Dream Team II played its worst offensive game Saturday night and still won easily by playing some NBA-style defense.
The undefeated Americans advanced to today's gold-medal game of the World Championship of Basketball against Russia with a 97-58 victory over Greece.They shot 40 percent from the field - compared to 60 percent in their first six games - and fell 24 points short of their 121-point scoring average. Defensively, Dream Team II held the Greeks to 36 percent shooting and 27 points under the U.S. team's defensive average.
"It wasn't our best start and I was disappointed with the way we played in the first half," coach Don Nelson said, referring to the Americans' 40-30 lead and 31.7 percent shooting before halftime. "We could've been behind at halftime if they had made some shots. They missed a lot, and I hope it was because of our defense. I'm not sure it was."
Greece slowed the game down and bottled up Dream Team II's inside players, forcing the Americans to fire away from outside. The U.S. team shot 40 percent from both 3-point range and inside the 3-point line, taking a whopping 45 3-point shots and 40 2-point shots.
"We have a lot of 3-point shooters and we took a lot of 3-point shots tonight, but I think our game plan tomorrow will be to take the ball and pound it inside," said Reggie Miller, who led the United States with 14 points.
"We accomplished two things," Nelson said. "First we rested some of the guys who have been playing a lot and second, we had a change of energy in the second half and won by a large margin."
The Greeks seemed more concerned with holding down the score than playing a competitive game. They throttled the potent U.S. running game by keeping at least two players in the backcourt on offense, ultimately holding the United States under 100 points for the first time in seven games.
Greece managed just two offensive rebounds for the game and on some occasions, there were no Greek players under the boards when a shot was taken.
"Basically, they tried something new against us - taking the air out of the ball," Derrick Coleman said. "But I think we took our defense to another level. I don't think we were looking ahead to Sunday, but now we're looking forward to wrapping it up."
The victory advanced Dream Team II into the gold-medal game Sunday against Russia, which beat Croatia 66-64.
"We'll be rested and we'll be ready to compete for the championship," Nelson said. "Great players understand when they have to perform. The best performances are in the biggest situations."
The Americans, averaging 59 points in the first half and shooting better than 60 percent in their previous six games, missed 28 of 41 shots before halftime. Only Greece's 34.3 percent first-half shooting (12-for-35) allowed the United States to take a comfortable lead.
Three early 3-pointers by Joe Dumars got the Americans rolling in the second half, and they took a 55-35 lead with 14:05 remaining. The margin went over 30 for the first time at 72-40 on Mark Price's 3-pointer with 7:50 to go.
Price scored 13 points and Alonzo Mourning and Dumars 12 each for the United States, while Shaquille O'Neal grabbed 16 rebounds as the United States outrebounded Greece 58-31.
Russia 66, Croatia 64
Russia ruined the gold medal matchup everyone had anticipated with its victory over Croatia.
Russia (6-1) will meet the United States, a team it lost to 111-94 on Friday night, for the gold medal on Sunday. Croatia (6-1), the team that had been considered as sure a lock for the silver as Dream Team II was for the gold, will play Greece for the bronze medal.
The victory was even more impressive since Russia's best big man, Andrei Fetisov, a second-round pick in the recent NBA draft, injured his right ankle 31/2 minutes into the game and never returned.
Russia led 42-28 with 13:24 to play when Croatia came back, not led by its NBA stars Toni Kukoc of the Chicago Bulls and Dino Radja of the Boston Celtics, but rather by guard Arijan Komazec. He scored eight points in one minute to get Croatia within 48-45 and Radja tipped in a missed free throw with 7:25 to play to make it 48-47.
Veteran guard Sergei Bazarevich, a member of the gold medal Soviet team in 1988 and the Unified Team in 1992 and the only player on Russia who had been in a World Championship, worked the spread offense to perfection in the final minutes scoring seven points as Russia never lost the lead.
Komazec led Croatia with 22 points, while Radja had 16 points and 14 rebounds, but was just 4-for-16 from the field. Kukoc finished with five points and was 2-for-8 from the field with two assists, his lowest total of the tournament.