Sunday, September 12th, 2010 at 2:11 pm  |  80 responses

Live Blog: USA vs Turkey

For the Gold

by Matt Lawyue / @mlawyue

The United States of America vs Turkey for the 2010 FIBA World Basketball Championships.

It just sounds right. If there was a dream match-up organizers prayed for before this tournament began, it was this one. Two years after reasserting itself as the alpha basketball nation in Beijing, Team USA sent an inexperienced, unsure team to Istanbul. Coach K was expected to turn a cast of Eric Gordon, Derrick Rose and Rudy Gay into contenders. Well, mission accomplished. It also helps when you have the most dominant international basketball player suiting up for you and dropping a seemingly effortless 38 on the competition. Kevin Durant, this is the world. The world, Kevin Durant.

Turkey, in one of the most emotional displays of basketball I’ve ever seen, willed their way into the Finals during last night’s come from behind win over Serbia. If there’s a team that can match up with Team USA, it’s the host nation. Their suffocating 2-3 zone defense with feisty, aggressive players will look to wreak havoc on Coach K’s (lack of) half-court offense, while their front-court will try and establish an inside presence against the smaller American’s. Throw in absolutely raucous Turkish fans and an off shooting night from Team USA, and you have your upset in the making.

ESPN will air this game live at 2:30 PM EST and ESPN 3 will carry it online.

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  • http://slamonline.com The Black Rick Kamla

    Chi-Town please lets not get carried away, by all accounts Lebron was the vocal leader of the ‘redeem’ team. What KD did was great no doubt, but to say he’s already accomplished more than Lebron is just completely being a prisoner of the moment.

  • luv2ball

    I just want KD to stop lying about his height. He is taller than LO and looking eye to eye with Chandler. Dude is like an athletic Dirk Nowitzki with better handles, passing, AND a killer instinct. KD makes scoring look so easy.

  • Chi-Town Stand Up

    @Kamla…How was Lebron the Vocal Leader! Leaders lead by example! Last I checked D-Wade led the team in scoring, but when it came down to crunch time in the gold medal game against Spain it was Kobe not Lebron who carried team USA to victory! In the 2010 World Championship I don’t think there’s any debate as to who the Leader was of the team! Durant is a different animal than Lebron! Lebron would make a great PG though a la Magic Johnson! Durant is a Killer in the mold of Jordan! Not that he’ll ever be better, but you get what i’m saying!

  • JTaylor21

    DMA is right, KD is a taller Melo except Melo’s better in crunch time. @Chi-Town, you gives a hell about what happens during fiba games, what has KD done in his first 3 years that’s better than Bron’s first 3 years. KD struggled ALOT against the LA in the playoffs and RWestbrook was actually the BEST player on the Thunder during the playoffs. All durant does on the basketball court well is score and rebound, he’s defense is below average, mediocre passer, struggles in crunch-time, and struggles ALOT against physical defense. He’s a top 10 player right now but is not better than Bron/Wade/Kobe and is still below guys like CP and DWill. He is on the same plane as guys like Melo/BRoy/Dirk/DHow.

  • http://dfjklf.com Jukai

    Chi-Town Stand Up: Uh, both Kobe and Wade readily admitted Lebron was the leader of the redeem team. If you disagree, you should probably talk with one over with Kobe. Kobe ‘left it up to the young guns’ to lead and just decided to play defense and be uber clutch.
    But Lebron, and to a lesser extent, Carmello were the real leaders of that team.
    Not to take anything away from KD. My opinion on KD is realllly really high. My big complaints from KD is that he was a lousy passer and a lousy defender. You know what? HE HAS IMPROVED. Still weak passing on double teams, still needs some work manning up… but man, his help defense has REALLY skyrocketed, and he is seeing the open floor better than I have ever seen him. He’s patching up his game slowly but surely. He may not Paul/Howard/Williams/Carmello out of that top-5 tier and be a household name VERY soon.

  • http://dfjklf.com Jukai

    *not = knock

  • Mo

    Chi-town:

    Are u F-ing nuts? What n the hell has durant done n the NBA that Bron hasn’t already done? And I luv KD but let him get out the first round of the playoffs at least before u start proclaiming him better than LeBron. Then u say KD had led a team to a championship and Bron hasn’t. Its the dam World Championships! Playing with other good players as well and now that counts as “leading a team to a ship?” Give me a break. Let him lead his team to a NBA championship and then talk. People kill me with this “flavor or the week” garbage. Bron pissed people off with the “decision” and now guys are just talkin reckless. Ain’t no way n hell KD is better than that dude. KD is a lethal scorer but Bron brings way more to the game than him. Period! If bron wanted to just flat out light it up every night, he can. Its as simple as that. But like I said before, when KD leads his team to the Finals like Bron has (a garbage team at that) then u might not sound as crazy. Now people wanna forget the sh*t that LeBron has done n the league. Laughable.

  • yuan

    enough said KD is and will be the best right after kobe relinquish it soon… with his humility i am so sure he will be up there with the best ever players…. on side note kudos to lamar odom ..im
    very happy for your accomplishments.. you deserve it for all your humility ant team first attitude… hope you will play with kd and iggy in the nba one day.

  • The Fresh Prince of Nsam

    @Mo: Not to enter our debate (i’m a LBJ fan and I like KD 2, I don’t care who’s better) 2 answer ur question (1 thing than KD has done in the NBA better than LBJ) : Youngest scoring leader of the NBA (2010).

  • The Fresh Prince of Nsam

    It was a great TEAM, people really doubted them. Kudos 2 KD (awesome) Odom (if he was not playing 4 the Lakers, would b my favorite NBA player) AI and Westbrook. Was not impressed by Rose’s last 3 games and Billups jacked up 2 much early 3s. Great job by Coach K in putting up this team and making it successful.

  • http://www.kb24.com The Seed

    This was the most boring team to watch in any of the World Championships. KD is being overrated yall, let the kid grow any numbers he put up against these teams during the FIBA stuff is nothing. The thing people don’t talk about is that against the Lakers last year, KD is the one who costed the Thunder the series. With his dumb shot taking and trying to go against Artest. If KD had relaxed and moved the ball around and not shoot like 37 percent his team wins. Westbrook on the Thunder to me has the most upside over KD. KD will only get better in shooting, but Westbrook can eventually be the best point guard in the league. Westbrook already can play defense, dunk on anybody, has a quick first step, working on his mid range game and if thinks about passing more when he gets in the lane will be more important than KD. KD is good, but people last year, he hurt the Thunder trying to be the HERO alot of games and not making the right pass. Lebron is ten times better than KD and anybody comparing them is just STUPID. Also anyone comparing Melo to KD is lost in translation to. KD has alot of work to do. BOOK IT!!

  • Dagger

    Durant is a much better shooter than Lebron, and he’s at least an equivalent rebounder because he relies less on athletic ability and more on boxing out. Durant is also the opposite of a ball-stopper and he always seems to understand his role. On the other hand, Lebron is a much better dribbler, a superior defensive player (though Durant has made huge strides here in the past year), much better around the basket and a far better passer. Both players have substantial upside: Lebron could become a better shooter and he’s got huge room for improvement as a post player; Durant could put on some weight and grow as an all-around player. Overall Lebron is still a significantly better player but right now Durant is the only guy that can realistically surpass him in a couple years. This coming from a huge Durant fan, of course.

  • JTaylor21

    @The Seed, you become smarter every day. That’s exactly the same thing I said about KD costing the Thunder the series vs the lakers. Dude was straight up AVERAGE and was completely shut down by an aging Ron Artest. Without RWestbrook’s play, the thunders might have being swept by the Lakers. Also people are so quick to think that OKC can challenge the Lakers this year, which is beyond LUDACRIS because there’s no way in hell that KD outperforms Kobe while being guarded by Artest, especially in crunch time. People are insane if they think that KD is even remotely as good or better than Bron, just because bron decided to go down to south beach doesn’t mean that overnight he stopped being a Top 3 NBA player and that KD belongs in that discussion. Who cares about player’s freaking character, all we care about is what they accomplish on the court.

  • http://www.twitter.com/TheDiesel Anton

    The Expendables get the Gold!
    - Durantula stroking over your country like a nerd on Saturday night
    - Odom & Iguodala making hussle play after hussle play
    - Westbrook making the zone defense his b!tch
    - Gordon scoring and locking mo-fo’s down
    - Kevin Love rebounding like a beast
    - Tyson Chandler looking like at least 30% less of a douche
    - Billups taking horrible shots just to give himself more of a challenge
    We did it for the Collective Bargaining Agreement!

  • Danny23

    Being elder statesman is great. Nobody noticed Billups went 1-13 from the field in the Finals and semis. Does he get away with that if the US lose?
    What this team really only needed was a true point who can shoot. Deron Williams would be perfect. My 2012 starting five would be Deron, Wade, Durant, LeBron and Carmelo/Iggy for offense/defense.

  • Bryan

    Jtaylor21-lebron’s lapdog

    Durant is entering his 4th year. Lebron has obviously been around longer. Whether you approve or not, Durant is working his way into the Wade/Kobe/Lebron talk. This year it would not surprise me at all to see the thunder and Durant take another leap forward. After all, taking leaps forward is all the guy has done his first 3 years.

    And saying character doesn’t matter pretty much exposes you as someone who doesn’t know what your talking about anyway, bro.

  • Bryan

    “Who cares about player’s freaking character, all we care about is what they accomplish on the court. ”

    I just need to reiterate how wrong this is. It actually looks even stupider when you read it by itself

  • http://www.dontevenreply.com total scrotal implosion

    We won despite chauncey and derricks best efforts to tank it. Damn they were awful all tournament. Derrick had a few nice plays but overall he really sucked. Westbrook is 3rd best pg in the league, best defensive pg no doubt. Durantula vs bron is dumb, right now brons better, but who knows when its all done

  • RedRum

    Durant is the best player I have seen play since MJ. There… I said it…

  • jdstorm

    Lebron is Magic 2.0
    Durant is Larry Birds game with kevin garnets body.

    And the Argument continues

  • http://www.slamonline.com J

    the comment section is a little weird.. first how much did slam pay the greek dude to be their live blogger? and he’s rooting for USA? lol kidding.. second did i just read The Seed wrote Lebron is ten times better than Durant? The Seed giving LeBron some love? Weird.. anyway great job by Team USA! They deserve this! Now lets see these guys on the upcoming season.. Is it November yet?

  • Pingback: SLAM ONLINE | » World Championships: Missed Opportunity for LeBron?

  • http://slamonline.com Kap

    Are people actually serious about Kevin Durant being the best player in the world right now? The kid is gonna be great but Kobe, Wade, and Lebron are still miles ahead of this kid. I hate it how people have so short term memories.

  • http://google c_cantrell

    look im a huge durant fan but jus cause the kid led team usa this summer and took them farther than what most thought he would does not make him better than 2 time mvp lebron who has had one finals appearance or finals mvp wade or 5 time champ and 2 time finals mvp bryant.. kd is an amazing player but he has nothing on these guys.. all they share in common is a scoring title.. but yeah he is gettin better every year and may be in the bron, wade, bryant conversation in a year or 2 or 3

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    durant has a better stroke than Melo, and his off the dribble moves are better. Plus, he’s a more fluid and creative shot maker.
    Melo is a Big Freaking Bully, who is also pretty clutch.
    Their game really aren’t that similar at all.

  • RedRum

    seriously, I am old enough to have seen Magic and Bird, MJ, Kobe, Lebron, Wade. My fav player ever is Duncan. But I don’t think I have been this excited about a player since seeing MJs rookie year.

  • CONEY ISLANDER

    Kevin Durant’s jumper is actually registered as a weapon in most states. He has to bring his laminated permit to the refs before games.

  • JTaylor21

    @AllenP, with all that Melo is still the BETTER and BEST scorer in the NBA. Give me a bully over a finesse type player.

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    These have been great, Matt. Thanks!

  • sport j

    there should b a new stat for hustling, like u know divn for balls tips to other players picks , just straight hustling , it would give the blue collar athletes ,a chance to shine ,

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