By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
LILLE, France –Team USA did their part in Lille, but now the Olympic tournament is moving to Paris and things are getting serious.
It’s win or go home and three wins equals gold.
“It’s been really fun to be in Lille”, said Steve Kerr after the win over Puerto Rico: “It’s a beautiful place. Our guys have enjoyed our time here. I think we have done what we wanted to accomplish, winning all three games and securing the top seed. We know we have to play better. It’s part of this tournament, it gets harder as you go. And our goal is just to try to get better each game. And we’ll have Sunday off, and then one week sprint, three games. So we’ll see how we do”.
Speaking about what specifically the US should do better, Kerr was very specific in his demand: “I think we have to take better care of the ball. We don’t need to make home run plays. We just need to hit singles. Our talent is overwhelming if we make the right play. And I think that’s part of it. And then offensive rebounds, our opponents are getting a lot of offensive boards. So if we do that, we keep the game simple, and we keep playing defense the way we have… Then I like our chances, but we’ve got to go do it”
The opponents and Brazil
With the USA playing Brazil, then the winner of the game Serbia – Australia in the semifinal, Kerr has already a pretty good idea about the competition.
“Yeah, I mean we’ve seen almost everybody”, he said with one important exception: “We haven’t seen Brazil though, and that’s our focus. The other teams, we saw Australia, Serbia, twice Germany, they’re all excellent teams well coached and but Brazil is our focus. So we’ve got to be ready. I know they made 18 threes yesterday, they’re the best offensive-rebounding team in the tournament”.
On the other hand, Kerr has an admirable roster, starting from the young star Anthony Edwards going all the way back to the King, LeBron James.
“It’s crazy, one of the best things about this trip for me has been to see LeBron behind the scenes, see the preparation, see the focus, getting a picture of why he is who he is”, admitted Kerr.
“It’s just amazing to watch him. He loves the game so much. He loves the work. He loves his teammates. There’s an energy and a joy to LeBron that just sort of spreads through the locker room and so he’s obviously one of the very best all-time players but it’s it goes so far beyond one thing. It’s just everything, the whole package, he’s just brilliant”.