US Olympic Basketball: Part 3 of the Journey

Seems like Team USA got too much of a confidence boost from the last couple of commanding victories. The final exhibition match against Australia proved to be a grueling test. The Americans played horribly, 3/18 from beyond the arc and 20/33 from the FT line. Despicable numbers that parallel to the match they lost 2 years ago in Greece. Wade and James led the team scoring wise - 22 and 16 points respectively. Australia did not play its best player, the Bucks' Andrew Bogut, until the fourth quarter(which just compounds to the embarassment). Going into the half the US only had a 4 point lead. Fortunately, Wade and Anthony stopped a 11 point run the Australians made in the third, and pushed the lead back to double digits. If you watched the game on ESPN 2, the Americans played with half the spirit they did of the other games. Weak shooting, sloppy defense, no hustling were the ultimate reasons for this near loss. Hopefully they can recover quickly and get back on track.