Ever since the USSR buried the United States under a barrage of three's back in 1988, the strategy for foreign teams playing against the US of A has been to pack in their defense, avoid turnovers, and turn the game into a three-point shooting contest. One of the most important things Coach K has done is recognize this fact and make sure that he has a team that is comfortable playing that sort of game. Also, he's been able to get this team to buy into a playing style in which Carmelo Anthony is almost always going to outscore LeBron James. (Of course, LeBron should get a lot of credit for that as well).
Anyway, the U.S. made 29 three-pointers today, so it will be interesting to see if the rest of the world tries a different strategy -- or if they just wait to see if they can catch the Americans on a cold night.
Here are the standings after three games (top four teams in each group advance to the medal round):
GROUP A:
1. United States: 3-0 (364 points scored/207 points allowed): 6 points
2. Argentina: 2-1 (258/219): 5
3. France: 2-1 (224/236): 5
4. Lithuania: 1-2 (225/237): 4
5. Nigeria: 1-2 (186/284): 4
6. Tunisia: 0-3 (188/262): 3
GROUP B:
1. Russia: 3-0 (243/203): 6
2. Spain: 3-0 (258/229): 6
3. Brazil: 2-1 (216/208): 5
4. Australia: 1-2 (222/218): 4
5. Great Britain: 0-3 (215/241): 3
6. China: 0-3 (196/251): 3
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