USA Beats Turkey in Olympic Hoops exibition

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ISTANBUL, Turkey -- One week before its opener at the Athens Games, the U.S. men's Olympic team took a step backward.

The American team blew most of a 14-point fourth-quarter lead against a Turkish team missing Hedo Turkoglu, one of its two NBA players, before coming away with a 79-67 victory Sunday.

This was not an encouraging win for the Americans, who again struggled against a team that didn't even qualify for the Olympics -- just as happened earlier on their European trip against Germany.

A 19-8 run that included several 3-pointers narrowed Turkey's deficit to 68-65 with 3½ minutes left before the U.S. team turned up its defensive pressure to close out the game.

Tim Duncan led the United States with 16 points and Allen Iverson scored 13, with no one else reaching double figures.

What was most alarming was the way the team's core of youngsters, including LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade couldn't stop the home team from making a game of it down the stretch. Turkey's rally ended only after Duncan and Iverson, the U.S. team's elder statesmen, returned.

With Turkoglu out because of a broken nose, Ibrahim Kutluay led Turkey with 19 points and Serkan Erdogan added 17. Both players combined for a flurry of 3s that thrilled the a crowd of about 10,000 at the hot, cramped Abdi Ipecki Arena.



AP NEWS
 

Another Day, Another Dollar
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Cool. I can't root on these guys. Just so much wrong with NBA.
 

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To be honest I only have a pssing interest in the Olympics including this team. I do find it interesting though that after the one loss (Italy) there was a ton of buzz, but since then (after 3 wins) not much has been said. They play one more exibition this week against same Turkish team then on to the Games.

wil.
 

hacheman@therx.com
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Remember the long thread about why certain people/races dominate certain sports, and the arguements and the disagreements about whether the dominance has anything or not to do with what you grow up playing through the years, and when years lead to decades? Well, this is a perfect example. Just as I've tried to use the example that 10+ years ago when Mexican men/migrants playing full court basketball in my area daily at some courts when fruit season was in and working around here, and how pathetic they were, but now the last couple years, here around 10+ years later they are actually very much improved? Well, it isn't the same guys of course, but it spreads............through the years and .......
 

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