Basketball Blog

With the outside temperature in Las Vegas, Nev., smoldering in its typical triple digits Saturday afternoon, the USA Men’s Senior National Team (9-0) heated things up inside the Thomas & Mack Center as well with a fiery 135-91 blowout of Puerto Rico (4-5) in one semifinal of the FIBA Americas Championship. The one-sided win not only advanced the USA into Sunday’s gold medal game, but more importantly qualified the USA for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets) and Michael Redd (Milwaukee Bucks) paced the USA scoring explosion. Anthony tallied a game high 27 points, while Redd totaled 23 points in the win. In 98 games played by USA teams comprised of NBA players, tonight’s 135 points is the third most ever scored.

Earlier in the day, Argentina (8-1) topped Brazil (5-4) 91-80 to also advance to the gold medal game and snag the other qualifying spot for the 2008 Olympics. The 4:00 p.m. (PDT) gold medal game will be broadcast live on FSN and NBA TV. The semifinal losers, Puerto Rico and Brazil will battle at 1:00 p.m. to determine the bronze medal finisher.

“We’re ecstatic that we have qualified for the 2008 Olympics,” said USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “Puerto Rico was so good in the first half, and we knew they would be because they can control tempo with their terrific guards. Our guys really started out the second half. Melo (Carmelo) went on one of those streaks, he reminded me of a game we played against Italy in the (2006) World Championship, and in one quarter he just took off. We did a little thing against the zone, and those things work well when people hit shots. They made passes, and he just gave us such a lift.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Krzyzewski continued. “They represented our country well, they represented international basketball well. Hopefully we can close out and play well again tomorrow, but we’re very, very honored to be one of the qualifying teams for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. You could not have a more proud team than this U.S. team is to represent their country.”

The USA’s first points of the game came from a Anthony 3-pointer that was a sign of things to come for the USA. When the final buzzer had sounded, the U.S. had shot an unbelievable 22-of-36 (64.0 percent) from deep to set U.S. records for 3-pointers made and attempted in Olympic qualifying action.

While Anthony would hit 6-of-7 3-pointers in the contest, Redd was 7-of-8 from behind the arc to equal the existing U.S. individual records for made 3-pointers, and Mike Miller (Memphis Grizzlies) shot 4-of-6 from beyond the 3-point line.

“I just play. Regardless of what kind of game it is, I’m able to adjust to it,” Anthony said. “It’s not like I’m out there trying to score 20 or 30 points, it just happens. It sounds funny, but it’s almost like its coming naturally to me. The game is fun. Sometimes I almost like the international game better than I like the NBA game.”

“We were having fun,” Redd stated. “Your teammates are jumping around. It was great, man, just great. The thing about it is that a lot of the shots weren’t forced. Guys were playing unselfish. Mike Miller caught fire a little bit; Tayshaun hit a couple of threes. It was a total team effort tonight.”

Helped by 11 first quarter points from Orlando Magic guard Elias Ayuso, Puerto Rico initially kept pace with the USA. Led by LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Jason Kidd (New Jersey Nets), who tallied eight points each, the USA shot its way to a 33-27 lead after the first quarter had been put in the books.

The second period saw the USA slowly increase its advantage to 15, 57-42, at halftime, but the real fun for the Americans began after the intermission.

By the time the clock read 6:47 in the third, Anthony already had drained four more 3-pointers and helped the U.S. balloon its lead to 73-49. Anthony, who scored 16 in the third period alone, was perfect from the field in the third stanza making all five of his shot attempts, including four 3-pointers.

While Anthony started the quarter hot, Redd closed it on fire to help the USA reach triple digits, 100-70, in just 30 minutes. Redd hit his first 3-pointer at 3:02 and then drained two more before the period ended. He carried the momentum through the break and opened the fourth quarter with two more 3-pointers, the first one at 9:40, then at 7:40. Miller also was dialed in from deep, hitting three of his four 3-pointers in the fourth to finish with 14 points.

“We’ve always been doubted as a good shooting team,” James said. “Teams have been able to pack in the zone and make us shoot it. But we’ve got Michael Redd, Mike Miller, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant. You don’t have to worry about anyone packing in the zone on us any more.”
In a fitting end to the game, Tayshaun Prince (Detroit Pistons) recorded the USA’s final points from deep as well to reach the game’s final of 135-91.

James finished with 19 points and nine assists, including 9-of-9 shooting from two-point; Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers) tallied 15 points; Prince scored 10 points to go with four rebounds and three assists; and Deron Williams (Utah Jazz) dished seven assists.