Hot shooting lifts Team USA

2035596

2035600

2035614

The shots just kept on falling.

Team USA’s much-maligned marksmanship never came into question Thursday night, not after it singed the nets at the Thomas & Mack Center in a 123-59 demolition of the U.S. Virgin Islands on Day 2 of the FIBA Americas Championship.

Layups. Dunks. Mid-range jumpers. Perimeter shots. You name it, the Americans made it. The guys in the Chiquita Banana yellow uniforms tried to stop Team USA. They really did. But their resistance was about as effective as France’s in a world war.

Team USA had its way with the Virgin Islands, shooting over the zone defense for 15 3-point field goals and running in transition for dunks and layups.

"I’m anticipating one of your questions," Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said after his team improved to 2-0 in Group B pool play. "What do you get out of a game like this? One, you get a win. Two, you get to see if your team will be focused throughout. Three, for us, we got a good chance to work on our zone defense.

"You do get something out of a big win. Our guys were focused for 40 minutes."

A 32-5 run over a 6:13 span in the first quarter ended what little suspense there might have been. Included in that spurt was a 17-0 run.

Michael Redd conducted a shooting clinic during the lopsided opening quarter that saw the USA lead 42-13. The Milwaukee Bucks guard was 3-for-4 from the 20-foot, 6-inch 3-point arc and had 15 first-quarter points off the bench.

"It’s a different role for me," said Redd, who finished with 22 points. "But I’ve come off the bench before. My first couple of years, I backed up Ray Allen.

"But this is fun. I’m loving this. To play alongside all these great players and to represent your country. I feel truly blessed."

The Virgin Islands led 4-2 before the roof caved in on it. Garbage time came early, with Tyson Chandler recording his first points for his country (he finished with six) and Jason Kidd, who is the consummate pass-first player, finally willing to take a shot. He knocked down a 3-pointer late in the second quarter for his first points of the tournament.

Eventually, Team USA cooled off. The Americans finished the game making 50 percent of their 3-pointers (15 of 30), but thanks to a seemingly never-ending run of slam dunks, including several from LeBron James, the field-goal shooting percentage finished at a strong 60 percent.

"Our main goal is to go out and prove everybody wrong, and the way to do that is to win the basketball game," said Carmelo Anthony, who along with Redd led all scorers with 22 points. "We have tough-minded people in the locker room who say that we have to buckle down and get after it defensively right from the start.

"That helps our offense because we’re getting a lot of easy shots and wide-open looks, and we’ve got a lot of veteran shooters who can knock them down."

Despite being in Showtime mode for most of the night, the defense that Anthony pointed out as a staple of this team’s personality was in evidence again Thursday. The Virgin Islands shot 26 percent from the floor for the game and was 4-for-23 from long distance as the Americans did a good job contesting on the perimeter and were active when they went to a zone.

If Krzyzewski had any thing to be concerned about, it might have been Kobe Bryant finding himself in early foul trouble for the second straight night. However, he still did enough to thrill the sparse but enthusiastic crowd of 5,554, finishing with nine points and four assists in 15 minutes.

Bryant, who turned 29 Thursday, was serenaded with "Happy Birthday" as he was at the foul line with 8:28 to go in the third quarter.

Team USA’s reward will be getting today off to rest. It will reconvene at noon Saturday for an ESPN2-televised game against Canada, which is 1-1 after defeating Venezuela, 80-73.

"We’ve out-talented the last two teams we’ve faced, but we’ve outworked them too," Krzyzewski said. "That said, we know the road’s going to get tougher, starting Saturday."