alone that preventing a team composed of exactly 0 nba players (the notorious eduardo najera sat this one out) from running basically wild with a simple play would be easy.
not so apparently. it's fine that they coasted after a fairly obscene first quarter (92% on 2-pointers) but come ON. no way in any form of afterlife should mexico be able to drop 3 digits on the best american team in recent memory. it's imperative (and when i say this i mean that i would like it to happen since--come on--team usa is going to continue to strangle the competition up to and including the final game and earn a trip to beijing in 2008 which will hopefully result in a gold medal because mike k is not afraid of playing his young, athletic players like larry brown apparently was wayyy back in 2004) that they learn to keep their damn foot on the gas, at least for the first half. the second quarter should have been a time when the bigger, stronger, faster americans stepped on the neck of their mexican adversaries, not allowed themselves to be outscored by the mexicans.
it's a minor complaint. but minor complaints like leaving shooters open, inability to defend the pick and roll, and the continuing absence of any type of decent post-up game could come back to haunt america in the future.
p.s. i know that right now team usa doesn't really need a great post game from any of its players. but right now they're playing against street trash compared to the top-flight competition they'll get at the olympic level. no way will spain or france or greece be beaten without a reliable inside american scoring threat. yes, i realize that kobe is never cold in the sense that other players are cold. yes, i realize that they have carmelo and lebron should kobe break himself. and yes, i realize that there are more shooters on this team than there are coaches (almost.) but none of that will matter when they face a solid defensive team willing to chase them off the 3-point line and into some more difficult shots. either horseboy or STAT will have to step up and provide an inside game that isn't just fast-break bangtime if the americans want to win gold in beijing.
p.p.s. this is what eduardo najera would have looked like had he played against the americans. slightly different, but with the same idea.
