[ad_1]
Medal table | Olympic schedule | How to watch | Olympic news
PARIS — On Aug. 5, 1992 — nearly 32 years ago — the United States women’s basketball team was upset at the Olympics, 79-73, at the hands of the “Unified Team,” which was essentially the old Soviet Union.
The Unified went into a brilliant 2-3 zone that day, which led to an astounding 26 steals and forced the Americans to go just 5-for-20 from 3-point land and 36 percent from the floor. It was one of the biggest upsets in Olympic basketball history.
“There will be a great deal of anger,” U.S. guard Teresa Weatherspoon predicted. “We will have to take our frustrations out on whoever we play.”
Weatherspoon meant Cuba, which the U.S. defeated in the bronze medal game. It turns out she was speaking about … every single team who has dared to line up against the Americans since.
That includes Germany, who became Team USA’s 58th consecutive casualty Sunday.
The U.S. used its typical balanced lineup and pace of play to blow out the Germans, 87-68, to close out Group play with, of course, a 3-0 record.
Jackie Young came off the bench to led the team in scoring with 19 points. A’ja Wilson added 14. They displayed dizzying ball movement, recording 25 assists as a team. Defensively the U.S. forced 23 turnovers, had 12 steals and four blocks. They allowed Germany just three offensive rebounds.
There are now just three knockout round games between the U.S. and a 61-game winning streak and an eighth consecutive gold medal. There is nothing thus far at the Paris Olympics that suggests such a thing isn’t going to happen.
The US has been completely dominant here, winning its three games by a cumulative 58 points. Watching them is like sitting on the beach as a storm rolls in — wave after wave, each one a little more ferocious than the last.
In doing so, it set them up for a quarterfinal matchup against a team that finished third in their group. That’s a relatively easy path to the semifinals for a team that probably doesn’t need it. They’ll next play on Wednesday in Paris.
This was a pretty good German team coming off a big victory over Belgium. They stuck around for a little while Sunday, taking the first quarter 19-16.
Then the Americans settled in and went on a 25-10 run in the second quarter to blow the game open. In the second half every time Germany made a run, the U.S. dug deep defensively and busted it back open. The U.S. led by 23 after three quarters.
How good is this American roster? How deep is this roster?
Consider that an absurd nine of the 12 players on the team are former No. 1 overall picks in the WNBA Draft: Diana Taurasi (2004), Brittney Griner (2013), Jewell Loyd (2015), Breanna Stewart (2016), Kelsey Plum (2017), A’ja Wilson (2018), Jackie Young (2019), Sabrina Ionescu (2020) and Charli Collier (2021).
Who is competing with that?
Maybe someone in the next three rounds can do what the old Unified Team did and shock the world.
More likely is that the retribution tour will continue on, just as Teresa Weatherspoon once promised it would.
Source link
