The Russians refused to go away.
The Americans, then, had to find a way to make them. Lamar Odom and Russell Westbrook keyed the third-quarter run that did the trick. It did not provide the shock factor of the 1972 Gold Medal game, but Team USA's 89-79 victory packed plenty of questionable whistles.
David Blatt bemoaned the 18-3 free throw discrepancy in the first-half. Mike Krzyzewski chewed out a ref after he mistakenly robbed the U.S. of a fast break opportunity. Blatt was not pleased about the foul trouble that handcuffed key contributors Timofey Mozgov and Evgeny Voronov. The gamesmanship began Wednesday and did not cease until the final buzzer.
Blatt stirred up controversy when he said Wednesday that the Soviet Union's disputed victory in Munich was "fair." The Americans on that '72 team have never accepted their silver medals in protest. He arrived at his newfound viewpoint on that famous 51-50 final score when he studied the two timeouts that allowed the Soviets a last-second lay-up in a recent re-airing.
The coach with dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship already faced the prospect of a quarte ...
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Article written by Robert Kleeman
2010 FIBA World Championship: Kevin Durant, USA Withstand Russia’s Red Scare
September 9th, 2010 by Robert Kleeman Leave a reply »
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