PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - As we near the end of the Group Phase of the Olympic Basketball Tournament, we realize just how high a level of basketball is being played here in Rio.

Coach Vincent Collet of France joined USA coach Mike Kryzewski in saying: "These teams are really good!"

This basic fact explains why Team USA are winning by a smaller and smaller margin in each game. The team sorely lacks international experience as only Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant have Olympic experience and six of the players are playing in their first international tournament. There's no lack of talent because 11 of the 12 players are NBA All-stars but as Paul George said: "They play a different brand of basketball in international play with constant movement of the players and the ball and sometimes we have a hard time keeping up with them."

Patty Mills went for 30 points in the Boomers' narrow defeat to the USA

This was first shown in the game against Australia who started five NBA guys who had played together for years on their national team in the summers. With Matthew Dellavedova, Andrew Bogut and Patty Mills playing MUCH better than in the NBA, the Aussies passed and shot the lights out and stayed with Team USA for 38 minutes before losing by only 10.

After all those overly easy preparation games and the first two blowouts against China and Venezuela, this came as a shock to the USA and their media following the tournament. Australia beat a strong French team by 21 so this shouldn't have been a surprise! Then Serbia only lose by three after being behind 24-8 and France lose by 3 without Tony Parker, who rested up for the crucial Quarter-Final on wednesday because of a sore big toe.

Bogdan Bogdanovic missed a three-pointer that would have sent Serbia's game against the USA to overtime

All three teams used essentially the same game plan to show some doubt into Team USA's unbridled confidence. The plan was to limit turnovers and the USA's offensive rebounds while accepting to play uptempo and looking for open shots in transition or early in each possession. Collet pointed out that you have to play D against the USA but it's even more important to try and score a lot of points against them.

France lost 100-97 with Euroleague stars Nando DeColo and Thomas Heurtel slicing through USA's lazy pick and roll defense for easy buckets and brilliant assists.

Tony Parker sat out Sunday's game against the USA to rest up a big toe injury ahead of Wednesday's Quarter-Finals 

For the third time in a row, Team USA squeaked out a victory thanks to key shots, offensive rebounds and stops.

George said: "We won thanks to our natural talent" after the Serbia nail-biter.

It's only going to get tougher for them as the tournament goes forward because all the teams that qualify from the very strong and balanced Group B will be tough to beat. All six teams are still in contention for a Quarter-Final spot. The group is so balanced that we won't know the final standings until after the last game of pool play on Monday, said Coach K. Team USA might also have to play France and Australia again to win a gold medal!

In the post-game press conferences, Coach K is handling the mounting pressure with a solid dose of humor and derision after some of my critical comments and questions seemed to titillate him! Then he gets serious again and admits that his team has to defend better although he's happy with their progress and altruism on offense for a team that's only played together for a few weeks when opponents have played together for years.

Coach K's comments are often funny and quote-worthy and it's obvious he's become a student of international play since his last loss in 2006 against Greece in Saitama at the World Cup. At 69, he seems to be enjoying his last dance as coach of Team USA, a team that he has helped to re-attain world leadership, depite much-improved competition, with a 72-game winning streak.

After what we've seen in these last three games, that extraordinary streak is in imminent danger of ending.

Nicolas Batum said it the best after the narrow defeat: "These countries and their players have just gotten a lot better over the years. Over a hundred foreigners play in the NBA now and many have become stars. It all started with the Dream Team in 1992."

Batum thinks that France should have beaten the USA if not for a few untimely errors. Chances are big that he and his teammates will end up facing eternal rivals Spain in the Quarter-Finals, to which he said: "If that's the case, we'll just have to play our best game because we are here to win a medal."

The same can be said for all eight quarter-finalists who are fighting their way through one of the highest level basketball tournaments ever!

George Eddy

FIBA

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