USA Loses to Argentina (basketball) 87-80

[Ne0]

Reggie Miller can't believe what happened to the U.S.

After 10 perfect years in which the U.S. men's basketball team went 58-0, Team USA lost for the first time since it began sending NBA players to world tournaments. Argentina built a 16-point halftime lead and won 87-80 on Wednesday at the World Championships. The U.S. shot 22 percent in the first half and finished with just four fast-break points.


ESPN

 

[Aquaman]

:Q WOW.............. those guys better buy lottory tickets.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[joe678]

they were bound to lose sometime, why not now? this is the crappiest dream team ever... (raef lafrentz? come on...jay williams? he's not even in the nba yet)...

 

[m2kewl]

Team USA played like second rate team...where's Kobe/Shaq/Webber *slackers*?!

 

[burnedout]

Argentina played a beautiful game. They stuck with their game plan and executed. That is how basketball was intended to be played.

Hate it that Team USA lost. Hope they can make adjustments and come back.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: joe678
they were bound to lose sometime, why not now? this is the crappiest dream team ever... (raef lafrentz? come on...jay williams? he's not even in the nba yet)...

After the original they should have shelved that name.

None of the "dream teams" have compared to THE dream team.

Viper GTS

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: joe678
they were bound to lose sometime, why not now? this is the crappiest dream team ever... (raef lafrentz? come on...jay williams? he's not even in the nba yet)...

After the original they should have shelved that name.

None of the "dream teams" have compared to THE dream team.

Viper GTS

WERD

 

[Aquaman]

Originally posted by: burnedout
Argentina played a beautiful game. They stuck with their game plan and executed. That is how basketball was intended to be played.

Hate it that Team USA lost. Hope they can make adjustments and come back.

They are going to destroy whoever they play next

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Pooteh]

for shame!

 

[ChrisIsBored]

Originally posted by: joe678
they were bound to lose sometime, why not now? this is the crappiest dream team ever... (raef lafrentz? come on...jay williams? he's not even in the nba yet)...

It's not such a surprise after they started putting rookies, nobody's, and bench players in since all of our superstars were dominating and making every other country look like 9 year old kids.

 

[hans007]

The way the US , just grabs 12 guys has them practice for like a week and then put them on the court is a recipe for failure. I mean not only did they put up a team with no center, no post scorer outside of elton brand, point guards with close to no experience... gah this team was so flawed, all that was good on it was paul pierce.

now if ray allen and jason kidd among others hadnt pulled out this might not have been so bad.


I seriously believe that if team usa was the lakers or kings, even with less talent those teams would have done better since they have an offense, defensive schemes, and real plays. you saw the other teams running picks, complicated offenses, etc. While the US was basically a bunch of guys at the Y playing a pickup game. Horrible. the talent gap isnt as large anymore, so we either need to put up more talent, or at least have some semblance of the "team " part of a basketball team or the US is likely to start losing more games.


i suppose none of the real US players showed up because well, if you expected to blow out the rest of the world, why would you play. I mean iw ouldnt want to play against a bunch of middle school kids because i'd destroy them with just my left hand.


i think maybe now that there is the challenge factor, players like kobe , and vince carter may want to play again or for the first time in kobe's case.

 

[Imdmn04]

stop making the excuse about us not sending out our best players, granted they arent superstars, but these guys can play, a lot of them are either the first or second option on their team. Elton Brand, Michael Finley, Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Andre Miller, Shawn Marion, Jermaine O'Neal, and Ben Wallace arent scrubs, these are all-stars or future all-stars we are talking about. Just admit it, the rest of the world is catching up, we are not invincible anymore.

But we still have the best basketball league in the world because all the foreign talents that play here.

 

[NeoMadHatter]

this ain't no dream team. they suck.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
stop making the excuse about us not sending out our best players, granted they arent superstars, but these guys can play, a lot of them are either the first or second option on their team. Elton Brand, Michael Finley, Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Andre Miller, Shawn Marion, Jermaine O'Neal, and Ben Wallace arent scrubs, these are all-stars or future all-stars we are talking about. Just admit it, the rest of the world is catching up, we are not invincible anymore.

But we still have the best basketball league in the world because all the foreign talents that play here.

Uh, where's Kobe, where's Shaq? Where's Allen? They may not be scrubs, but they're not the best in the league, or the country for that matter.

 

[murphy55d]

Kobe declined to play, and Shaq has health problems. Iverson apparently has some sort of legal issues(according to ESPN)
Even still they should have no problem beating any of these other countries.

 

[Nitemare]

Don't cry for me Argentina....



but seriously all they did was beat a bunch of NBA scrubs, because the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd stringers were too lazy to go.

Why not just send the NBA champions over?

 

[BigJohnKC]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: joe678
they were bound to lose sometime, why not now? this is the crappiest dream team ever... (raef lafrentz? come on...jay williams? he's not even in the nba yet)...

After the original they should have shelved that name.

None of the "dream teams" have compared to THE dream team.

Viper GTS

Werd. If you put Bird, Magic, Jordan, Pippen, Robinson, Mullin, Stockton, Malone, and Ewing up against this new "dream team", even now when those guys are all old and slow, they'd wipe the floor with these kids. The original dream team will never be matched again.

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Don't cry for me Argentina....



but seriously all they did was beat a bunch of NBA scrubs, because the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd stringers were too lazy to go.

Why not just send the NBA champions over?

dood, the current USA basketball team isn't a bunch of scrubs. and last time i checked, they were all starters....and many of them all stars. they're not the best of the NBA, but they're still a hell of a lot better than the rest of the world.

USA basketball's record vs the world is like 50+ and 1 loss. 1 loss every 10 years hardly constitutes the world "closing in" on the talent level on the US. i'm positive USA will win it all this year and years to come.

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
but seriously all they did was beat a bunch of NBA scrubs

Actually. No. That is not what happened. Argentina beat the best team the US could put forth.

Just because Kobe, Shaq, Allen etc.... are too selfish to realize they are being given the biggest opportunity of their lives (to represent their country at something) does not mean that Argentina's accomplishment is any less.

If the best US basketball players do not want to represent their country, then the current team is the best one that can be put together.

Do not lessen Argentina's accomplishment, especially considering everyone was expecting this current US team to go undefeated.

 

[ElFenix]

hahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahaahhahahahaahahhahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

been waiting for this to happen!

w00t go argentina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Red Dawn]

After watching the highlights (Man team USA sucked) it was obvious that Argentina played as a team where as Team Lose.S.A. played like a bunch of hot shots in a playground. Lose.S.A. played zero defence, threw temper tantrums when their shots were blocked and got owned big time. This wasn't a squeaker, Argentina schooled them like a bunch of spoiled little bitches.

 

[Double Trouble]

Geez, I can't believe the sniveling whiners who are saying the US team was just "scrubs". These were *not* "scrubs" of the NBA -- most of these guys are or will be all-starts in the NBA, the strongest league in the world.

The Argentines simply played better as a team, and they played a great game. Stop trying to take something away from their achievement, and give them some credit. How about "hey, they played a solid game and beat a solid team. The US team will now have to focus and come back and show that they are the best at what they do".

There's absolutely no doubt the NBA is the best in the world, and no doubt the US has the best players in the world. What this upset shows is that there's a lot of talent being developed in other countries as well (anyone watch the last NBA draft perhaps??), and that the years of complete dominance will come to an end at some point.

In my mind there's only 1 "Dream Team", the likes of which we'll never see again. Perhaps every generation thinks it's heroes were the 'best' of all time, but I'd take Jordan/Bird/Magic/McHale in their prime etc etc over anything the current NBA has to offer in a heartbeat.