Summer Olympics Basketball Thread - London 2012

[BroadwayBomber55]

Women's Quarterfinal Matchups: Tuesday August 7, 2012
http://www.london2012.fiba.com/pages.../schedule.html

USA v. CAN

AUS v. CHN

TUR v. RUS

FRA v. CZE

[BroadwayBomber55]

Men's Quarterfinal Matchups: Wednesday August 8, 2012
http://www.london2012.fiba.com/pages.../schedule.html

RUS v. LTU

FRA v. ESP

BRA v. ARG

USA v. AUS

[Tabata]

USA v. AUS

I guess this is where the show ends

The Boomers had a pretty good Olympics. Hopefully they can push this one as close as they can.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Women's Quarterfinals Final Scores: Tuesday August 7, 2012
http://www.london2012.fiba.com/pages.../schedule.html

Diana Taurasi and the U.S. women continue to dominate.

USA 91-48 CAN

AUS 75-60 CHN

TUR 63-66 RUS

FRA 71-68 CZE

[BroadwayBomber55]

Men's Quarterfinals Schedule: Wednesday August 8, 2012
http://www.london2012.fiba.com/pages.../schedule.html

[dabomb2045]

Some very good games today. Russia-Lithuania, France-Spain, and Brazil-Argentina are all excellent matchups that should provide for some good basketball.

[dabomb2045]

11/14/13 for LeBron vs Australia. His passing was superb...its kinda nice to be able to put aside my dislike for him for a little while as he wears the USA jersey and just appreciate his greatness. Nice to see Kobe finally get his outside shot going. We'll need everyone to get by Argentina and likely Spain.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Men's Quarterfinal Final Scores: Wednesday August 8, 2012
http://www.london2012.fiba.com/pages.../schedule.html

RUS 83-74 LTU

FRA 59-66 ESP

BRA 77-82 ARG

USA 119-86 AUS

[BroadwayBomber55]

Women's Semifinal Schedule: Thursday August 9, 2012
http://www.london2012.fiba.com/pages.../schedule.html

Will the U.S. continue their quest for fifth straight gold medal? They take on mighty Australia.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Women's Semifinal Final Scores: Thursday August 9, 2012
http://www.london2012.fiba.com/pages.../schedule.html

It wasn't easy for the Americans as they survived and thrived against Australia to reach the gold medal game as the U.S. defeated the Aussies 86-73.

Liz Cambage gave the Aussies hope with 19 points and had a 56-55 lead at one point for the Opals in the second half.

But Lindsay Whalen came into the ballgame and scored six vital points in the second.

Diana Taurasi and Tina Charles each scored 14 points and Sue Bird added 13.

The U.S. women will go for their fifth straight Olympic Gold Medal as they take on France who is also undefeated after beating Russia 81-64.

[BroadwayBomber55]

11/14/13 for LeBron vs Australia. His passing was superb...its kinda nice to be able to put aside my dislike for him for a little while as he wears the USA jersey and just appreciate his greatness. Nice to see Kobe finally get his outside shot going. We'll need everyone to get by Argentina and likely Spain.

I also think the U.S. needs to be better defensively against Argentina this time around. Other than that 42-17 third quarter spurt, the 1st half and fourth quarter could've went either way.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Men's Semifinal Schedule: Friday August 10, 2012
http://www.london2012.fiba.com/pages.../schedule.html

[dabomb2045]

Impressive dismantling of Argentina. I feel like this team is Usain Bolt...once they kick it into top gear for a few minutes, they just run away from these other teams.

With that said, I expect a tough game on Sunday. Spain's size could hurt us especially if Chandler gets into foul trouble.

[BroadwayBomber55]

It will be a rematch of the Beijing 2008 Gold Medal Game: United States vs. Spain.

The U.S. Men's team defeated Argentina 103-89.

Kevin Durant led all players with 19 points. LeBron James added 18 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.

Meanwhile, Spain had to rally to defeat Russia 67-59.

Russia led 31-20 at halftime, but Pau Gasol didn't let Spain lose. Pau had a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds.

So, it will be ARG v. RUS for Bronze and USA v. ESPN for Gold on Sunday.

[Mr Coffee]

Spain's size could hurt us especially if Chandler gets into foul trouble.

Could he BE any more penalized?

[BroadwayBomber55]

The Drive for Five is complete.

The United States women win their fifth straight Olympic Gold Medal in women's basketball as they wore out France 86-50.

Candace Parker had a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

France only shot 28.1% from the field.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Final Standings - Women's Basketball

Gold: United States
Silver: France
Bronze: Australia

[BroadwayBomber55]

Impressive dismantling of Argentina. I feel like this team is Usain Bolt...once they kick it into top gear for a few minutes, they just run away from these other teams.

With that said, I expect a tough game on Sunday. Spain's size could hurt us especially if Chandler gets into foul trouble.

I also think the guard play, shooting will be key especially long range and the free throw line and composure.

Not only the U.S. has to deal with the Gasol brothers, Pau and Marc and Serge Ibaka, they also have to deal with their guards including long-range shooting threat Jose Calderon, Juan Carlos Navarro and Rudy Fernandez.

Calderon can shoot from outside, but those three of Calderon, Navarro and Fernandez struggled against Russia in the semifinals shooting a combined 34%. That doesn't look promising with the U.S. depth at guard led by Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and Deron Williams and also the bigs who can shoot from the outside like Kevin Durant and Kevin Love.

But if the U.S. have defensive lapses especially on backdoor plays, Spain can take advantage.

Also, the United States' men have to show their mental stability and grit like they did with the likes of Lithuania and Argentina 2X. They can't have an off-night in the Gold Medal Game.

Like you said Mike, the U.S. team is like Usain Bolt. Once they hit top gear, they never look back and they close out very strong especially LeBron James who can cap off his 2012 with another magnificent performance on Sunday like he has been all tournament long.

But Spain, even though they're not playing well all tournament long, they can challenge the U.S.

[BroadwayBomber55]

As a reminder, the Men's Gold Medal Game is at 10 AM ET/7 AM PT on NBC.

[CptCrunch]

Do these refs get paid per whistle?

[BroadwayBomber55]

Congratulations Team USA men! They win their second straight Olympic Gold Medal over Spain, 107-100.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Kevin Durant was a beast in the Gold Medal Game with 30 points.

LeBron James, what a year for him. NBA regular season MVP, NBA finals MVP and probably, Olympic MVP.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Coach K

What a moment with LeBron.

What a way to go out for Coach K if this is really his last Olympics coaching the U.S. men.

40 years on from We Wuz Robbed in Munich and the 20th anniversary of the Dream Team in Barcelona, U.S. is on top again.

[BroadwayBomber55]

But I also gave Spain credit. They were terrific and tremendous.

Pau Gasol having 24 points including a great third quarter.

Juan Carlos Navarro added 21 and Sean Rodriguez added 14.

However, the refs were for the birds.

[Jace]

I thought the refs were generally ok in the 2nd half, after a horrific 1st half

They stopped Navarro, and that made the difference defensively (even though Gasol had a big half)

However, USA had about 15 easy opportunities to blow it open with about 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter, and seemed to miss all of them (2 big Melo 3's, and one easy Paul-Lebron fastbreak that they both blew somehow are the biggest ones i remember), so really they kept them in it after that