What Went Wrong With Team USA’s Offense Versus Brazil?
Yesterday, Team USA faced their first real threat as they faced off against Brazil in a game that should end up deciding who wins their group. They also seemed to struggle for the first time, especially on the offensive end. Brazil shot the ball so well (in the first half at least) that it kept Team USA from getting out on the break and turning this game into a track meet. This meant that Team USA had to have success in the halfcourt, and that didn’t really happen. Let’s look at why they struggled. Two things really hurt Team USA, turnovers and bad shots.
No Movement
Team USA turned the ball over 22 times yesterday against Brazil. That really can’t happen against a team that is going to be able to make you pay for those mistakes (for the most part Brazil did in fact make Team USA pay). Some of those turnovers were questionable (those traveling calls in particular), but a lot of them were self inflicted, due to stagnant offense with everyone really standing around and watching the player with the ball do their own thing:
In this clip Derrick Rose brings the ball up with nobody really doing much off of the basketball. Sure, you have those cross screens at the back but neither Andre Iguodala or Chauncey Billups work all that hard to get open as they are basically jogging through the motions. With neither wing open, Rose is forced to try and get the ball to the middle when the turnover happens.
