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Museums exhibit priceless works of art. The world boasts countless objects of near perfection. Last night, fans were witness to one more: the Team USA's first quarter against the Mexican national team.
Already boasting a 4-0 record in this year's FIBA Americas Tournament, Team USA has been slowly reestablishing its international dominance. and doing so with style and force.
For those unfamiliar with FIBA tournament rules, teams play four ten minute quarters (as opposed to twelve in the NBA) with fewer stoppages in play than the average NBA game as well. Monday night, Team USA scored 45 points in ten minutes.
Briefly watching the sparse SportsCenter highlights does not do this team justice, for there's no way to effectively capture the vertical dunk-fest that has become Team USA's dominance of this year's FIBA tournament. So here's an attempt to recap a near perfect first quarter, showcasing the world's greatest basketball players playing an unbeatable level.
- Starting for Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups set the tone early scoring five points in the game's first thirty seconds, first by launching a three-pointer and then, by converting a fastbreak lay-up off a LeBron James steal.
- Off a missed Mexican lay-up, Amare Stoudamire kicked the rebound out to Billups on the wing. Billups took one dribble, fed the ball up-court to LeBron, who drove, drew a double team and one-handed it out to Kobe on the left wing. Kobe spotted Carmelo Anthony (who's been making a living in the paint this tournament) under the basket for the bucket and the foul. All five players touched the ball in a possession that took only eight seconds, longer than it took to read that paragraph.
- At the 6:41, Carmelo nailed a three-pointer, giving him eight of Team USA's fifteen points.
- After turning the ball over the previous possession, Kobe Bryant rattled home a shot from about five feet behind the three-point line.
- At the 5:20 mark, Jason Kidd entered the game. Cue the highlight reel.
- LeBron pulled down a strong, one-handed rebound from above the rim, found Kidd running up the floor, who then got it back to LeBron on the right wing. LeBron then took THREE Mexican players to the hole and drew the foul. That possession took another brief, eight seconds. In response to LeBron's dunk, Bill Walton muttered "We're used to that very much. The Mexican players I'm not sure that they've EVER seen anything quite like LeBron James."
- In the first five minutes
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Why other countries are catching up to the US Men's National basketball team
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