From Yahoo!‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, via Pro Basketball Talk:
Coach K: Team USA Tried Not To Embarrass Nigeria
“We didn’t play LeBron [James] and Kobe [Bryant] in the second half, and with Carmelo shooting like that, we benched him,” [coach Mike] Krzyzewski said. “We didn’t take any fast breaks in the fourth quarter, and we played all zone. You have to take a shot every 24 seconds, and the shots we took happened to be hit. I take offense to this question because there’s no way in the world that our program in the United States sets out to humiliate anyone.”
That’s right: Coach K did everything he could to make the score respectable. He benched two of his best players, and limited Carmelo Anthony, who was beyond hot, to 14 minutes. He told his players not to take fast breaks. He played zone in the fourth. And his team still won by 83.
I’m not mad at Coach K at all ... but I am a little curious as to what the score would have been if LeBron did play in the second half and ‘Melo did have a green light and the team did take advantage of fast breaks and did man-up on defense. Are we looking at a 200-50 score in that case? I think Coach K owed it to science to see how far he could take it. Frankly, I’m offended that Team USA took it easy in the fourth quarter and only won the 10-minute period 37-11.
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