Newsgroup: it.sport.basket
Titolo: www.usabasketball.com

Intasato!
LOL :-)


Andare va, è che non è aggiornato
Staranno cercando le parole giuste...

A me continua a dire "waiting for www.usabasketball.com...", tipico sintomo
di sito intasato.

 di sito intasato.
a me scrive "USA Ready For Greece"
ahahah 

CBS SportsLine.com wire reports   	   	
 
SAITAMA, Japan -- The European champions are playing for a much bigger
prize.
The best the United States can hope for is yet another bronze medal.
COMMENTARY
Team USA proves it's better, but still not good enough
by Tony Mejia
• What's Your Take?
Tell Tony your opinion!
 
Greece used a sizzling stretch of shooting across the middle two
quarters to turn a 12-point deficit into a 14-point lead, and beat the
Americans 101-95 Friday in the semifinals of the FIBA World
Championship.
The Greeks (8-0) can add a world title to the European championship
they won in 2005 with a victory over either Spain or Argentina in
Sunday's gold medal game. Those teams, also undefeated, met in
Friday's second game.
The Greeks -- with no current NBA players on their roster -- danced in
a circle at halfcourt after their victory over an American team put
together after a series of recent failures.
 
Done in again by their inept 3-point shooting -- and they weren't much
better from the foul line -- the Americans will fall short of a
championship in a major international tournament for the third
straight time.
The U.S. (7-1) will return to the court Saturday against the loser of
the Argentina-Spain game, hoping to match the bronze medal it left
Athens with in 2004.
Carmelo Anthony scored 27 points for the Americans, who couldn't
overcome their 32 percent shooting from 3-point range or 59 percent
from the foul line. Dwyane Wade added 19 and LeBron James had 17, but
the three U.S. captains were unable to avenge their disappointment
from Athens.
Vassilis Spanoulis, bound for the Houston Rockets, scored 22 points
for Greece. Mihalis Kakiouzis added 15 and 6-foot-10 Sofoklis
Schortsianitis -- nicknamed "Baby Shaq" -- added 14, shooting 6-of-7.
The Greeks shot 63 percent (35-of-56) from the field and made 31 of 44
shots across the final three periods.
The U.S. hasn't even played for a world championship since winning the
last of its three titles in Toronto in 1994. Mike Krzyzewski -- who
was looking for gold after winning bronze with the 1990 team -- and a
few American players walked to midcourt to congratulate the Greeks,
while most of the U.S. quickly headed to the locker room.
The Americans, who put together a national team program this year for
the first time after their recent failures, now will be forced to
qualify for the 2008 Olympics next summer in the FIBA Americas
tournament in Venezuela.
The U.S. seemed in control after Joe Johnson's 3-pointer gave the
Americans a 33-21 lead with about 6½ minutes left in the second
quarter. It was around then that James told his teammates on the
bench: "They don't know what to do."
Well, they figured it out in a hurry. 
 Greece scored nine straight points, pulling within three on Theodoros
Papaloukas' drive with 3:51 left and forcing Krzyzewski to call
timeout. Dwight Howard converted a three-point play, but the Greeks
answered with a 13-2 surge, featuring eight points from
Schortsianitis, to open a 43-38 advantage and force Krzyzewski to call
a second timeout.
Greece hit nine straight shots -- its only miss in the last five
minutes was a heave from halfcourt as time expired -- and led 45-41 at
halftime. The Greeks shot 56 percent (15-of-27) in the half.
The Americans were 2-of-10 from behind the arc -- after going
10-for-40 in their quarterfinal victory over Germany -- and trailed at
the break for only the second time in the tournament. Italy had a
nine-point cushion in a group play game.
The U.S. also had nine turnovers -- about two below their tournament
average for a game -- and was 11-of-17 (65 percent) at the foul line.
Greece kept it up in the third quarter, hitting 14 of its 18 shots,
including all four 3-pointers in the first 5 minutes. Kostas
Tsartsaris' 3-pointer with 5:45 left in the period gave the Greeks a
65-51 lead - the biggest deficit the U.S. faced in the tournament.
After shooting 4-of-12 in the first quarter, Greece was 25-of-33 (76
percent) in the second and third and led 77-65 heading to the final
period.
Anthony, Wade and James combined for the first 18 U.S. points in the
quarter, and the Americans eventually got as close as 95-91 on Kirk
Hinrich's 3 with 36 seconds to play. But the U.S. missed its final two
attempts from behind the arc, capping a 9-of-28 night.
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AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

 Well, they figured it out in a hurry.
LOL :-)