August 23, 2010

LO Shines in Spain

It may have been dubbed a friendly exhibition, but Sunday's game between Team USA and Spain was far from civil.

Lamar Odom and his USA Basketball teammates were playing for pride in front of a raucous crowd in Madrid that sent a clear signal that they weren’t in New York City anymore.

With an 86-85 win over host Spain, the Americans sent a message of their own: They plan on dethroning the reigning World Champion Spaniards and bringing the FIBA title back stateside. Though the Sunday victory meant little in the grand scheme of things, it's a confidence booster for Team USA, who figures to see Spain in one of the final rounds of the FIBA World Championships.

It's the second straight big victory for Team USA over 2006 FIBA champion Spain. The other, of course, was the 2008 Gold Medal game at the Beijing Olympics.

In Sunday's exhibition, LO did his part, getting the start at center and holding his own despite a size disadvantage against Spain’s Marc Gasol. Lamar chipped in 12 points, nine rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block in the Team USA victory.

But as Mike Trudell of Lakers.com writes, it was Lamar’s leadership, the paramount reason he was selected to this team, that helped carry Team USA to the big, albeit exhibition, win:

With an early 16-point lead trimmed to eight due thanks to the play of Ricky Rubio, a draftee of Kurt Rambis’ Minnesota Timberwolves, the NBATV cameras picked up a shot of Lamar Odom gesturing demonstrably with his hands. L.A.’s forward continuously brought his thumbs to meet fingers in the form of a clamp, signifying to the Americans that they must communicate better after Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose failed to rotate into the paint when Chauncey Billups was beaten off the dribble.

Improve, they would.

Lamar followed with a rebound, and started a USA break that he would eventually finish with a two-handed dunk off a feed from Chauncey Billups.

Trudell notes that was just the beginning of LO’s biggest stretch of the game:

Odom kept going, gathering another defensive board, and just missing an offensive rebound at the other end before the ball went out of bounds. The two younger NBAers Odom had encouraged to communicate moments earlier then made consecutively excellent defensive plays to force Spanish turnovers, and after the second, Durant fed Odom for a lefty layup, plus the harm. L.O. missed the freebie, but he made up for it with a swat on defense. Billups capitalized with a layup, and team USA was back up by 14.

Odom’s line in that two-minute stretch: four points, three rebounds, one block and lots of talking.

LO added a bucket near the end of the third to push Team USA’s lead to 11 and another late in the fourth to keep the Americans ahead of the hard charging Spanish. Team USA would eventually fall behind, but only briefly, as a rebound from Lamar in the final minutes led directly to a driving layup from Rose to give the Americans an 84-83 lead.

After Spain regained a one-point advantage in the waning seconds, Rose again went to the basket, drawing a foul and winning the game at the line.

Lamar’s leadership along with his contributions in the basket and on the glass led Team USA head coach Mike Kryzyzewski to make a bold but warranted proclamation.

"Lamar Odom should be our starting center," Kryzyzewski said. "He’s finally into shape I think to play at this level."

SWEEP IN SPAIN
The victory over Spain was the second in as many days at Madrid’s Magic Box for Team USA.

But even their warmup for Sunday's main event against Spain, a Saturday friendly with Lithuania, produced a scare.

The Americans survived a dreadful first half to comeback strong and defeat Lithuania 77-61.

Team USA began the game ice cold, converting just 3 of 21 shots from the field. Through the first quarter they managed just seven points and at halftime they trailed by one.

But then a light came on. Team USA outscored the Lithuanians 29-20 in the third and pulled away with a 20-12 fourth to cruise to victory. Lamar took the strange turn of events as a learning experience for he and his teammates on their path to a world title.

"We have to learn how to stay poised," LO said. "All families have to work through adversity, even our family. Especially families that haven’t been together for a long time. It was a good test for us. It’s good for us to play competitive basketball right now in these exhibition games before the tournament to kind of get us ready for the competition and atmosphere that we’re about to face. It’s just learning."

Lamar pulled down a game-high seven rebounds for the Americans and chipped in three points, a steal and two blocks off the bench in 17 minutes on the floor. He said the key to Team USA's comeback was for he and his teammates to fulfill their roles and not worry about doing too much.

"Sometimes you press and you try to get it all back in one play," The Package said. "Basketball is a snowball effect a lot. You take your time and get one stop, then you’ll get a layup, then you’ll get a free throw and people start to make shots and so on and so on. But when you try to get it back on one play, it hardly ever works."

NEXT UP
Team USA now heads to Greece for their final warmup for the FIBA World Championships.

The Americans will take on the host Greeks on Wednesday in another "friendly." The game is Team USA's last chance to get the kinks worked out before the Worlds begin on Sunday in Turkey.

There certainly don’t seem to be many kinks left to work out for LO personally. He was named the starting center after Sunday’s victory over Spain and leads the team in rebounding through three exhibitions with 7.7 boards per game. Lamar also seemed to find his scoring touch with 12 points on Sunday and he's ready to lead Team USA into battle.

Tip-off of the final friendly from Athens on Wednesday is scheduled for 9 a.m. PST and the game can be seen on ESPN.

RELATED STORIES
Additional Quotes: USA 77, Lithuania 61 (USA Basketball, August 21, 2010)
http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/national/10_mwc_exh_2_quotes.html
Odom assists USA in win over Spain (Lakers Basketblog, August 22, 2010)
http://my.lakers.com/blogs/2010/08/22/odom-assists-usa-in-win-over-spain...
USA Men’s World Championship Team Edges Spain 86-85 (USA Basketball, August 22, 2010)
http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/national/10_mwc_exh_3.html