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No more fooling around U.S. hopes to regain fire as medal round opens
SYDNEY, Australia -- Is there such a thing as the dog days of the Olympics? If there is, the U.S. men's basketball team seems to have arrived at that point. The Americans have played lately as if they've hit the wall of a typical NBA season, that stretch in March and April when staleness sets in and the truly important games are still off in the distance. After a blazing start in which it blasted China and Italy by an average of 39.5 points in its first two games, Team USA (USA Basketball hates the moniker "Dream Team") has coasted a bit in two of the last three contests. Lithuania made the Americans sweat before falling 85-76, and France went down by a relatively small 106-94 margin that marked the end of the preliminary round in which the U.S. finished -- surprise -- at the top of Group A with a 5-0 record. This isn't to say that the gold medal is in any jeopardy, just that the Americans don't seem to have the same fire in their eyes that they had even a week ago. "You have to remember, we came off a long [NBA] season, had a little break, then in August we jumped right into getting ready for the Olympics," said forward Kevin Garnett. "We've been to Japan and Hawaii and Australia. It's been a lot of fun but it's also been a lot of ball. Maybe some guys are starting to get a little bit tired mentally." If that's true, perhaps the start of the medal round on Thursday will get the Americans' motors running again. The tournament was divided into two six-team groups, with the top four finishers in each group moving to the medal round. The U.S., Italy, Lithuania and France survived Group A, and Canada, Yugoslavia, Australia and Russia advanced from Group B. The Americans' first medal-round opponent will be the Russians, who entered the Olympics as favorites to win a medal but have been somewhat underwhelming so far, with a 3-2 record. If the U.S. wins, its next opponent would be the winner of the Yugoslavia-Lithuania game. Perhaps the most disappointed team in the tournament so far is China. A medal would have been a long shot, but the Chinese expected at least to make the medal round. They arrived with their much talked about three 7-footers, and although 7-5 Yao Ming and 7-0 Wang Zhizhi both looked like NBA material and 7-0 Menk Bateer had his moments as well, China lost four times and put together only one impressive overall performance, a win over Italy. The flip side of that has been Canada, which surprised everyone by winning Group B, in the process waxing the Aussies on their home floor and upsetting Yugoslavia. Canadian point guard Steve Nash must be setting hearts aflutter back in the offices of the Dallas Mavericks, his NBA employer. Nash carved up Australia with 15 assists and had 26 points, eight assists, eight rebounds and only one turnover in the win over a tough Yugoslavian team. "Everyone knows about the Americans, of course, but the Yugoslavs and Russians are dangerous, the Canadians are playing very well, and we've gotten ourselves back together after a rough start," said Australian forward Andrew Gaze. "It's going to be a fascinating medal round." Maybe even fascinating enough to hold the Dream Team's interest. Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor is in Sydney covering the men's basketball competition for the magazine and CNNSI.com. Check back daily to read Taylor's behind-the-scene reports from Down Under.
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