Warning signs abound in Angola win 2008-08-12 News Miami Heat

Team USA's 97-76 win over Angola was actually a shocker. Given that their opponents were undersized, poor shooters, inferior ball-handlers and virtually defenseless, the Americans didn't do themselves any good by playing in such a sloppy and lackadaisical fashion.

Despite all of the convenient excuses — they'd just had a day off, it's hard to get up for such a weak opponent, they were conserving their energy for the forthcoming contest vs. Greece — the Americans were just plain awful.

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Fowles leads U.S. women's hoops romp
U.S. gets late homer to beat Taiwan
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Women make water polo final

Analysis

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As such, the plus side of the ledger was skimpy.

They took full advantage of Angola's lack of size by force-feeding Dwight Howard in the low post with great success.

Against Angola's leaky man-to-man offense they could get whatever they wished — layups, short-jumpers, open treys.

For several stretches in the second half they successfully swarmed the ball and ambushed the passing lanes on defense.

Everybody on the squad got to play significant minutes.

At the same time, the list of no-no's was much longer and fraught with warnings of impending disaster.

The 3-point shooting (5-21) continues to be a prime concern.

Ditto for their subpar performance at the stripe (16-25).

Several dramatic blocks by Howard and LeBron James notwithstanding, the too-short Angolans scored too many buckets on low-post moves.

Also, the taller, stronger Americans were out-rebounded (38-34), and yielded 13 offensive rebounds (and grabbed only seven). This last stat is mitigated by the fact that the Angolans missed more shots than the Americans did (40 to 31) and therefore had more opportunities to recover their own misses. But this is a small consolation.

Whenever the Americans doubled the wing, two reverse-passes always found a wide-open 3-point shooter. Moreover, a weak-side wing moving toward the ball in the wake of a high screen/roll was also unattended by the Americans' defense. Since Angola was only 9-31 from beyond the arc, this particular failing was relatively harmless.

On the rare occasions when the Angolans executed a coffin-corner trap, the Americans responded with either turnovers or weak passes.

Howard showed a lack of maturity when he repeatedly yapped at Angola's not-so-big men.

Jason Kidd's lack of foot-speed made him little more than an interested bystander.

Carlos Boozer showed slow hands, slow feet and slow reactions.

Deron Williams tended to over-handle the ball.

Chris Paul was badly beaten several times on guard isolations.

Biggest surprise performance: Dwyane Wade's awesome baseline power and bounce looked to be fully restored.

Most disappointing performance: On Team USA's very first possession, Kobe Bryant launched a too-quick triple that missed. That errant and ill-advised shot set the stage for Kobe's firing blanks for the duration — 4-13 overall, including 0-8 from 3-point territory.

Conclusion: There were no excuses convincing enough to explain Team USA's relatively poor outing. While the NBA regular season lasts for five months and an occasional inferior effort is inevitable, the brevity of the Olympic tournament means that it can be extremely difficult to bounce back from even one dull ballgame.

Outlook: There's no question that the Americans chops will be up for the Greeks. Still, their miserable shooting of both treys and free-throws combined with their poor perimeter and interior defense could be costly. A reprise of dazzling performances by LBJ and D-Wade might not be enough to beat Greece unless J-Kidd, Kobe, and Carmelo Anthony turn their leaden games into gold-worthy ones.