Team USA vs. Spain Live-blog

And now comes the ‘other’ team supposed to beat Team USA. Spain has a loaded roster…Jose Calderon, Rudy Fernandez, Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro and what not. The curious nature to me is just how much is Spain going to show in this game. They’ve been playing all 12 guys, throwing all sorts of crazy lineups and they seem the type who would love to keep a secret until the medal round. For some reason it wouldn’t surprise me to see a blowout victory by Team USA. I mean come on we won in 2004 and that team…..was bad. I’m interested to see exactly how Spain plays against the US because while Spain dominated Greece, this is the same team who needed a near miraculous comeback to beat China.

7:16: The game is underway…Pau Gasol turns it over, Kidd to LeBron and it’s 2-0 Team USA. Well that was quick.

7:17: Pau fouls Dwight Howard who then gets a put-back dunk. Superman in the building? 4-2 Team USA.

7:18: Rudy with a three-ball. I hate Rudy. Only kidding…kind of.

7:19: Kobe runs over Pau trying to set a screen, knocking him to the ground. Kobe using his own teammates weakness against him is awesome. He’s so snaky. Also…did anyone see his interview with Chris Collinsworth? Kobe is such a goober.

7:22: Kobe gets called for an offensive foul and D-Wade comes in for him. On the bench he makes a ton of ‘wow’ faces obviously looking for someone to go ‘damn you’re getting jobbed Kobe’….except no one is really paying attention to him. Had to be seen to be truly appreciated.

7:25: LeBron is exploding with 9 of Team USA’s first 16. Bosh and Paul are hounding Calderon on the pick and roll defense.

7:27: It’s….it’s…Ricky Rubio! The ladies are going wild. He bugs me just as much as the Jonas Brothers. Ladies and gentlemen let’s see how this goes for the next Magic/Pistol Pete. And yes that was total sarcasm. Chris Paul should be salivating.

7:27: D-Wade with a steal and breakaway dunk. This guy can do no wrong in Bejing. Nobody is mentioning that he’s essentially doing the same type of defensive gambling which cost him his shoulder. Just saying.

7:29: Rubio gets a little feisty slapping Paul’s hand off of him. The ref calls a handcheck. Remember this when Rubio gets to the league and Paul gives him a hot 50.

7:30: Melo with a three ball. On the other end…. They call another foul for Rubio this time on Deron Williams. Rubio is the golden child. Spain is in the penalty, Rubio misses the first free throw and someone yells ‘the Ball Don’t Lie’. Way to contribute Sheed. Team USA is up 25-16

7:32: Paul splits two defenders trying to trap him at half-court and dumps it to Melo. Even Jason Kidd had to say ‘Damn, maybe they shouldn’t play my ass’. Or maybe he was thinking about hitting on women in the Olympic Village. That’s followed up by a Spain turnover and D-Wade layup to put Team USA up 27-16 and Spain calls timeout.

7:34: Yao is in the crowd and he’s got his iPod on. Normally I’d criticize but I imagine people would bug him non-stop and he can’t lay his pimp hand down correct without someone getting jurt.

7:35: Marc Gasol has scored four straight points for Spain. He’s like a bigger, bulkier, crappier version of Pau. He also looks like a mix between Paul Bunyan and Steven Hill. With some Spanish somewhere in there. I couldn’t think of a Spanish celeb.

7:37: First quarter is over and Team USA is up 31-22. Spain turned the ball over 9 times in the first quarter which is the great part of Team USA’s defense. The not-so-great part of Team USA’s defense? Spain is shooting 62%. LeBron has 9, D-Wade has 6.

7:39: I will say this about Rudy…sometimes I don’t know he’s on the court. Just going to throw it out there.

7:40: TAYSHAUN PRINCE IN THE HOUSE! Gotta love re-using jokes.

7:41: *ominous music* Spain….in a 2-3 zone. Tayshaun Prince is the zone-buster with a corner three. Then he throws an alley-oop to LeBron to put Team USA up 36-24. Prince and Redd as secret weapons? Well maybe more Prince than Redd who apparently is glued to the bench.

7:42: Of course when I give him a compliment Prince gets a three-pointer blocked. Way to help me, help you Tayshaun.

7:43: Kobe picks the pocket, Kidd floats it in front of him and he reverse dunks it to the joy of the Chinese. They love him over there and you know he’s loving it. This is Kobe we’re talking about here.

7:45: Man…you remember all that praise we had for Chris Bosh? I’m taking a little bit back right now. He just got semi-beasted by Pau Gasol and we know that Pau could barely beast Lauren Jackson. Two fouls for both Bosh and Howard which means Boozer may have to stop messing with his bushy eyebrows and play.

7:47: LeBron and Kobe with back to back three’s to smack Spain’s zone a bit. 45-31 Team USA. I can’t believe we remembered how to shoot. Kobe picks up his third foul and enter D-Wade.

7:48: Spain is still in the zone as Michael Redd is just praying the USA stops scoring so he can get in the game. Melo flashes to the middle and hits a tough free throw jumper to put Team USA up 47-33.

7:50: Marc Gasol’s nickname was ‘The Tank’. If you don’t think that was somewhat related to drinking than you’re kidding yourself.

7:52: Team USA is using excellent ball movement to slice up the zone. Really crisp and quick passes. Deron Williams drains a wide open three in the corner and gets a layup after a Rudy miss. 54-36 Team USA.

7:53: Rudy with a steal at half-court but then tries to throw a lob that Dwight Howard easily swats out. Then during an argument between LeBron and a ref Rudy actually makes the ‘T’ motion as he thinks that LeBron should get a tech. I thought only fans did that. Then he turns it over. I like you…but you’re kind of being a d-bag Rudy.

7:55: Craig Sager drops his two cents on the Spain picture. That’s all I got.

7:57: Garbajosa nails a three pointer and then shoots a dirty look to Bryan Colangelo. I made the last part up but it’d be funny if he did.

7:58: Doug Collins waxes about Coach K and talks about his son which ruins his streak of not making me want to throw my remote control when he speaks. We had a good run, Doug.

8:00: Rubio with a one handed lob off the dribble to Rudy Fernandez. Well that’s exciting, especially considering Jarrett Jack is no longer a Blazer. If he was that lob would have gone over the hoop and Rudy would have strained a muscle. I meanwhile would have screamed.

8:01: It’s Boozer Time. Michael Redd is officially in tears.

8:02: I thought the crowd was either cheering Boozer or Tayshaun Prince coming out. They were just cheering Yao and the Chinese Team leaving the arena. I should have seen that coming.

8:03: All these fouls are messing up my laptop battery schedule. I’ve only got like 19 minutes left. Thanks a lot of guys I’m going to have to charge up.

8:04: Rudy took a bad shot off a pick and roll as I can see that he is a g-u-n-n-e-r. No conscience. Paul drops a dime to Boozer who misses the layup, Wade misses the rebound but Boozer puts it in to end the half. 61-45 Team USA at the end of 1.

Two reasons why Team USA is up? Three point shooting (7/11 – 64%) and forced turnovers (Spain has 17). It’s been a weird/sloppy game as Team USA has 10 turnovers and 12 fouls. I’m not sure what Spain is doing but it seems as if they really are either trying to hold back until the medal rounds or their coach is just plain stupid. Calderon has only played 9 minutes, Navarro has played 6. Rudy is 2/5 with 2 TO’s. I can’t really get a good grasp for him quite yet.

8:20: Raul Lopez sighting for Spain. He was supposed to be the Jazz’s PG of the future but tore his knee up, lost his job to Carlos Arroyo and toiled before returning overseas. He and Curtis Borchardt were supposed to be the next Stockton/Malone. And that’s the funniest thing you’ll see in this live blog
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8:21: Rudy drives to the bucket, Kidd strips him and he falls hard. Kobe gets a dunk on the other end. Rudy is holding his back/tailbone….uh-oh. The replay shows that…ya know…I don’t think he fell that hard but that’s just me. He sure is favoring it so either he’s a hell of a seller or I should be scared.

8:22: Melo with a three-ball to put the USA up 66-45. Spain answers back.

8:24: Melo with another three-ball and he is hot. Somewhere Denver Nugget fans are sad as they see him smiling and playing defense, knowing in a few months neither of those will be anywhere near the Pepsi Center.

8:25: Jason Kidd scores! Jason Kidd scores! Jason Kidd scores! Jason Kidd scores! 1/1!!! Layup! Jason Kidd! The man! He is! The! Man! Jason friggin’ Kidd! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. 72-48 Team USA.

8:28: Kobe misses a deep three. Breen beat me to it but I forgot his pinky is mangled and has basically said ‘F-U fix me’ at this point. Team USA is jacking up three’s right now and letting Spain back in. And by ‘letting Spain back in’ I mean letting them cut the lead to under 20.

8:30: Jose Calderon has done nothing today…I don’t know if that’s by choice or what not but damn. If there was a +/- for swagger his would be -31821.

8:32: Wade with a baseline drive and nasty jam. D.Wade. 2.0 is the truth.

8:33: LeBron fails on yet another lob. This one wasn’t really his fault but still if you’re keeping track at home, LeBron James is 0/7 on lobs in Bejing.

8:34: Bosh blocks the heck out of Calderon and then makes a YouTube video about it.

8:37: Michael Redd is in the game and oh boy he is so happy. Just in time as they go to a 2-3 zone. Even happier. Then Chris Paul takes a three. Sad face for Redd. D-Wade rebounds and puts it in, 82-61 Team USA.

8:39: Felipe Reyes has 15 points and is the leading scorer for Spain. Who saw that coming? Collins asks Breen how he thinks Marc Gasol will do in the NBA? And this is why I could never be an analyst because I would have said ‘he’s going to stink like a bag of flaming doo-doo’ and left it at that instead of being all politically correct and using the word ‘adjustment’.

8:40: Michael Redd for three….the whole bench rises…he misses. Now did they rise because his jumper is wetter than a bottle of water and they thought it would go in or because he never plays? The world will never know.

8:43: Paul splits a double-team, LeBron finds Bosh who slams it down with the left hand. 86-63 USA at the end of three quarters. Someone tell me what Spain’s coach is doing? Even with their subs and ‘holding back’ Pau has only taken 4 shots. Say what you will about Pau but he should definitely have taken way more than 4 shots.

8:45: Rudy is back so everyone relax. D-Wade with two great plays while Tina Thompson is getting interviewed. Tina Thompson probably gave the best in-game interview of the games so far. That’s not the greatest honor ever. By the way…women’s USA team is just smacking women around left and right. Not even fair what they do. If I did a live blog of their games it would be over in like 30 minutes.

8:49: Rubio with a lob to Pau who slams it down. Rudy nails a three pointer. Yay!! Then he yells in clear english ‘HEY, REF’ and slaps his right arm twice. *groan* Just like I wanted to shake Bayless for screaming ‘And-1’ all the time, I want to shake you for doing that. The Blazers are clearly going to be unlikeable I can already tell. He may not be as good but he could be just as hated as Manu.

8:51: Rudy misses a three but then draws the charge on Kobe. A legit charge not a floppy charge. Even Kobe had to tap him on the head twice. Remember this on Opening Night. Dwight Howard with a bucket and a foul. I feel bad for Howard because in the international game he can only rebound, block shots and get dunks.

8:53: Michael Redd with the bucket and a foul. He’s juiced on the inside. 100-71 Team USA.

8:55: Chris Paul with one of his crazy lobs to Dwight Howard. Somewhere Tyson Chandler is sad. Real sad. Not as sad as Spain’s coach. 104-71 and he calls timeout to say…who knows what.

8:59: Michael Redd with a DUNK! Showing off the repertoire as every player has scored for Team USA. Thanks for that Breen. By the way Spain is not playing anything that looks like defense. They stopped playing a few minutes ago.

9:03: Spain’s coach really blows. Tayshaun drops a three to make it 119-82. What is this 1992?

9:04: Team USA demolishes Spain 119-82. Demolishes. All the talk was that Team USA wouldn’t be able to get Greece and Spain to turn the ball over. Wrong. Greece turned it over 24 times and Spain turned it over 28 times today. Granted Spain shot 6/28 from behind the arc but still Team USA just bruised them up left and right. Spain really makes me scratch my head. Their coach just subs left and right with no rhyme or reason. It’s not like he’s setting guys up. Their offense is basic with a random pick and rolls and what not. I just don’t see them being able to beat Team USA. As a matter of fact the only thing in between Team USA and the gold is Team USA. The only problem is they are just getting better and better each game which is scary. Team USA had their biggest win in a game when they turned the ball over 16 times. Scary.