Sloot is the New Chicago Sky All-Time Scoring Leader

[seacatfan]

After skipping all the tune up games, Taurasi decided she's finally ready to play in the team's Olympics debut. Absolutely horrid start for the US., trailed 8-1 after about 3 1/2 minutes before Taurasi hit a 3 to cut into the lead. I'm having a really hard time being excited about this team.

3X3 on the other hand I'm rooting for 100%.

[ZagDad84]

After skipping all the tune up games, Taurasi decided she's finally ready to play in the team's Olympics debut. Absolutely horrid start for the US., trailed 8-1 after about 3 1/2 minutes before Taurasi hit a 3 to cut into the lead. I'm having a really hard time being excited about this team.

3X3 on the other hand I'm rooting for 100%.

I love the 3x3 format.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

I was only halfway watching the game. U.S. continued to struggle throughout Q1, then started getting it going. Built the lead up to 20 in the 2nd half, but then let the margin get cut in half.

Rough shooting night for the 3 Storm players in the game--Stewie 3-13, Bird 0-6, Loyd 3-9. Bird did have 13 assists but she was scoreless. The other guards didn't pick up the slack, but the aging starting duo was bad defensively, as everyone already knows. Taurasi provided some early offense but then trailed off.

[seacatfan]

Gold for Kelsey Plum and the rest of the US Women's 3X3 team!

[seacatfan]

US vs France replay is on right now. I know the US wins, but they just really are not impressive. I don't think Staley is winning any fans with her coaching during these games.

Marine Johannes looks good for France. She played briefly for the Liberty at some point. Some really slick passes.

US will still probably win gold. I don't know that anybody can really handle Stewie and A'ja. The front court isn't the problem, but the back court has been consistently unproductive.

[ZagDad84]

US vs France replay is on right now. I know the US wins, but they just really are not impressive. I don't think Staley is winning any fans with her coaching during these games.

Marine Johannes looks good for France. She played briefly for the Liberty at some point. Some really slick passes.

US will still probably win gold. I don't know that anybody can really handle Stewie and A'ja. The front court isn't the problem, but the back court has been consistently unproductive.

Yep, Wbb, Women's Soccer and Women's Softball all went with the "experienced" team, leaving several younger, all-stars at home.

Softball settled for the silver, Soccer is going to play for the bronze leaving the Wbb as the last team standing to get a chance to play for gold. Softball just could not hit, the pitchers for USA did fine. Numerous times USA Soccer has look just flat, slow and disjointed. As SeaCat said above, the frontcourt of USA Wbb has looked great, however, the backcourt has been very flat.

Might need to rethink the "value" of mid- to late-30s team selections. is having 3, 4, 5 Olympic experiences really that much more valuable than somebody who has 1 or 2 Olympic experiences?

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Well the U.S. women seem to be figuring it out. Steamrolled Australia and Serbia the last 2 games, moving on to the Gold Medal game. They've really turned up the defense. Will face the winner of Japan vs. France.

[ZagDad84]

Well the U.S. women seem to be figuring it out. Steamrolled Australia and Serbia the last 2 games, moving on to the Gold Medal game. They've really turned up the defense. Will face the winner of Japan vs. France.

Sort of.

Had an 18 point lead at half and played the 2nd half essentially even. Let the Serbs get the lead down to about 12 before they picked it up.

I got a kick out of the play by play announcer having a conversation with Kara Lawson about how USA Wbb was going to replace Bird and Taurasi for the next Olympics that occur in only 3 years. News Flash, consider selecting players for USA Wbb who are WNBA all stars and are not 38-40 years old and have 5 olympics in their pocket. Maybe if the USA born players felt they had any chance at playing for Team USA they would not go off to play for foreign nations.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Serbia just couldn't hit shots. Despite some offensive droughts for the U.S., the Serbs never really posed a threat.

[seacatfan]

FWIW Japan beat France handily to advance to the Gold Medal game against the U.S.

France beat Serbia today for the Bronze.

[seacatfan]

U.S. up 11 at halftime. Griner is just destroying Japan, they have no size and can't deal w/ her. She has 18 on 9-10 shooting.

U.S. can't stop the drive and Japan has hit plenty of 3's as well. Bird and Taurasi can't guard anybody, but it goes deeper than that. Pretty much Japan's whole team is guards, so there's always a post trying to chase a smaller, quicker player around and it doesn't work.

Bird also can't hit a shot. She started terribly the first 2 or 3 games, finally found her range, and has now gone cold again.


edit--oh yeah, they just couldn't help themselves, had to do a LONG interview w/ Rapinoe during the game. Like she hasn't gotten more than enough face time already. I muted it, don't want to hear anything she has to say on any topic.

[seacatfan]

90-75 final, but it wasn't that close. Lead ballooned to near 25 several times. Dawn refused to use 3 or 4 of the players the entire Olympics. Who chose this team? I guess you can't make the coach use the players that were selected.


Fairly shocking to me that Japan made the finals, but they did beat Belgium and France to get there. I just have a really hard time accepting they are the second best team in the world.

[ZagDad84]

Have not seen the entire game yet, (was at the Spokane Indians game) just the highlights.

Game played out exactly as I expected. When Liz Cambage was kicked of the Australian Wbb team, nobody else had any frontcourt that could contend with the US frontcourt. As long as the US backcourt held their own and the US frontcourt played close to their ability the US should have been expected to win and they did, admittedly with a few bumps and bruises along the way.

The older players (Bird and Taurasi) played as expected with bouts of good/decent play mixed in with bouts of WTF mixed in with what appeared to be fatigue. No load management available in the Olympics once you make the knock-out rounds. There is probably at least ten WNBA players who should have been selected before Bird and Taurasi, but it appeared the US Wbb Selection Committee (yes Geno was on the selection committee the head coach - Staley is not) was more concerned with getting Bird and Taurasi their 5th gold medals than putting the best USA Wbb team on the floor.

Gold medal earned, the USA Selection Committee goals have been met, but at what cost.

Congrats to the USA Wbb team for tying the USA Mbb team for the most consecutive gold medals at 7. The USA Wbb have the chance in Paris to pass the men with 8 consecutive gold medals in only 3 years.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

6 first timers on this Olympic squad, but it was mostly a fail getting their feet wet. Atkins, Diggins-Smith and Collier didn't play. At all. Gray proved a valuable reserve. Loyd struggled. Wilson obviously was one of the key players on the team. Of the newcomers, probably only 2 should be considered locks for '24. Got to hope there's no way Bird and Taurasi are back. Fowles and Charles both seem doubtful as well.

So Stewie, Wilson, Griner and maybe Gray seem like the only players that should definitely be on the '24 team. This "transition" year is probably going to have to be repeated again in '24. Should just start completely over with the backcourt. And maybe they can try to find an actual 3 next time. Or maybe even a couple small forwards, as crazy as that sounds.


edit--sounds like Staley won't be returning as coach; pretty sure almost nobody will be disappointed by that

[seacatfan]

WNBA schedule resumes in a week, on 8/15. Looks like pretty much every team is playing.

The Commisioners Cup is on Thursday between Seattle and Connecticut. That seemed kinda gimmicky to me. Oh well.

I guess the mainstays from the Olympic team that Staley ran into the ground get a week to rest (except for the 3 from Seattle).