As the U.S. gets ready to face Australia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday I wish I could run into the American locker room and remind them, as Uncle Ben told Peter Parker before he was fatally shot, "With great power comes great responsibility."
Okay, so the U.S. will not be saving any lives if they advance into the semifinals or win gold, but a talented cast like Team USA sometimes needs to be reminded that they are their own worst enemy.
Tomorrow they are the Goliaths of the match. If anybody has noticed, the fans in the arena might love you, but if the underdogs go on a small run, they go crazy.
With those things said, the U.S. will face an Australian team with nobodies, at least to most people in the Western Hemisphere.
They have Patrick Mills from the San Antonio Spurs and that is it. The rest of the team members play outside of the NBA.
Their starting five consists of Mills, Joe Ingles, Matt Dellavedova, David Andersen and Aleks Maric.
The main man in this quintet is Ingles, he seems to be the top scorer in all their games. He is dangerous and can score from down low and from three.
Mills has the knack of having big games here and there. His best game during the Olympics came against Great Britain, He dropped 39 points in 29 minutes played. Usually in teams when a player has a huge outpour like Mills did, the rest of the teammates end up with few points, but Australia had three other players in double figures.
The issue is not about the U.S. not having scorers or stoppers, the issue is about their focus. Australia has some fire power as they defeated Russia and Spain in the first round.
The U.S. showed a lack of focus during their game versus Lithuania as they only won by five points walking away with a victory.
If the U.S. slips and does not play with intensity, they could be seeing themselves packing their bags early.
The chances that Team USA will lose to Australia are thin, but it is just food for thought. If the U.S. does not play hard against Australia, they could find themselves out of gold medal contention.
