Welcome to the best game of the round robin!

These teams don't like each other.  Kobe Bryant just floored his teammate Pau Gasol.  Lebron just bitched his defender who's trying to man him up and get under his skin.  The USA "D" is strong but Spain knows how to get to the rim.  Now that we've got Jason Kidd out of the game we can start to make some headway.  Either way, you've got 2 teams that want to murder each other (as I write Lebron just got his offensive foul, shortly after drawing one from Spain). 

Spain just dropped in Rubio and we just dropped in D-Wade, our MVP so far, and Wade steals the ball and goes in for the slam. 

In fact, I'm just going to go Brett Favre style stream of thought from here on out....that's the only way I can keep up with this.

—Chris Paul and Deron Williams are on the court now at the same time.  That's friggin awesome.

—2:44 and we've got a 20-13 lead. 

—Rubio is going to have to be the X-factor if Spain is going to win.  He's got the defense and imagination to inspire his teammates.  Him and Calderon in the backcourt can match us on their best day.

—Carmelo is the only USA player who is money from the 3 point line.

—USA is trying to knock Rubio around to intimidate him.  I like it.

—It's good to see that Marc Gasol might actually have some value in the NBA, somewhat (but not nearly) justifying the Memphis/L.A. trade sending his brother to the dark side.

—Paul just split 2 defenders on the break showing why everybody else sucks except for him.

—The USA defense is the star of the show.  They get a steal every 2-3 times on defense.  Whether or not they can hit a 3 seems to be irrelevant if they can just make you piss your pants.

—Rubio is going to have to learn something other than the back-tap form of defense if he's going to make it in the NBA.  Heck, he's going to have to learn it this game if they want to keep it within 20.

—Spain is not intimated taking it to the rim.  It's actually getting the ball from their dribble to the shooting position on non-drives where they lose their focus.

—10 turnovers for Spain in the first quarter.  USA leads 31 to 22 in a 10 minute quarter.  Imagine what would happen if somebody other than Carmelo could hit a shot (P.S. Jason Kidd still sucks).

—Reyes is playing well.  Spain's front line is actually playing bigger than ours at times (not that this is a surprise with Prince and Boozer as our backup centers.) 

—JAMES ALLEY OOP (that's odd).

—Rubio just picked James pretty embarrassingly.  That was after James punked the guy who's defending him (still trying to figure out his name, I'm an hour behind the game so I can't go online for fear of seeing the results).  Don't worry, I'll figure it out.

—Howard just used his forearm to the head of a Spain player.  Spain is doing a great job of baiting him.

—Kobe is a "little flying warrior" and Lebron is "The Little Emperor".

—Rudy Fernandez is NBA ready, it's scary to think that he's unaccounted for in terms of the Portland Trailblazers success last year (along with Oden).

—Kobe shoots the USA technicals.

—USA looks bad against the first look at zone coverage from Spain.  Gasol goes "and one" on the next possession over Chris Bosh (who missed the awkward shot against the zone). 

—Bosh and Howard have 2 fouls each at the 6:30 mark in the 2nd quarter.

—Lebron just hit his second 3 and has 14 points on 5 of 6 from the field.

—Fernandez just got an offensive foul against Bosh for what looked to be spooning.

—Kobe finally hits a 3, the US has a 14 point lead.

—Marc Gasol just got to the line drawing Kobe's 3rd foul (he's now out for the half).  Hey Spain, your center is getting covered by our shooting guard.  Go to hell.

—This zone looks to be bothering us, but how can you blame us, the court is so small.  They need to get Michael Redd into the game and Deron Williams too.  (Carmelo just buried a shot).  Those 3 could knock them out of the zone real quick.  Marc Gasol draws a foul on Anthony.

—Anthony just fouled the Spain's Rodriguez, the same guy that was getting under LeBron's skin.  The foul occurred on a made free throw by Spain.  Spain is definitely trying to play a dirty game, the US needs to keep their cool. 

—James to Wade for the dunk.  Screw you Spain.

—Rubio is back in.  Chris Paul gets the assignment .  Paul to D Williams, 3 point bucket. 

—Williams is playing like he's in Utah.

—Lebron threw it away, then so did Spain.  Lebron is getting chippy, and he looks like he's about to fight.

—Garbajosa nails a contested 3.  Coach K calls time.  USA up by 17.

—Next time the USA needs to add some inside presence other than Howard.  Nothing against Howard but there's not enough offense in him to keep him on the court all the time.

—Rubio connects with Fernandez on the alley oop.  Spain pressures and gets Paul to travel (it's not the NBA friend).

—Boozer just checked in with a minute to go.  Let's see how he fares. 

—Rubio is not intimidated at all against the greatest team in the world (and he's 17).  He's going to be a fine NBA player.

—Boozer update, just missed a close one.

—Spain is intent on pressing, which given the USA ballhandlers is interesting (and I don't know if I disagree with it).  The only way the win is if they turn this into a game of streetball.  Boozer missed another close one, but got the tip in a second later.

—USA leads by 16 at the half.  Normally that statement would be followed with something like "and USA isn't playing up to potential".  Well, they aren't'.  But neither is Spain.  This game is exactly 16 points apart until the US can show that they can take care of the ball (10 turnovers in the first half) and stop Spain defensively (I don't know what the points in the paint are but Spain is in there).

—Meatball Sandwich Break

—I guess the Chinese really like the super-fast version of C & C Music Factory's "Everybody Dance Now".

—-Holy moly Batman, I'm too tired to write anymore, time to just sit back and enjoy....

GO USA!


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