Team USA was the Aggressor on Offense

After the first 4 games of the round robin, Team USA is now 4-0 with their most convincing win this time over undefeated Spain. I think Team USA needed to win the game more than Team Spain as Team USA needed to maintain their aura of being undefeated. Overall, I thought the game was played fundamentally different by both teams. Team Spain, relied on their skill while Team USA went with brute force. On this night brute force won, bigtime.

That is not to say that Team USA didn't have skill, they had their best shooting game since the Olympics started. But from the opening tip, Team USA asserted itself physically and I thought Team Spain was a little put off. Team Spain had trouble adjusting to Team USA's physicality and it just wore them down. The top aggressors in my opinion started with Lebron who was just a beast, then Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade followed by Dwight Howard.

Go at the Defense:

How many times do you hear coaches say, "Go at him!". Well, easier said than done. Lucky Team USA has guys like Lebron. I always liked to have a couple of football players on my teams. Because they bring that kind of mentality, they're not afraid of "going at guys" and putting them to the ground. These two plays here happened in the first quarter and I thought they set the tone, they let Team Spain know that "we're here and if you get in our way, we'll go through you",



In this sequence, Chris Paul sees the help defense in the lane but attacks him, not around him. Forget about the charge, just go at the rim and let the referee make the call (the call was defensive block). Once you wear down your opponents, many times they will just get out of the way next time, knowing that you won't hesitate to "go right at him",


In this last sequence, the Spanish defender does successfully take the charge (according to the refs), but took one heck of a shot in the chest by Dwyane Wade. Again, be the aggressor, don't go around the defense, go through them. I can't show the video (IOC and China censors, fight the hypocrisy!!), but if you saw it live like I did, you can bet that guy will think twice about getting in the way of Dwyane next time,


Split the Trap:

We've seen Chris Paul do this many a time in the NBA regular season. Here, he splits the attempted open court double-team going full speed. That's a tough thing to do if you think about it, and you certainly wouldn't fault CP3 if he chose to pull-back and go around. But if you play aggressive and attack the defense, it leads to 3v1 opportunities,


Summary:

Obviously it was a huge win for Team USA. They finish up the round robin with a meaningless game against Germany (who unfortunately got robbed by the referees against China). They will play Australia in the quarters, then likely Argentina in the semis. If they hit their shots like they were today against the zone, and play aggressive, I don't see anyone that can match them pound for pound. As for Team Spain, they didn't play all out today, they certainly pulled back a little. If they face Team USA in the gold medal game, they have to find more toughness or they'll get tossed like ragdolls like they did today.

It's one of those things you hear over and over, guys working on core strength. If you or your players are looking to get stronger, check out Alan Stein's DVD on Strength & Power Training for just $29.99. Coach Stein is the strength and conditioning coach for Montrose Christian working with the likes of Kevin Durant. Don't forget to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to talk about this and your favorite basketball topics.