NBA, Lebron James, Ronny Turiaf, Tyson Chandler, Tony Parker, Olympics, Team France, Team U.S.A
Team USA vs. France! Tony Parker vs. Chris Paul! Parker vs. Williams! Parkers vs. Westbrook! Parker vs. The World, basically! The Olympic tournament has begun. Wait, is it really 6am PST? I must be really desperate for some basketball. But hey, at least I didn’t get up at six in the morning to watch Gymnastics, but either way here is a running diary of the game.
1st Q: The game starts off slow and a bit messy. The US looks out of sync and is missing jumpers.
0:41: Tyson Chandlers makes one of two free throws and U.S team leads 22-18.
0:40: Ronny Turiaf is fouled as he grabbs a rebound off the missed three throw. It’s good to see Turiaf getting some playing time. The last we saw him he was not playing for the Wizards. He also looks like he hasn’t shaved since the last Olympics.
0:00: Team France finishes the first quarter on a 7-2 run and only trail team USA by one point, 22-21.
Just for those of you that didn’t know, the U.S was a 25 point favorite and of course I laid the points and took them to win by more than 25. They’re going to need to score a lot of point some time soon.
2nd Quarter:
8:14: Boris Diaw misses a three. He’s on this team too? Really, the guy who’s at least 30 lbs overweight made the Olympic team? U.S leads 30-21.
7:39: Chris Paul drains a corner three to help extend the U.S lead to 33- 21. In the last minute and a half, Kobe, Paul and Lebron all hit a three to extend the lead to 12.
7:17: Tony Park is wearing James Worthy goggles. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, he was the innocent victim in the Drake/Chris Brown bar fight over Rihanna a few months ago. I wonder what Coach Pop thinks about that?
5:55: Russell Westbrook chucks up a wild three. Good to see you again Russ, I’ve missed those crazy threes of yours.
5:32: Westbrook fouls a France player with one second left on the shot clock. Again… didn’t he make the same mistake in the Finals? I really have missed Westbrook and his breathtaking athleticism but impaired decision making skills.
2:50: Team U.S.A leads 45 -31 and is finally starting to get close to that 25 point spread. The team has begun to impose its skills set on France. It feels like a 40 point blow out is coming.
0:45: Kevin Durant hits two free throws to extend the lead to 52-36.
Halftime: Team USA ends the half on a 17-6 run and lead by 16.
3rd quarter:
9:20: Durant hits a long three and is the leading scorer of the game with 18 points. U.S leads 55-36.
6:47: Parker splits two defenders for an easy lay up. France trails by 19 points. 60-41.
5:50: Lebron backs down a Team France player and hits an easy turn around jumper. Team U.S leads 62-41.
4:25: Doug Collins, announcing the game with Bob Costas, says Lebron left Cleveland “and that was a little messy”. I almost forgot about the decision. The way Dwight Howard has handled his free agency situation has been so horrific that he makes Lebron look like a United Nations Ambassador.
2:53: Team U.S leads 68-50. France is having trouble finding any sort of offense.
0:00: France only manages to score one point during the last three minutes of the quarter and U.S extends their lead to 27 points. 78-51.
4th Quarter:
The game began to slow down in the 4th quarter as it was obvious that it would be a blow out. Both teams traded baskets and ended up scoring 20 points each in the period. Team U.S won by 27 points and covered the 25 point spread, bringing the team one win closer to the Gold and putting some extra money in my wallet. Now I know why I woke up at 6am to watch a basketball game- money will have that affect on a person.
