The History of the 2012 United States men's Olympic basketball team
After the success of the Redeem Team, USA basketball was on a high note once again, and once again it was able to convince the best players in the United States to play in the 2012 London Olympic games.
Five players players returned from the 2008 Redeem Team, they were Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Kobe Bryant. The roster also included Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Love, Tyson Chandler, and Russell Westbrook who had played on the 2010 World Championship team. The final two roster spots went to Blake Griffin and James Harden. Griffin would be injured in training camp and would be replaced by Anthony Davis. Davis was the first player on a US team who had not previously played in the NBA since Christian Laettner on the original Dream Team in 1992.
The team was once again coached by Mike Kryzewski. Jim Boeheim, Mike D'Antonio, and Nate McMillian filled out his bench.
The team played its first exhabition game vs the Dominican Republica on July 12, 2012, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The NBA tied Team USA into the NBA Summer League and was able to get fans excited about both. The Americans had no trouble against the Dominicans and cruised to a 113-59 victory.
Four days later Team USA took on Brazil in the natons capitol. The US came out sluggish and quickly found themselves down double digits, but after a strong second quarter where they held Brazil to just 5 points, the US went into the half up 37-32. The US kept the pressure on in the second half for an 80-69 victory.
The US than took on Great Britain in the first ever match up between the two English speaking superpowers. The Brits put up little resistance as the US blew them out 118-78 in front of a sell out crowd in Manchester, UK.
Next the US travelled to Spain for a couple of games. The first again Argentina was a slugfest. The US struggled at times to get any offensive flow, but held on to an 86-80 win.
The final exhabition game was against Spain, a team who many saw as the only legit rival to the US for the gold medal. The Spanish pleased their fans by coming out and taking it right to the Americans. Spain lead 23-21 after one, but a poor shooting second quarter allowed the Americans to take an 8 point lead into the half. The US kept the pressure on the Spanish and won 100-78.
The Olympic basketball tournament was set up as normal, with the host nation (Great Britain) getting a bid, the World Champions (United States) getting a bid, and each of the Continential tournament winners getting bids (Tunisa, Argentina, Australia, Spain, and China). The second place finishers for both the Americas and Europe also got bids (Brazil and France), and the three tip finishers in the World Olympic Qualifying tournament also got bids (Lithuania, Russia, and Nigera). There was some contention about whether or not Great Britain should be allowed to have a team even as the Olympic host. The British were ranked near the bottom of the world standings, and are still the worst FIBA team ever allowed into the Olympics.
Once again the 12 teams were broke down into two groups of 6 with the top 4 teams advancing. The US was in Group A with France, Argentina, Lithuania, Nigeria and Tunisia)
The US began Olympic play on July 29, 2012, against France. The US came out sluggish and played sloppily. The first quarter was a disaster for the US who missed their first six three pointers and at one point were shooting just 6 percent. The Americans managed to grab the lead late in the first quarter. The US kept their momentum going into the second quarter and by the middle of third the game was out of hand. The US would go on to win 98-71.
The US' next game was again Tunisia, and once again the US came out not being able to hit three-pointers. The US followed up their 0-6 start vs France from 3, with an even worse 0-8 start vs Tunisia. Still, the Americas were too big and too talent to really worry and despite their shootings woes lead 21-15 after one, and 46-33 at the half. Coach Krzyzewski did something no American coach ever did to start a second half - he benched his entire starting lineup. The reserved responded by going on a 21-3 run and putting the game away. The US won in convincing fasion 110-63.
Going into the third game the US was getting a lot of criticism about not caring and not really being that good. A lot of pundits were saying that the US would not even medal. The US players must have heard them, because what they did to Nigeria is the kind of things you see on NBA2K, not real basketball.
The US came out vs Nigeria red hot and put the game away in the first five minutes. After the first quarter the US lead 49-25. Nigeria did a bit better job in the second quarter but the US went into halftime leading 78-45. The 78 points is the most points ever scored in a first half in Olympic history. Nigeria came out flat in the second half, and the US came out even hotter than they were before, especially Carmelo Anthony. Anthony scored at will and finished the game with a US international record 37 points. The US teid the Olympic record of 78 points in a half by again scoring 78 points in the second half in route to a 156-73 victory. The 83 point victory is the largest by the US ever, the largest since the shot clock, and the third largest ever (Iraq lost two games by 100 in the 1948 Olympics).
The US faced off against Lithuania in the penultimate game of Group play. The Lithuanians gave the US all they could handle and it looked for a few minutes they may even upset. With just under six minutes in the game, Lithuania lead the US 84-82, but Lebron James took over and scored 10 points in the finl 6 minutes to guide the US to a 99-94 victory.
In the final game of Group play the US took on Argentina, a team who many thought could beat the US. The first half was a hard fought battle and the US had just a one point lead going into the half. Kevin Durant took over in the second half, as the US went on a 42-17 run in the third quarter to put the game away. The US eventually won 126-97.
The US finished a top Group A, with France suprising everyone by finishing 2nd, followed by Argentina and Lithuania. Group B was topped by Russia, followed by Brazil, Spain and Australia.
The US would face Australia in the quarterfinals and put the game away early. James would have the first triple-double in Olympics history and Kobe would score 20 points to lead the US to a 119-86 victory.
For the third time in a span of 17 days the US and Argentina faced off. Argentina had taken it easy vs the US not to tip their hand and were confident they could beat the US. The US came out firing and quickly built a double figures lead before the Argentines came back and cut it to 5. The US took a 7 point lead into the half. A strong second half put the Americans over the top and for the third time they blew out Argentina, this time 109-83.
The US once again would face Spain in the gold medal game. The US came out ready and played one of the best first quarters in Olympic history taking a 35-27 lead. Spain came back behind the Gasol brothers and the US went into the half only up 59-58. Going into the fourt quarter the teams were tied, but the trio of Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James ensured an American victory 107-100.
The seven point victory by the US was the closest gold medal game after the one point Soviet Union victory in the controversial 1972 final. This was the United States 14th gold medal in basketball and their second in a row.
The Olympics were dominated by NBA players, all ten leaders in PPG were NBA players, 9 of the 10 rebounding leaders where NBA players, 9 of the 10 assists leaders were NBA players, 9 of the 10 block leaders where NBA players, 9 of the 10 steals leaders were also NBA players. Only minutes played where not totally dominated by NBA players, as four of the top minute getters (Makrem Ben Romdhane, Joe Ingles, Nate Reinking, and Derrick Obasohan) were not NBA players, and Ingles got a shot later that year to join the NBA.
The US won gold, Spain got its second consecutive medal, and Russia took home the bronze - marking the only Olympic medal for them since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The USA roster was loaded with talent and this team is usually seen as the third or 4th best American team since NBA players started getting used. Five players would go to win, or had won, MVP awards (Durant, Westbrook, James, Bryant, and Harden); 7 players would win NBA titles (Durant, James, Bryant, Love, Iguodala, Chandler and Davis), and all would play in at least 1 NBA finals except for Carmelo Anthony.
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