Some people were ready to sound off the alarms after Team USA dropped back-to-back warm-up games vs. Nigeria and Australia. Gladly, they blew out Argentina and their doubters are once again at ease.
The team looks far from a finished product but they’ll be ready in time for the Tokyo Olympics. And, according to coach Gregg Popovich, all they want to do is run a simple set of plays that’s good enough to consistently put them in a winning position:
“I always go back to (John) Stockton and (Karl) Malone,” coach Gregg Popovich told Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “Jerry (Sloan) ran the same play for 20 years, they just ran it really well, and that’s what we want to do. We want to play defense a certain way, offense very simply, but still taking advantage of everybody’s abilities. It was better. Bit by bit, every day I hope,” Popovich added.
Some stars have struggled to make the adjustment to FIBA basketball, with Bradley Beal claiming that coach Pop emphasizes just how physical the game is:
“Our biggest thing is we have to realize it’s not the NBA, and coach Pop keeps emphasizing that every single day,” Beal said. “It’s way more physical, guys are smarter, these guys (opponents like Australia) have been playing together for five, 10 years, so they have the experience and chemistry and we’re trying to develop that in a short period of time. Sense of urgency is what we’re kind of preaching, but at the same time every single day we have to get better.”
NBA players – especially their stars – are used to getting plenty of calls, and FIBA referees just call the game like it should be called.
Perhaps, the league should adopt more FIBA rules even if that makes scoring more difficult, as defense seems like a lost art nowadays and some players spend more time trying to fool the referees than actually hooping.
