Team USA Overcomes Poor Shooting to Beat Germany

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Overcoming a chilly shooting night with relentless defensive pressure and domination of the offensive boards, the U.S. outscored Germany (5-2) 27-13 in the third quarter to break open a tight game and roll to an 85-65 victory in the quarterfinals of the World Championship. The win was the USA’s seventh consecutive.

Carmelo overcame a poor shooting night (7-19 FGs overall, 2-12 FGs in the first half) to account for a game high 19 points, while LeBron James added 13 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Game Recap | SlamOnline Commentary by Lang Whitaker | Box Score

It’s now down to the Final Four!  USA plays tomorrow (Sept. 1)

Then There Were Four 

Four international basketball powers, two from the Americas zone and two from the European zone, are all that remain in the hunt for the 2006 FIBA World Championship gold medal. Argentina, Greece, Spain and the USA enter the semifinals with spotless 7-0 records and will play Friday in a pair of semifinals games that on paper promise to be battle royals.

The day’s first contest pits the United States against Greece in 4:30 p.m. game (Japan time /3:30 a.m. EDT). Greece enters averaging 81.7 points a game and is led by Vasileios Spanoulis, 11.3 ppg., and Antonios Fotsis, 11.1 ppg. The U.S. leads everyone in scoring, averaging 105.9 points while hitting a hefty 50.6 percent of its shots. Carmelo Anthony paces the U.S. attack averaging 19.6 points per contest.

The night’s finale is another must see contest. Spain comes in as the World Championship’s best shooting team at 51.5 percent, while 2004 Olympic gold medalist Argentina leads the event in defensive field goal percentage having held opposing teams to 37.5 percent shooting. Manu Ginobili leads Argentina averaging 15.0 ppg., while Pau Gasol carries a large chunk of Spain’s point production averaging 21.6 ppg.