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Saturday, September 23
U.S. goes 16-for-18 in first half
SYDNEY, Australia -- Until the team from New Zealand did a
postgame tribal dance, things were back to normal for the U.S.
men's basketball team.
|  | | Allan Houston, right, scores one of the many easy baskets the U.S. had against New Zealand. |
Shrugging off their lackluster performance of two days earlier
against Lithuania, the Americans had the kind of dominating
performance that is expected from them in an 102-56 victory over
New Zealand on Saturday.
After the final buzzer sounded, the New Zealanders lined up
two-deep in a semi-circle and performed the Maori Haka -- a
challenge dance that Kiwi rugby and soccer teams traditionally
perform before a game.
"We did it in recognition of the team we played," New Zealand
forward Phill Jones said.
Shooting one of its highest percentages of the Olympics and
asserting its superiority right from the outset, the U.S. team beat
up on the weakest opponent in its bracket after defeating Lithuania
by just nine points two nights earlier.
"We didn't want it to be like the other night," Tim Hardaway
said. "We came out hard and played strong."
Vince Carter and Kevin Garnett led the way in the beginning,
dunking and shooting from the outside with equal dexterity. They
finished with 18 and 14 points, respectively.
Allan Houston added 17 and Antonio McDyess 15.
The Americans were a man short as Alonzo Mourning was back home
in Miami for the birth of his daughter, Myka Sydney, who weighed in
at 7 pounds, 7 ounces at 5:17 p.m. Friday -- about 11 hours before
tipoff.
The U.S. team didn't miss him, though. Not in the slightest.
The team went ahead by 10 points with 8:17 gone, got the lead up
to 20 on a jumper by Garnett less than 3½ minutes later and went to
the locker room with a 58-32 lead after Hardaway hit a long
3-pointer at the buzzer.
The lead reached 30 on a reverse layup by McDyess with 13:03
left in the game and 40 with 3:07 left.
The Americans reached 100 points on a foul shot by Vin Baker
with 12 seconds left.
Carter surpassed Houston for high-scoring honors with an
emphatic two-handed dunk with 1.8 seconds left that finished the
show.
Or so it seemed.
As the Americans started to leave the court, the New Zealand
team motioned for them to wait a minute. They then began doing the
Haka, stomping one foot at a time, chanting and slapping their
knees in unison.
"Never seen anything like that before in my life," Hardaway
said. "They worked hard at it, you could tell. They were right in
sync."
The U.S. team's margin of victory didn't quite match its
47-point trouncing of China in its first game, but that game stayed
close for almost six minutes whereas this one didn't stay tight
even half that long.
New Zealand tied it at 4-4 and pulled to two down at 9-7 before
the Americans went on a 31-8 run and took a 40-15 lead on a dunk by
Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
Carter, who had trouble finishing off three alley-oop dunks in
the previous two games, had no such troubles on his first dunk
attempt this time. It actually was a reverse slam off an alley-oop
pass, and Carter made two 3-pointers later in the first half.
The U.S. team shot an incredible 88 percent in the first half,
making 16 of 18 shots. Gary Payton and Houston were the only
players to miss from inside the 3-point line.
The barrage continued throughout the second half as the
Americans kept pulling further and further ahead.
The biggest highlight from New Zealand came from their lone NBA
player, Sean Marks.
A teammate of Carter's last season in Toronto, Marks had an
impressive dunk early in the second half when he drove to the
basket with the ball held high in his left hand and slammed it
through.
It was the kind of dunk that would impress even the best dunkers
in the world, and that it did. Carter lit up with a wide smile on
the U.S. team bench as Marks ran back to play defense.
"I'm not big on challenging guys' dunks, but I told him I would
have shot that one down," Carter said.
Carter got a congratulatory smile in return from Marks with five
minutes left in the game. Isolated one-on-one against Marks in the
corner, Carter shook free for a 3-pointer that made the score
91-52.
"I told him if he guarded me I was going to shoot," Carter
said. "I had to."
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ALSO SEE
U.S.-New Zealand box score
Lithuania bounces back by beating China
'Michael Jordan of Italy' comes up big
U.S. hoops team gets a scare from Lithuania
Canada's 2-0 start brings on the medal talk
Second-half run pushes U.S. men past Italy
U.S. men hurdles Chinese 'Great Wall' with ease
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