LeBron James Says Team USA Has to do a Better Job of Communicating


Lithuania is a solid squad, one that many thought had a decent chance of giving Team USA some decent competition. But still, after a 99-94 victory, nobody on Team USA is satisfied with only winning by 5, and several of the players admitted that there are vital improvements that need to be made. According to LeBron James, teammate-to-teammate communication would be a good place to start. Via the Sporting News: “If you listened long enough to the postgame discussions going on around Team USA’s 99-94 victory over Lithuania here at Olympic Park on Saturday, you might have gotten the idea that this is exactly how coach Mike Krzyzewski drew things up. In the tunnel near the court, players were talking about the benefits of a tight game, the way that trailing with seven minutes to play and having to fend off a determined and experienced opponent will prove beneficial down the line. … Lithuania shot 58.5 percent from the field, plucking the American defense with pick-and-rolls and well-executed cuts to the basket. Lithuania played most of the game without a center, but still, a whopping 50 of their points came in the paint. ‘We got to do a better job of communicating,’ James said. ‘At times, we did. But you have to, defensively, in order to read and react to certain situations, you have to talk things through. If we’re switching or we’re guarding the pick-and-roll or we’re bumping guys into the paint, we gotta do a better job of talking that through, which we will. We have done it in the past. We can do it. We’ll watch film and we’ll get better at it.'”