USA vs. Spain: I Was Way Off

Samsonite - Dumb and Dumber (via digimay)

I thought Spain would take care of the ball, make the US run a half court offense, shoot well from 3-point land, and overall make it a competitive game. Turns out I was way off as the US dominated. I even did a radio interview at halftime (more on that in a future post) where I said Spain would make a run and Team USA would end up winning by 15 or so. Ouch. Yes the Americans had 16 turnovers. But that pales in comparison to Spain's 28. And Team USA's half court offense was just fine. Carmelo Anthony showed up and knocked down 3s. Chris Paul was excellent. Tayshaun Prince contributed. LeBron James was LeBron James. And Dwyane Wade served notice yet again. On the flip side I was disappointed in Juan Carlos Navarro and Jose Calderon. Somewhere Gilbert Arenas is chuckling.

More stuff I messed up:

The US was 12 of 25 from beyond the arc and 19 of 24 from the line. Nothing wrong with that.

Lingering Questions:

Did Spain quit?
Did the Spanish play possum?
Did I egregiously overrate Spain and simultaneously underrate America?

For the record I would answer those as follows: Yes, Grasping at Straws, Yes.

Closing Side Notes:

Chris Paul on this day off plans: "I might go see the Great Wall..." For some reason I thought that was awesome. Oh and give Yao Ming and company credit for advancing to the next round. I expected a little more from Germany and on a different note poor -  showing by Russia.