The US basketball team has been quite dominant so far. Perhaps not as much as some would like, but at least that makes for slightly better basketball.
Watching the US - Australia match live now (damn NBC, waking me up at 5 am!). There are 12 seconds left in the first quarter, and Australia is trailing by 2 points.
So far, I'm still not super-impressed by the team. Perhaps because my expectations were so high. But I just don't like some of the things I'm seeing.
Kobe Bryant: Kobe seems to spend 50% of his time playing within the offense, and 50% doing things on his own, forcing shots, missing dunks (admittedly tough ones), and generally behaving as if Chris Mihm were his center, and Smush Parker his point guard (Smushy-P was a point-guard? hahahaha!). Why? I really don't know. The guy is quite smart, and should know coach-K's system, having 'almost' signed up at Duke instead of going for the draft after high school 
(shoot, now I've been brain-washed! why am I quoting meaningless things?). His shooting percentage is awful, and I've seen him missing 3 dunks in the past 2 games.
On the positives - yep, Kobe is defending well. He is pressuring well, cutting off passing lanes when he needs to, giving good help defense and weak-side support, and following up on steals by other players.
The US team is good enough right now to win with Kobe playing like this. Just think - what if our boy was playing up to his full potential?
And on a great note to end this post - Kobe just rounded the baseline and dunked, and on the follow-up play faked out his defender with a really sweet behind-the-back fake to lay it in. Woohoo!
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