CB4 vs Jose- Day 4 @ Olympics

     <<<CB4

VS

Jose>>>

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This is the one Raptor Fans have been waiting for. Team U.S.A and Chris Bosh vs Spain and Jose Calderon. A Gold Medal preview in the minds of many. So because of this I decided to write my own recap for this one. Some talk prior to the this game that Spain may not show the entire bag of tricks in this game. But they still want to win you have to think. So let’s get ready to rumble.

A Spanish turnover turns into a  simple U.S lay-up to start. Spain would answer that with a basket of their own. Spain would hit a 3 point shot and score again to take an early 7-4 advantage.  Camelo Anthony scored a 3 point shot of his own and we were all back to even. Dwight Howard had 4 points early as the U.S looked to attack Pau Gasol on the offensive end. Kobe Bryant would get called for an offensive foul which was his second and he would take a seat with 2 fouls and be replaced by Wade. Lebron James was heating up with a dunk and a 3 point shot and he was even talking a little smack. Spain would be making turnovers and United States was taking advantage and holding a slim 16-13 lead. The U.S would blow the game wide open to push out to a 29-16 advantage. Spain would go on a 6-0 run before making a turnover that lead to an easy D Wade Dunk and a 9 point advantage at 31-22 after one.

Spain would score the first blow of the second quarter. Only to have the United States nail a 3 by Prince and than a turnover and a Prince Lob pass for a Lebron James Jam. Spain was back on the ropes again as Pau Gasol would hit a shot to pull back to down 10. Spain would get a technical foul and U.S would split two at the line. Pau Gasol continued on driving on Bosh and scoring plus the foul. That would be 2 on Bosh and Howard already had 2.  Kobe Bryant unconcerned with the foul trouble would hit a 3 point shot but than he would pick up his 3rd foul of the half. Re-enter D Wade once more as Kobe had only 2 more fouls before he could be turned into a spectator. Despite all the foul trouble the United States kept coming and had a 47-33 lead. Carmelo Anthony added to the list of people in foul trouble with 3. Deron Williams would hit the 7 th three pointer of the half for team U.S.A. Spain had only one 3 pointer in the half. That was the biggest reason Spain now found their squad down 18 points. Ex-Raptor Jorge Garbajosa hit a 3 pointer that would trim the advantage to 17 points after the U.S had pushed out to it’s largest lead of 20. The youngster Ricky Rubio would hook up a teammate with an alley-opp and another minor 6-0 run for Spain to cut advatage down to 14. Carlos Boozer had a putback to cap off a 61 point effort in the first 20 minutes for the Americans. It would leave the score at 61-45 U.S.A.

Bosh and Calderon were both not big factors in this one so far.  Calderon had just 2 points on just 1-2 shots in 10 minutes. Bosh in 9 minutes had yet to score. Garbajosa the Ex-Raptor with his lone three pointer was outscoring both.

So would Spain have some fight in them in the second half or would they play dead? Carmelo Anthony hit a 3 point shot and the United States had the largest advantage of the day at 21. This was not living up to being the great match-up that many had hoped for. Melo hit another 3 point shot and he had 16 points and 4 from beyond the arc. The lead was extended to 24 points as Jason Kidd scored his first 2 points of the Olympics. Spain would show little signs of fight but could not to this point make a big run which they badly needed if they wanted to get back in this game. If they did not the United States would clinch first place in Pool B.  Lithuania thanks to there upset win to start the tournament over Argentina were able to lock up first in Pool A earlier in the day with a win. Chris Bosh blocked a Jose Calderon shot attempt. Every Raptor for themselves in this one. Bosh would get another block a little while later and it caused the NBC crew to comment again on his excellent play on defense in this tournament. This game had about as much energy as a funeral at this point. Spain’s chances at any kind of comeback were dying fast. United States had a 85-63 lead with minute to play in the third quarter. It was ugly after 3 with the score 86-63.

If Spain was looking to make the United States over confident for a re-match they were doing a great job. However if that was not the case Spain should be very concerned. The 4th quater looked more like NBA exhibition game than a Olympic Games Match-Up. The United States was on auto pilot as they lead 92-71.  Still over 6 painful minutes left to be played in this blowout. With 5:38 to go the U.S would reach triple digits on a Micheal Redd lay-up to go up 100-71.  The United States had 15 steals so far in this game if you are looking for reasons Spain was losing there is another. Spain was stuck on 71 and the United States was not stopping scoring the basketball. Pau Gasol would finally score to move Spain to 73 but you have to wonder why he was even out there at this point. This was getting to a level like the old “Dream Team” use to do. The 113-76 score had to be a real embrassing thing for Spain. The game would finally end with the scoreboard reading 119-82. The United States shot 58% from the floor and looked mighty impressive.

Spain vs U.S.A Boxscore

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The Rest of Day 4 Results:

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Group A

Australia 95 vs Russia 80 - Game Recap  Records:Aus 2-2 Rus 1-3

Lithuania 86 vs Croatia 73 – Game Recap Records:Lth 4-0 Cro 2-2

Argentina 97 vs Iran 83 – Game Recap Records:Arg 3-1 Iran 0-4

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Other Games in Group B

China 59 vs Germany 55 Recap Records:Chi 2-2 Ger 1-3

Greece 102 vs Angola 61 Recap Records:Greece 2-2 Ang 0-4

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After Day 4 Standings

Group A Standings

X-Lithuania 4-0

Argentina 3-1

Croatia 2-2

Australia 2-2

Russia 1-3

E-Iran 0-4

X-Clinched First in the pool E- Eliminated

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 Group B Standings

X- U.S.A 4-0

Spain 3-1

Greece 2-2

China 2-2

Germany 1-3

E-Angola 0-4

X-Clinched 1st in Pool E-Eliminated

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Raps In China

Jose Calderon 4 PTS(1-9 FG) 4 Rebs, 0 Ast

Chris Bosh 2 PTS, 7 Rebs, 2 Blk

Roko Ukic 13 PTS, 4 Rebs, 1 Ast

Gerogios Printezis 14 PTS, 2 Rebs

All 4 Raptor Players now will be playing at the very least till the quarter-finals in the Tournament as U.S, Spain, Croatia and Greece will all be part of the Quaterfinals. The Round Robin Schedule finishes on Monday.

 

BLOG NOTE: I am in some serious rough shape from all my Olympics watching. The good news is Canada has a Gold, Silver and Bronze. The bad news is I am in bad need of sleep and have a Fantasy Football Draft to do. So I am taking Sunday Off and will be back Monday with Re-Cap of Day 5. If you are new to the blog recently good time to go check out some of the older stuff if you like. If you read here everyday go read some of the other fine bloggers for a day I won’t mind a bit. See you all Monday.

Tags: Chris Bosh, Jorge Garbajosa, Jose Calderon, Olympics 2008, Raptors At The Olympics, Ricky Rubio, Spain Basketball, U.S Basketball