LeBron James says Team USA has 'room for improvement' heading into London ... - OregonLive.com

AP photoLeBron James

LONDON â€" For USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo, the revamping of America’s performance and reputation on the Olympic basketball scene has been remarkable, with the U.S. having won the gold medal in then 2008 Beijing Olympics and following that up with the gold in the 2010 World Championship. His team enters this year’s Olympics here as the heavy favorites, but for all that success there is one thing that sticks in his crawâ€"Team USA’s loss to Greece in the ’06 World Championship, the only loss since Colangelo took over the team after the ’04 Olympics, and the one that sent the team to a bronze-medal showing.

In that game, the U.S. outrebounded Greece, went to the free-throw line more times and took 10 more field-goal attempts. But Team USA also missed 14 free throws, and it was a night on which the Greeks hardly missed, shooting 62.5 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from the 3-point line to take a 101-95 win in the semifinal.

Ask Colangelo about it often enough and he will politely ask to change the subjectâ€"it took him two years just to be able to watch film of the game.

“We respect every single team,” Colangelo said. “We suffered one loss, and it was to Greece in the 2006 World Championship. And even after it has been something like 49 wins and that one loss, I can’t get that loss out of my mind. Because I saw it happen, and I know, 99 out of 100 times, we would win that game. But on that night, missed free throws, you turn it over, someone shoots hot and it’s over. I don’t like talking about it. We will take no one, no one, for granted because all it takes is one loss and you’re gone. Anything can happen on any given night.”

That’s important to remember as the U.S. kicks off pool play Sunday in London at 6:30 PDT. Their opponent will be a French team that is loaded with NBA players, starting with point guard Tony Parker. They also have NBAers Nicolas Batum, who starred for the team in last summer’s Eurobasket tournament, Spurs big man Boris Diaw, Washington’s Kevin Seraphin and new Clipper Ronny Turiafâ€"and keep an eye on Spurs prospect Nando de Colo, too.

Though FIBA rankings don’t mean too much, it is worth noting that the U.S. is the top-ranked team in the world, followed by Spain. It makes sense, then, that the U.S. heads up Pool A, while Spain is at the top of Pool B. But in addition to France, which is under-ranked at No. 12 in the world, the U.S. has No. 3 Argentina and No. 5 Lithuania in its pool, too. Nigeria is ranked 21st, while Tunisia is 32nd.

Spain’s list of pool opponents is a bit softer. Both Australia (9th) and China (10th) are a bit overrated, and Brazil (13th) and Russia (11th) underrated, but no question, facing Argentina and Lithuania in addition to France puts the U.S. at a greater risk for a pool-play loss.

Argentina, in fact, nearly pulled off a stunning comeback upset in a tense exhibition against the U.S. last Sunday.

“One thing about Argentina, and we saw it the other night, they do not quit,” forward Carmelo Anthony said. “The other night, we jumped on them early. The game got a little nasty … they kept fighting. They never quit. That’s one thing we rely on when you facing a team like Argentina. I’m pretty sure they're one of the favorites out there in London, and they're going to be there. Someone is going to have to come out there and compete and beat them throughout.”

Despite that close call, the U.S. wrapped up its exhibition slate 5-0, winning by an average of 26.6 points. But the Americans know that those games don’t matter once Sunday comes around and the competition gets stepped upâ€"and they feel they still have some tricks to pull out.

“We haven’t shown all our cards yet,” forward LeBron James said. “We have so many options and so many things we can go to with our team. We got better, but we have room for improvement and we got more cards to show.”

-- Sean Deveney, Sporting News