How did USA lose to Greece in 2006?

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

I'll admit, I didn't watch the world championships in 2006. Looking at their roster, though, not much changed outside of having Bryant in 2008. Did the players' heads get too big or something? Looking at the boxscores, we were whipping everyone by 20-30 points, then....lost to Greece in the final.

:confusedshrug:

[SpecialQue]

I'll admit, I didn't watch the world championships in 2006. Looking at their roster, though, not much changed outside of having Bryant in 2008. Did the players' heads get too big or something? Looking at the boxscores, we were whipping everyone by 20-40 points, then....lost to Greece in the final.

:confusedshrug:

There's your reason right there.

[PickernRoller]

Lebron James happened.

[USABall]

pick and roll defense, poor freethrow shooting, iso shots missing... less teamwork.. not as much effort. baby shaq gave them some trouble. greece had to play the game of their lives to only win by 6 anyway

[AlonzoGOAT]

Idk but all I know is after that game Euroleague has been saying they are the best on this galaxy and after that Nigeria game vs greece oh man. That has called that suicide hotline like 50 times.

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

There's your reason right there.

http://www.usabasketball.com/seniormen/2006/06_mwc_box8.html

Box Score (Final)
2006 FIBA World Championship
USA vs Greece (Sep 01, 2006)

VISITORS: USA (7-1)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 Joe Johnson......... g 1 3 1 3 0 0 1 0 1 3 3 3 0 0 0 26
5 Kirk Hinrich........ g 4 8 4 7 0 0 1 1 2 5 12 1 2 0 0 21
6 LeBron James........ f 8 14 0 4 1 4 2 3 5 3 17 5 4 2 1 30
14 Elton Brand......... c 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 2 0 0 1 2 0 12
15 Carmelo Anthony..... f 9 15 3 8 6 10 0 3 3 2 27 2 0 0 2 32
8 Shane Battier....... 0 1 0 1 1 2 2 2 4 3 1 1 0 2 0 12
9 Dwyane Wade......... 6 11 1 3 6 9 2 0 2 3 19 3 2 0 1 25
10 Chris Paul.......... 0 5 0 2 3 4 0 6 6 3 3 2 1 0 0 24
11 Chris Bosh.......... 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 1 0 5
12 Dwight Howard....... 4 6 0 0 2 3 5 2 7 1 10 0 0 0 0 13
7 Antawn Jamison...... DNP
13 Brad Miller........ DNP
Totals.............. 33 66 9 28 20 34 14 18 32 26 95 17 10 7 4 200

TOTAL FG%: .500 DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG%: .321 REBOUNDS
F Throw %: .588 2

That's still a damn talented team. Far more talent than what Greece had out there.

[tmacattack33]

O woops.

[cteach111]

Greece just wanted it more. They shot like 60% and USA shot 50% from the field. USA was awful from the FT line.

[Xiao Yao You]

There's your reason right there.

Had nothing to do with it. Coach K thought they could just get after people defensively and run and they had no offensive sets. He tried to play traditionally with the ball in Paul's hands instead of his best players hands(Lebron and Wade). He refused to play anything but man D. This worked until they met up with Greece who got them into a half court game and pick and rolled them to death and Coach K didn't make any adjustments until it was too late when he finally put it in Lebron's hands.

[Doctor Rivers]

There's your reason right there.

yup

[Rake2204]

I just remember Greece putting on a clinic with the pick-and-roll. I'm sure I've over dramatized it within my own mind, but I remember it as the USA appearing as if they'd never seen an opponent attempt a pick-and-roll in their life, as if Greece were utilizing magic or something.

[General]

They couldn't win without Kobe's leadership.

[Maniak]

They scored less points than the opposing team.

[Maga_1]

In all seriouness, and i'm not even joking it was Spanoulis.
Don't laugh, but that's the true. The guy scored 22 points :lol

[Grinder]

In all seriouness, and i'm not even joking it was Spanoulis.
Don't laugh, but that's the true. The guy scored 22 points :lol

The biggest key was Papaloukas killing them on the pick and roll and Big Sofo's monstrous stretch where he dominated the paint for most of the quarter IMO. Diamantidis also played great defense and made some big plays.

The USA team back then was fairly inexperienced and poorly coached as well. It was definitely a big wake up call for USA basketball to start taking things more seriously.

[Maga_1]

The biggest key was Papaloukas killing them on the pick and roll and Big Sofo's monstrous stretch where he dominated the paint for most of the quarter IMO. Diamantidis also played great defense and made some big plays.

The USA team back then was fairly inexperienced and poorly coached as well. It was definitely a big wake up call for USA basketball to start taking things more seriously.

Don't do that to yourself because of Euroleague.
You know that Spanoulis was just terrific on the pick and roll too.

[inclinerator]

because iverson, amare and lbj showed up late for practice

[Grinder]

Don't do that to yourself because of Euroleague.
You know that Spanoulis was just terrific on the pick and roll too.
I don't give a **** about Euroleague, dude's been scared to show his face here after the loss to Nigeria :oldlol:

Spanoulis was good, yes, but Papaloukas was the biggest reason for their win. He dissected the defense with incredible pick and roll decision making and caused a ton of confusion leading to easy buckets for others.

[Maga_1]

I don't give a **** about Euroleague, dude's been scared to show his face here after the loss to Nigeria :oldlol:

Spanoulis was good, yes, but Papaloukas was the biggest reason for their win. He dissected the defense with incredible pick and roll decision making and caused a ton of confusion leading to easy buckets for others.

True, true.
I just re-watched the game a few days ago, there's the complete game on youtube.

[Xiao Yao You]

Coach K was the biggest reason. They acted like it was big deal after getting beat again badly in 2004 but after they lost they acted like it was just a stepping stone to the Olympics and didn't really matter. Than coach K got lots of praise when they won In Peking.

[catch24]

Greece had been playing together longer, so they knew how to play better as a unit. We sort of got thrown together and were still very young and inexperienced (you had to get past all the ego's and ball-hogs as well).

I remember it like it was yesterday though. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING Greece through up went in, especially in the first half. :oldlol: I think they only had like 2 offensive rebounds because everything was dropping.

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

I don't give a **** about Euroleague, dude's been scared to show his face here after the loss to Nigeria :oldlol:

Spanoulis was good, yes, but Papaloukas was the biggest reason for their win. He dissected the defense with incredible pick and roll decision making and caused a ton of confusion leading to easy buckets for others.

That moron lost all of his trolling material. F#cking hilarious. :lol

[TheBigVeto]

They are just not that good. I mean who's going to go to HOF from that 2006 team? The 2002 USA WC team would beat this one by 10 points.

[DuMa]

scripted loss. that loss got everyone more commited to the program and made USA basktball an A-list event every 2 years.