Game one was an expected victory, as the U.S.A. beat China 101-70.  China’s starters were impressive, and held the game close through one, but ultimately lacked the depth to compete with our guys.  When you have CP, Wade, and Bosh coming off the bench as your second line, you know the other team is totally screwed.  Some observations from Game 1:

• Yao: the man is a national treasure, and opened the game with a 3 pointer to put China in the lead.  Amazing start for China, and a dream come true for Yao.  He played a decent game, at times looking dominant, with 3 blocks and 10 boards, and some nice shots, but surprisingly was only 3-10 from the field.
• The Three Point Line: was eerily similar to a bad Hornets game early on, as they started out like 7-11 and us 1-9, although we ended up at 10-27 for them and 7-24 for us.  This has been a past Achilles Heel for the team, and may yet prove troublesome; we’re not guarding the line, and we can’t shoot from there consistently, despite our all-star line-up.  I know we are adapting to international rules, and that is smart, but I’m starting to wonder if the guys should be standing a few feet behind the line?  Think about it, but crowding everything in, the lanes are getting clogged, which stops our penetration (and certainly affects CP’s game).
• The Rotation: everyone and their mother is criticizing Kidd, and even Doug Collins called out the fact that the Chinese weren’t guarding him.  So why start him?  Especially when Coach obstinately refuses to play Boozer or Prince.  Yes, there are 12 guys and only 40 minutes, but with Coach K subbing guys faster than I can figure out who’s on the floor (their numbers are mostly different than from the regular season, and they inexplicably have white letters over white jerseys for their names), he somehow manages to keep these two guys out of everything but garbage time.  Also, why does Coach insist on putting in line-ups like CP, D-Will, and Redd AT THE SAME TIME?  It doesn’t make sense.  Use your 1-5 players; they’re used to playing those positions and will be better at offensive spacing and defensive rotations.  For example, CP seems lost when D-Will is bringing the ball up, and while DW is getting raves for his “zone-busting” drives, he seems unsure of how to move without the ball.
• Lebron: yes, the man is a freakish talent. Yes, he can explode past three men unawares and rise to the rim.  But when in the half-court, he is predictable.  Either he jacks up an unexpected 3 and no one is ready to rebound, or he does an iso stubbornly refuses to pass, at which point the other team collapses.  Boring.  And stupid.
• Dee-wayne-Wade: the.  Man.  Is.  On.  Fire.  7-7 from the field and 5-5 from the line.  I’m starting to believe he didn’t just heal up over the end of the last season.  It might be something more even than HGH.  Maybe.  Maybe.  They can rebuild him.  They have the technology…(whoosh whoosh whoosh)…he’s bionic!
• The Fives: Dwight Howard looked flustered going up against Yao; he smashed home a bunch of dunks, but got only TWO rebounds in 21 minutes, and zero steals or assists.  Meanwhile, Bosh subbed in for him and outmaneuvered everyone.  He nabbed 8 rebounds, got 9 points on 4-4 shooting, and had 3 steals.  In 13 minutes.  Wow.
• Sun Yue: the “Chinese Magic Johnson,” just signed by the Lakers, looked impressive.  Altough he is the only professional basketball player other than Reggie Miller and Shawn Bradley to actually be skinnier Tayshaun Prince, he was all over the place, bringing home 8 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound, 1 steal, and 1 awesome block on Dwight Howard.  Yeah, you heard that last part right.
• Carmelo:  well, he was 3-4 from the line.  Otherwise he didn’t hit anything and only pulled down 4 boards, got 1 steal, and no assists.  Hardly the “most dominating PF in the international game.”  On the other hand, Boozer?  5 pts, 50% FG%, 3 boards, 1 steal and 1 assist in 6 less minutes than ‘Melo.  Good call coach.  Oh, and by the way, the two PFs combined posted 22 minutes.  Lebron played a lot of 4.  So did 113 pound T. Prince.  Again, good move coach.  (Add to that the fact that Boozer also played the 5 some and, again, we have to wonder, hindsight notwithstanding, what Team USA was thinking bringing 3 PGs [plus the ball-hog Lebron], while leaving home Tyson.)
• Kobe: surprisingly, though he had a modestly good game, the Dobermamba was 1-7 from deep.  Ordinarily a good 3 point shooter, it’s surprising he had trouble with this shorter line, from where he should be money.  I know some people will pile on here, but as Americans, we should all be concerned about that.

Obviously, as the score will attest, it was a good game.  We won.  We won big.  Just as you’ve no doubt read elsewhere over and over, our ball-hawking, aggressive defense keyed quite a lot of fast break easy buckets.  But there were a lot of problems we need to work out.  So let’s hope the game tomorrow against Angola will enable Coach K to figure them out.

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