Kevin Durant led the way scoring 30 points and grabbing nine rebounds in the game. Durant set a U.S. record for most points scored in a single Olympics in the game and also had the most points ever by a U.S. player in a gold medal game.

LeBron James added 19 points becoming just the second player ever along with Michael Jordan to win an MVP, NBA title and gold medal in the same year.

Team USA was pretty dominant for most of the Olympics but Spain made them work for gold, trailing by just one entering the final quarter. Team USA came out hot in the final quarter and would make the big plays when they needed them down the stretch.

Here are the final grades for each Team USA player:

LeBron James – 13.3 PPG, 5.6 APG, 5.6 RPG, 60 FG%, 30 3PT%, 75 FT% – A

LeBron looked like the best player in the world when he wanted to in these Olympics. He came up huge down the stretch of Team USA’s two closest games vs. Lithuania in pool play and Spain in the gold medal game. He silenced any critics with everything he did and has to feel pretty good right now. LeBron showed us nothing new in the Olympics except maybe an overwhelming sense of confidence in everything he did on the floor. He was arguably the most valuable player on the team leading everyone in assists and defending much bigger players for most of the tournament.

Kevin Durant – 19.5 PPG, 2.6 APG, 5.8 RPG, 49 FG%, 52 3PT%, 89 FT% – A

Durant not surprisingly led the U.S. in scoring. He was huge for them in the gold medal game and without his 30, could have easily lost to Spain. His display shooting the shorter three in these games was remarkable. He seemed the most unfair of the Team USA players vs. the international competition. Durant most importantly stepped up his defense as the tournament went on. His length really seemed to bother the international players a lot who aren’t used to seeing someone his size move so agile. Durant produced more consistently than any other player on Team USA in every game and that’s why he deserves just as much as LeBron to be recognized as the team’s MVP.

Carmelo Anthony – 16.3 PPG, 1.3 APG, 4.8 RPG, 54 FG%, 50 3PT%, 79 FT% – A

Anthony made the most noise on this team in their record-setting pool play win over Nigeria. He set a U.S. Olympic scoring record in that game with 37 points and made 10-of-12 threes. It is often said how perfectly Anthony fits into the international game and that was definitely evident again in these Olympics. His shot was on in almost every game as he was less of the isolation player we see him as in the NBA and more of just a catch-and-shoot guy. He came off the bench as Durant started every game but it did not faze him as he embraced the role. Team USA really couldn’t have asked for much more from Anthony.

Kobe Bryant – 12.1 PPG, 1.3 APG, 1.8 RPG, 43 FG%, 44 3PT%, 91 FT% – C

Kobe looked really bad in these Olympics until the medal round when he kind of came alive. Other than Deron Williams, Kobe had the lowest field goal percentage on the team and was a liability on defense as well. He was the old man of this team and that’s exactly what it looked like. He rarely kept up with his teammates on the fast break, never made the right pass when leading a fast break and simply made you start feeling a little sorry for him a lot of the time. Kobe did step up and play better in the medal round and that’s why he isn’t getting an F grade here. The truth is that Team USA would have been much better without Kobe than they were with him.

Chris Paul – 8.3 PPG, 5.1 APG, 2.5 RPG, 51 FG%, 46 3PT%, 50 FT% – A

Paul underratedly had a pretty fantastic Olympics. It was no surprise that he did a good job setting up his teammates in every game and played great defense on opposing point guards, but it was his shooting that really stood out. Paul is a very capable shooter in the NBA but really came through in the Olympics too with his 3-point shot. Deron Williams is considered possibly the better international style point guard but Paul made it clear that Williams is not in his league with his play in these Olympics. Another great job by Paul was that way he let LeBron be the playmaker while on the floor with him, something he is not used to doing in the NBA.

Deron Williams – 9.0 PPG, 4.6 APG, 1.5 RPG, 39 FG%, 40 3PT %, 77 FT% – C+

Williams had a pretty disappointing Olympics for the most part. He was never terrible in the way Kobe was but he definitely underperformed. He could have seen a lot more playing time had he been hitting his shot a little more often. As a result, he ended up barely playing in the gold medal game.

Russell Westbrook – 8.5 PPG, 1.6 APG, 1.6 RPG, 48 FG%, 33 3PT%, 74 FT% – B-

There were some pretty high expectations for Westbrook coming into these Olympics as Kobe and a few others, mentioned that he could play the role Dwyane Wade did back in 2008. Westbrook didn’t do that and playing behind Paul and Williams, he didn’t get a lot of playing time in general. His game is not made for the international style and he didn’t look like he fit in too much. He wasn’t playing point and had the ball much less than he does in the NBA. He made a lot of bad turnovers and didn’t have many assists either. He could have easily played at a level where he demanded more minutes than Kobe but he just didn’t. His greatest value to the team was the pressure defense he put on opposing guards, especially from the weaker teams.

Kevin Love – 11.6 PPG, 0.4 APG, 7.6 RPG, 63 FG%, 36 3PT%, 57 FT% – B+

Love really came on late in the Olympics for Team USA and basically became part of their crunch time lineup. There weren’t many bigs on the roster so the opportunity to find minutes wasn’t hard for Love. All he had to do was rebound, which he did better than anyone else on the team, and make shots, which he struggled with a little. Love clearly didn’t love the FIBA ball and it showed with his low shooting percentages. He still made himself an invaluable part of the team with his rebounding.

Tyson Chandler – 4.0 PPG, 0.4 APG, 4.0 RPG, 70 FG%, 33 FT% – C-

Chandler started every game but only averaged 11.3 minutes per game. He got in a lot of foul trouble and was never anything special on defense either. He was never a liability while on the floor but he definitely underperformed. Even against Spain, when Team USA needed him more than ever to compete with their size, he only played nine minutes. It’s safe to say, Chandler was a huge downgrade from Dwight Howard.

Andre Iguodala – 4.3 PPG, 1.4 APG, 2.8 RPG, 70 FG%, 56 3PT%, 50 FT% – B-

Iguodala didn’t play much either in these Olympics but did a pretty good job while he was out there, you just didn’t notice him much. He shot a high percentage from three but out of a small sample size. He could have been used more in lieu of Kobe for his defense but that was a tough decision Coach K chose to avoid.

James Harden – 5.5 PPG, 0.8 APG, 0.6 RPG, 50 FG%, 30 3PT%, 57 FT% – B-

Harden wasn’t going to play a lot in these Olympics and really didn’t do too good of job in the little time he did play. Whenever he came in, he was going to take a few threes but he only shot 30 percent on them. He had a few really nice dunks but that was about it. With Durant and Anthony shooting so well from distance, there was never a moment for Coach K to look to Harden to come in and provide some outside shooting in a close game.

Anthony Davis – 3.7 PPG, 0.0 APG, 2.7 RPG, 65 FG%, 67 FT% – A

Davis was one of the biggest winners of these Olympics. He got to piggy back on to a team filled with the best talent in the NBA before ever even playing in the NBA, and comes home with a gold medal. Davis was impressive when he was on the floor too. His defensive presence was maybe the best of anyone on Team USA and he clicked very nicely on some lobs with the point guards. He will be a very good NBA player, that’s how you come away feeling about him after watching him play in London.

Mike Krzyzewski gets to ride off into the sunset from his Olympic coaching career, getting his second gold medal and finishing his career as Team USA’s coach with a 62-1 record.

The game was very reminiscent of the 2008 gold medal game. Spain came out playing better than they had all Olympics and trailed by just one point entering the fourth quarter.

Team USA came out great in the fourth though scoring seven quick points. Then LeBron James picked up his fourth foul, came out of the game and Spain remained within striking distance.

When LeBron came back in, he made a backbreaking 3-pointer over Marc Gasol in the same way Kobe Bryant made a huge three four years ago.

LeBron James caps off an amazing year for him that included an MVP, NBA title and now gold medal making him the first player since Michael Jordan in 1992 to do that.

Pau Gasol led Spain with 24 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the game.

The U.S. made the plays they needed to down the stretch. It wasn’t the prettiest win. Each team committed 27 fouls in the game and Spain also battled foul trouble with Marc Gasol picking up four in the first half and sitting the entire third quarter.

The U.S. made 15-of-37 threes in the game while Spain wasn’t as good at 7-for-19. Team USA also held their own on the boards outrebounding Spain and getting 12 offensive rebounds.

With the win, the United States capture their 14th gold medal in Olympic basketball history.

Here are grades for all of the players:

LeBron James – 30 minutes, 19 points, 3 assists, 7 rebounds – B+

It wasn’t LeBron’s best game but he came up big when Team USA needed him scoring five points in the final three minutes. The zone Spain mostly played limited what LeBron did on offense as less of Team USA’s offense ran through him. When he picked up his fourth foul late in the game and had to come out, it looked like Team USA might be in some trouble but they survived.

Kevin Durant – 38 minutes, 30 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist – A

Durant passed Spencer Haywood as the all-time U.S. leading scorer in a single Olympics in this game. Getting 30 from him was huge and very necessary for Team USA to pull out the win. By his standards he was a little off on his shot making 5-of-13 threes in the game. He was better scoring all around in this one and got to the line 10 times, making nine. His defense remained solid as well as he got many deflections and held his own down low.

Carmelo Anthony – 21 minutes, 8 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds – C+

Anthony was nothing special in this game making just 2-of-6 threes. He also got into foul trouble and with him not scoring much, Team USA became really dependant on Durant and Kobe to fill it up, which they did. Anthony was great rebounding on defense in the fourth quarter though while matched up with bigger players.

Kobe Bryant – 27 minutes, 17 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds – A

Kobe had been bad for a lot of these Olympics but really looked pretty good in the medal round, including this game. He hit some big shots early and late and shot a solid percentage. He had a few bad turnovers but luckily that didn’t cost the U.S. the game.

Chris Paul – 33 minutes, 11 points, 2 assists, 3 steals – B+

Paul was a little too passive in this game and could have looked for his shot a little more late. He still hit a big three in the third quarter and made a huge driving layup with 53 seconds left to put Team USA up 104-93.

Deron Williams – 10 minutes, 6 points, 1 assist – C+

Team USA could have used another player to step up and hit some outside shots. Williams made both of his 3-point attempts but didn’t do much else. He didn’t play as much as he had been either with the game pretty close in the second half.

Russell Westbrook – 9 minutes, 3 points, 1 rebound – C+

Westbrook did not play at all in the second half and didn’t make much of an impact in the first half either. Westbrook is a great NBA player but his game didn’t translate too well in these Olympics within this team.

Kevin Love – 19 minutes, 9 points, 9 rebounds – B

Love’s rebounding was huge and he had three offensive boards but his post defense was basically nonexistent. He couldn’t contain the Gasol brothers really at all and that was a big reason why the game was close.

Tyson Chandler – 9 minutes, 2 points, 1 rebound – C

Chandler hardly played again and didn’t even do a good job while he was in as Pau Gasol scored on him a few times. His impact was minimal.

Andre Iguodala – 2 minutes, 1 rebound, 1 turnover – C

Iguodala hardly played too. Even with LeBron in some foul trouble, Coach K went with Kobe playing more minutes instead of some Iguodala.

James Harden – 1 minute, 2 points – C

Harden came in with under a minute to play with the game pretty much in hand. He got fouled twice and went 2-for-4 from the line. Unacceptable.

Anthony Davis – 1 minute, 1 rebound – C

Davis pulled down the final rebound of the game. That has to count for something. Can’t wait to see him in Rio, and the NBA for that matter.

USA vs. Spain is the gold medal matchup everyone wanted to see. The United States are of course the favorites to bring home gold while Spain has always been considered their greatest competition.

Team USA has won all seven of its games in the Olympics so far by an average margin of 35.7 points per game. Spain has been far less impressive losing twice in pool play and looking weak in each of their last two games in the medal round.

The United States has passed some tests so far, beating Argentina twice and surviving a close scare vs. Lithuania but Spain should still be their toughest battle yet.

Here are five reasons why Spain might upset the United States in the gold medal game.

Spain is bigger

Let’s start with the most obvious one here. Spain has a significant size advantage over the U.S. and they intend to take advantage of it as much as possible. Spain starts the Gasol brothers and then brings Serge Ibaka and Felipe Reyes off the bench.

The U.S. will start Tyson Chandler as their only big and use Kevin Love too but mostly plays LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony at power forward. The U.S. has outrebounded their opponents by over 10 boards per game in the Olympics but that is mostly because they are shooting a far higher percentage.

The U.S. is definitely weak inside as we saw in their games vs. Lithuania and Argentina, when they play without a rim protector their opponent will get a lot of relatively easy looks at the rim.

Spain will pound it inside on offense and pack in their zone on defense. This is closer to the international style and they will have an advantage. Mismatches do go both ways though and Team USA will have to make sure they take advantage by featuring their more skilled forwards in positions where they can be effective against slower, bigger defenders.

3-point shooting

Team USA has lived by the three and they’ve won by it so far in the Olympics. They are attempting 36.6 threes per game and making .445 percent of them. That’s off the charts but there is always a chance even for Team USA to go cold from behind the line tomorrow morning.

Durant and Anthony become very important in this regard as they have led Team USA in 3-point shooting. Durant is shooting .558 percent from three in the Olympics and Anthony .525. They are Team USA’s two leading scorers as well.

Spain has been on the opposite end in terms of 3-point shooting success in the Olympics. They’re shooting just .328 percent as a team with some of their best guys really struggling.

Rudy Fernandez is third on the team in scoring and shooting .367 percent. Juan Carlos Navarro is shooting .333 percent and Jose Calderon .348 percent. Even Pau Gasol has been shooting the three for them, making just 5-for-15 in total.

Spain is fully capable though of heating up from three in any game as they showed in the second half of their semifinal game vs. Russia. They will need to do that and pray that Team USA has an off shooting night to pull off the upset.

40-minute game

The games in these Olympics are eight minutes shorter than NBA games. That means there is greater chance for an upset and less time to erase mistakes made early in the game. Spain is more experience playing this style and will surely try and take advantage of it to the fullest mostly by controlling the pace of the game.

Fortunately for Team USA, Spain hasn’t been getting off to great starts lately and will definitely need to if they plan to win the gold medal. Spain should be up for this game more than any other though and we should see a more concentrated effort from them. Pau Gasol admitted himself that Spain has been looking ahead too much in the Olympics so far. That won’t be the case tomorrow.

Team USA has consistently seen teams play their best games against them, at least for spurts. With the game obviously being close early, Spain should show us their best game from the start. We’ve seen Argentina unable to sustain this for 40 minutes but Spain may be able to.

Officiating

The officials haven’t exactly been on the side of Team USA in these Olympics as per usual. The rules are a little different and there are some things that Team USA will simply never get used to. We’ve seen a lot of Team USA players called for traveling or called for very questionable fouls.

You only get five fouls before fouling out in international play and that could play a huge factor. Chandler will be more important than ever in this matchup vs. Spain but he has in every game gotten into some sort of foul trouble. One would expect that to happen again vs. Spain and that could be very bad news for Team USA.

Team USA players don’t get star treatment either overseas. LeBron and Durant will be asked to defend Spain’s post players some and will be vulnerable to some easy foul calls. If one or both of them has to sit on the bench more than normal, Spain will have that much better of a chance to pull off the upset.

Kobe

Kobe is probably Spain’s best chance for beating Team USA. Kobe has been for the most part pretty horrible in the Olympics although he has been better in the last two games. We know that Kobe will be shooting in the gold medal game and if he’s not hitting, that will put Team USA in a tough spot.

Coach K will more than likely play Kobe at least half of the game and probably more and he will have him out there during crunch time, if there is one. Kobe has the potential to shoot Team USA out of the game or Spain into the game if he looks like the Kobe we saw in pool play.

The same goes for Anthony as well. Both he and Kobe are going to take shots, probably a lot of bad ones, and if they’re not falling, Spain will be that much closer to Team USA.

The margin for error will be the smallest for Team USA tomorrow morning. They’ve been able to overcome their imperfections so far but Spain is the real test.

Team USA led 47-40 at halftime after Manu Ginobili hit a three to end the first half. Ginobili came out strong from the start but slowed down late, finishing with 18 points in the game.

The U.S. shot 53.1 percent from the field and made 18-of-42 threes. They pulled away from Argentina again much like their last meeting with a big third quarter led by LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

Spain beat Russia in their semifinal earlier today and hasn’t looked great so far in these Olympics but still should be considered the toughest test yet for Team USA.

Here are grades for the U.S. players:

LeBron James – 29 minutes, 18 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds – A

LeBron played another brilliant game doing a little bit of everything. Coming off the first triple-double in U.S. Olympic history in the quarterfinals vs. Australia, LeBron flirted with another one today. He went 8-of-12 from the field and was excellent finding open shooters all game long.

Kevin Durant – 27 minutes, 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks – B+

Durant led the U.S. in scoring thanks to his five 3-pointers, four of which came in the third quarter. Durant was better again with his interior defense and picked up a few blocks. He really didn’t look to be shooting well early in the game before getting a few to go down in a row in the third.

Carmelo Anthony – 22 minutes, 18 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists – B+

It was Anthony’s turn to put on the 3-point show in the second half of this game. He hit a few in a row and then a really deep one reminiscent of Durant’s the last time Team USA played Argentina. He made a few nice extra passes that he normally doesn’t which resulted in a little more balanced of a game in this one.

Kobe Bryant – 19 minutes, 13 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals – B+

Kobe did his work at the beginning of this game after doing it in the second half of the last one. He came out hot making three 3-pointers in the first half and was pretty quiet after that. You know Kobe is going to take shots no matter what. He’s good when they’re going down but has been terrible when they’re not.

Chris Paul – 26 minutes, 10 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds – A

Paul just plays so good every game. He went 2-of-3 from deep and that’s just gravy with him. He had a pretty high assist total too as he always makes the smart play.

Deron Williams – 20 minutes, 6 points, 6 assists – B

Williams only shot 2-of-7 from deep which puts him well below Team USA’s average shooting percentage on threes. Coach K tried to use him more as Argentina played a lot of zone and Williams didn’t do anything special. The six assists were nice though.

Russell Westbrook – 9 minutes, 7 points, 1 turnover – B

Westbrook played with good energy again and was a little more under control in this one. All three of his baskets were nice. The first came on a good drive in the first half. Then he hit a three in the second half and got one of his patented pull-up jumpers to go down too. He came up lame with what appeared to be a leg injury late in the fourth. It didn’t look too serious and for a guy who has never missed a basketball game in his life, it’s hard to get worried.

Kevin Love – 16 minutes, 9 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block – A

Love was very big today especially with his work on the glass getting four offensive rebounds. As Team USA continued to shoot the three when seeing zone, Love was there to help get them second shot opportunities whenever he was in. He was 0-for-2 shooting the three himself but his impact was hard not to notice.

Tyson Chandler – 12 minutes, 4 points, 3 rebounds – B

Chandler didn’t play much again but did just fine while he was out there. He had a nice slam in the second half from a Paul feed and was his usual solid self on defense. Picked up three fouls though.

Andre Iguodala – 11 minutes, 2 points, 1 assist – B

Iguodala found out last night he was being traded to the Denver Nuggets so maybe he felt a little weird for the game. He played fine while he was out there though and had a nice highlight reel alley-oop finish from Paul late in the game.

James Harden – 5 minutes, 3 points, 1 steal – B

I could have sworn Harden hit two threes in this game. One of them rolled around the rim some and may have been credited to Love for a tip-in. His shot looked good and he even had a nice block in transition from behind on a player.

Anthony Davis – 4 minutes, 1 rebound – C

Just very little garbage time for Davis again and he didn’t touch the ball.

The United States is 6-0 so far in these Olympics winning games by an average margin of 37.3 points per game. They have been dominant but not perfect or without flaws.

The Team USA roster isn’t exactly the one envisioned by Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski. They are small without Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh or LaMarcus Aldridge and also missing a few other stars in Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose.

The only three bigs on the roster for Team USA are Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love and Anthony Davis. Chandler has been barely playing largely due to foul trouble, Love has emerged of late and Davis only sees the floor in garbage time.

It has resulted in a lot of Team USA’s players playing out of position, mainly LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony who are playing the four and five positions primarily.

We’ve seen a lot of different lineups and rotations so far from Coach K as he still sometimes seems to be looking for the right grouping of five guys.

Team USA has done fine despite this so far and has won games because of their superior depth and talent. Now in the semifinals and playing Argentina for the third time in as many weeks, and Spain or Russia looming as a gold medal matchup, the United States may need to shrink their rotation some and find their best lineup.

What is the best 5-man lineup for Team USA?

We know it’s not the starting five of Paul-Kobe-LeBron-Durant-Chandler. They’ve gotten off to a few slow starts and with Chandler barely playing and Kobe’s struggles, this surely hasn’t been their strongest group.

The first sub is always Anthony coming in for Chandler as Team USA immediately goes small. This isn’t their best lineup either because Kobe, who hasn’t gelled well with this team at all, is still out there.

It’s usually Deron Williams and Russell Westbrook who enter next for Paul and Kobe. Now we’re getting warmer. Williams is arguably the better international point guard than Paul and Westbrook has been an upgrade from Kobe in a lot of instances as well.

But Team USA is still pretty vulnerable inside when Anthony and Durant are out there together and it’s not as if they work so great together on offense either. You probably only need one of them on the floor at a time, simply to focus more on defense.

Love is the final piece here and next sub in. He usually comes for Durant or LeBron at this point but Team USA’s best lineup definitely involves Durant and LeBron on the floor together.

Of the lineups that have played a good amount of minutes together so far in these Olympics, Team USA’s best is Paul-Williams-LeBron-Durant-Love.

The combining of Paul and Williams works well and Paul simply is playing at a higher level than Westbrook right now, fitting in more with the team too. Love has been a beast on the glass of late too, really establishing himself as a force down low while LeBron and Durant are good enough to hold their own on bigger defenders as well.

That is the best lineup we will see from Team USA going forward. The challenge for Coach K will be seamlessly removing Kobe from the floor to go with a lineup like this in crunch time. It probably won’t happen and Kobe and/or Anthony will be on the floor instead of Williams or Love.

The best lineup for Team USA is perhaps one we will never see and is totally different from the identity they’ve shown so far in the Olympics. It involves and basically highlights Davis in at center.

Davis has been a monster in the little time he has played swatting shots like nothing and rebounding very well too. He has also really meshed with Paul and the other guards, rolling to the rim and finishing alley-oops.

Team USA would be at their best going Williams-LeBron-Anthony-Durant-Davis. They’d have plenty of size and could use Williams running the point as well as LeBron. This would free up LeBron a little more to get out and run on the wings, really maximizing the potential of Team USA’s transition game.

It’s fun to think about different lineups with Team USA and this one in particular, but we probably won’t see it at all, even if it might be their best look. Instead, Team USA will have to try and win gold not with, but despite someone like Kobe, while more deserving players in Love and Davis watch from the sidelines.

The United States did not come out looking their best but were very impressive in the fourth quarter, going on one of their signature runs outscoring Australia 35-16 in the period.

The U.S. took 46 threes in the game and made 19, which is the third-most 3-point makes they’ve had in a game in the Olympics.

Australia hung around due to another big game from point guard Patty Mills who scored 26 points and made four threes.

Here are the grades for each Team USA player:

LeBron James – 30 minutes, 11 points, 12 assists, 14 rebounds – A+

LeBron had maybe his best game of the Olympics so far getting the triple-double and doing a little bit of everything for Team USA. He has really played well in these past three games after coasting in the first three. His 12 assists ties Michael Jordan and a few others for the most ever in a U.S. Olympic basketball game.

Kevin Durant – 25 minutes, 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals – B

Durant was mainly just a spot-up shooter in this game making 4-of-9 threes. Shooting 44 percent from three is fine but for Durant, it felt like he struggled. He missed a few shots driving and didn’t get to the line at all. His defense was better again getting two steals and some deflections as well.

Carmelo Anthony – 20 minutes, 17 points, 4 rebounds – B

Anthony played a pretty normal game for him. He was nothing special from deep going 2-of-7 and has really just become a guy who does nothing but try and score when the ball finds him. There’s nothing wrong with that because it’s his role on this team.

Kobe Bryant – 20 minutes, 20 points, 3 assists, 2 steals – B+

Kobe continued his awful play in the first half going 0-for-3 with zero points. You started to feel bad for him as it seemed he couldn’t do anything right. Then he really heated up in the second half, making six threes and finishing with 20 points. His threes come with a grain of salt though which requires him to take the 25-foot, contested heat check whenever he hits one or two. Team USA will need him at least making his jump shot going forward in the medal round.

Chris Paul – 27 minutes, 7 points, 3 assists, 4 steals – B

Paul didn’t do too much in this one partly because LeBron really dominated as the team’s distributor. Paul was only 1-for-4 from deep too and didn’t exactly lock up Australia’s guards on the other end the way he is capable of.

Deron Williams – 22 minutes, 18 points, 3 rebounds – A

Williams came up big in the first half for the U.S. scoring 13 points. Tonight he was the example of Team USA’s depth showing that they have so many players who can get it going scoring. With Paul not hitting his shot so much, it was nice for Williams to step up.

Russell Westbrook – 11 minutes, 6 points, 1 assist, 4 fouls – C

Westbrook got in foul trouble and didn’t play much. He was out of control for the most part again and not in any kind of rhythm. When he has space and can show off his athleticism, he is at his best and in the international game, there’s less room for him. The foul trouble limited his effectiveness in being one of Team USA’s best on-ball defenders.

Kevin Love – 21 minutes, 10 points, 11 rebounds – A

Love was great again and with Chandler not doing much, he is becoming very key for this team. His work on the glass was relentless as always but he did not hit any threes. He should continue to see more minutes especially if Team USA sees Spain in the gold medal game.

Tyson Chandler – 9 minutes, 6 points, 2 rebounds – C+

Chandler barely played again because of some foul trouble and was his usual self while on the floor. He caught a few nice lobs which were pretty but that’s about it.

Andre Iguodala – 8 minutes, 3 points, 1 rebound – C+

Iguodala didn’t play much either which was a little surprising coming off a very good game vs. Argentina. He hit a three while he was in and probably would have played more if Williams didn’t have the hot hand or if Kobe never got going. Team USA’s defense wasn’t great again and having Iguodala on the floor would help that out some.

James Harden – 4 minutes, 7 points, 1 assist – A+

Harden couldn’t have been better in four minutes, finishing on the break with two highlight slams and making a stepback three as well. It would have been nice to see him get more minutes with this team but it’s just not going to happen except in blowouts.

Anthony Davis – 3 minutes, 0 points, 3 rebounds – C

Davis just played a few minutes in garbage time and went 0-for-3 from the field. Come on bro.

The U.S. led by just one at halftime 60-59 as Argentina was doing a lot of what Lithuania did to the U.S. in the first half.

Manu Ginobili was on a tear scoring 16 points on just five shots as Argentina shot 56 percent from the field.

In the third quarter, Team USA came out a different team especially on the defensive side of the ball. LeBron James had a look in his eye scoring nine quick points then Kevin Durant took over.

Durant hit five threes in the third quarter and scored 17 points as the U.S. outscored Argentina 42-17 as a team. Durant capped off his memorable third quarter performance with a three from about 32-feet that was very reminiscent of Rucker Park.

Team USA again looked vulnerable at times but when they turned it on in the second half they showed why they are the team to beat in these Olympics.

Here are the grades:

LeBron James – 21 minutes, 18 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds – A

LeBron was quiet in the first half as not a lot of the offense was running through him but he really asserted himself in the third quarter. He has taken over when he has needed to for this team in these Olympics and did it again today. He had to sit though midway through the third after picking up his fourth foul. He got called on a few really bad fouls in the game.

Kevin Durant – 22 minutes, 28 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals – A

Durant was magnificent in the third quarter not only by hitting five treys but on the defensive end he was as active as he ever has been. That led to a lot of Team USA’s offense as they pulled away. Durant wasn’t too bad in the first half either scoring 11 points and hitting three 3-pointers. Durant’s shooting performance in the third quarter may have been more impressive than what Carmelo Anthony did vs. Nigeria.

Carmelo Anthony – 13 minutes, 5 points, 5 rebounds – C

Anthony didn’t have it tonight going just 1-for-6 from the field but his one make was a big three to end the third. He got a little cheap shot from Argentina point guard Campazzo after making the trey he was hit below the belt and it started a little scrum between the two teams.

Kobe Bryant – 21 minutes, 11 points, 1 assist – C-

Kobe just seems to not fit in much with this team. He randomly started pushing the ball down the court out of control twice in the third quarter and it just felt weird. He shot 3-of-10 in the game and is still struggling with the different ball it seems. The fact that he’s probably going to be on the court in crunch time of a close game may not be a good thing for Team USA going forward.

Chris Paul – 25 minutes, 17 points, 6 assists, 3 steals – A

Paul was great in the first half hitting four threes and did his job pretty much perfectly the rest of the game too. You can’t hardly ever complain about Paul and when he is making threes he is just that much better. He really hounded Campazzo on defense too who had to play most of the game with Prigionni missing the game with an injury.

Deron Williams – 15 minutes, 5 points, 3 assists – C

Nothing special from Williams tonight as he was 2-for-7 from the field. Paul played much better and got the bulk of the minutes. Team USA will need Williams to step up and shoot better from three as the games continue.

Russell Westbrook – 19 minutes, 4 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds – B-

He would receive a C grade if not for his nasty dunk in the fourth quarter. Westbrook was out of control for the most part again going 1-for-8 from the field but his dunk was such a perfect exclamation mark on the game. His defense against Argentina’s weak guards was pretty good too.

Kevin Love – 15 minutes, 13 points, 9 rebounds – B+

Love quietly had a very nice game for Team USA going 5-for-7 from the field and grabbing four offensive boards as well. His confidence has grown of late and he is becoming a more integral part of this team which is good with Tyson Chandler not playing all that well.

Tyson Chandler – 12 minutes, 3 points, 5 rebounds – B

Chandler wasn’t as bad as he has been lately in this one and was the only real defensive presence for Team USA in the first half. The defense Team USA played in the second half showed why they won’t need to rely on Chandler to play a lot of minutes in the future. Chandler was in foul trouble again though and mostly takes up space on offense.

Andre Iguodala – 20 minutes, 13 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists – A

Iguodala played his role perfectly today. He got some scoring on not a lot of shots, always made the right pass and rebounded. When he plays like this he will get minutes and deservedly so.

James Harden – 9 minutes, 7 points – C+

Harden didn’t play until garbage time in this one and was fine while he was out there. He hit 1-of-2 threes and went 3-for-5 from the field.

Anthony Davis – 8 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block – C+

Davis also didn’t play until garbage time and had less alley-oop dunks than usual.

Team USA had their first legitimate scare of the Olympic so far as Lithuania led the game in the fourth quarter with seven minutes to play.

The United States were coming off an 83-point victory vs. Nigeria two days ago and perhaps them not be challenged so far in the Olympics had something to do with this game being so close.

Now that the games are starting to get serious for Team USA, it’s time to seriously grade each player for them:

LeBron James – 35 minutes, 20 points, 5 rebounds, 0 assists – A

LeBron was quiet early in this one very much like he has been all Olympics so far. He hasn’t been needed to do much for Team USA so far but really stepped up in the fourth quarter vs. Lithuania. LeBron scored nine of Team USA’s final 12 points effectively shutting the door on any hopes Lithuania had of pulling off the upset. LeBron surprisingly didn’t have an assist in the game but that may have had a lot to do with the U.S. shooting so poorly from three in the game.

Kevin Durant – 28 minutes, 16 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists – C+

This wasn’t Durant’s best game and we are seeing him turn into more of a one-dimensional player on this team, becoming just a catch-and-shoot guy from behind the 3-point line. There’s not a lot wrong with that as he made 4-of-7 threes vs. Lithuania but he has kind of struggled scoring in other areas. Durant also was taken advantage of inside a few times by Lithuania and since he is being asked to play a lot of power forwards and centers that is not a good thing.

Carmelo Anthony – 25 minutes, 20 points, 3 rebounds – B

Anthony was coming off a fantastic game against Nigeria in which he set a U.S. Olympic record with 37 points and made 10-of-12 threes in the process. Anthony continued his hot shooting early in this one but then cooled off later. Much like Durant, Anthony has struggled with his defense inside and it was a weakness of this team that Lithuania revealed in this game. Overall it would be nice to see Anthony as committed on defense as he is on offense to get a better grade.

Kobe Bryant – 20 minutes, 6 points, 1 assist – C

Kobe really struggled shooting in this one going just 1-of-7 from the field and didn’t play very well on defense either. He often bit on pump fakes by Lithuania players at the 3-point line leaving the rest of the defense at a disadvantage. Sometimes Kobe just seems to not really fit in with this team being the old man of the group and the ball of course almost always stops when he gets his hands on it.

Chris Paul – 28 minutes, 7 points, 6 assists, 4 steals – A-

Paul was pretty good in this game and very good late. He was one of the most clutch players in the NBA last season and when he has the ball in his hands late with this team, good things always happen. He made a great play in transition late to find Durant for an easy dunk. He struggled a little from the field and was 1-for-4 on threes but other than that was great.

Deron Williams – 23 minutes, 12 points, 2 assists – B

Williams wasn’t the most efficient in this game ever but the 12 points he did contribute despite needing 12 shots to get them were valuable. With Team USA settling for so many threes in these Olympics, Williams is always a good guy to have on the floor and he made a pair of treys in this one.

Russell Westbrook – 14 minutes, 7 points, 2 rebounds – C

Westbrook was out of control and out of rhythm even more so than usual against Lithuania. Not being able to roam freely all over the floor like he does in OKC has made him very much less effective in the Olympics. He made some bad decisions on offense and defense in this one and really can play a lot better for this team. His strengths were not taken advantage of in this game and it made up seem like kind of a waste when he was in.

Kevin Love – 12 minutes, 7 points, 8 rebounds – C

Love really struggled from the free throw line going 3-of-8 and seems to not be in love with the FIBA basketball. He works so hard though and led the team with eight boards. Team USA needed him too in this one being one of the only actual big men on the roster. For Team USA to win gold and beat teams like Argentina and Spain, Love will have to play well and give them a little more than he did today.

Tyson Chandler – 8 minutes, 1 point, 1 rebound – D

Chandler has done very little for this team so far in the Olympics and hasn’t seen a lot of playing time despite starting every game. He went 1-for-4 from the free throw line in this one which makes him a liability to have on the floor on offense. Coach K has elected to go with smaller lineups and sacrifice the interior defense that he provides because of this. It would be nice to see him playing better and getting more minutes because Team USA may need him especially if they play Spain in the medal round.

James Harden – 4 minutes, 3 points, 1 steal – B

Harden barely played in this one and did make one very good play in his short time on the floor, making a steal and finishing at the rim with an and-1 layup. He won’t get a ton of minutes in close games for Team USA especially with him shooting not so great from three so far in the Olympics. He missed his only 3-point shot attempt today.

Andre Iguodala – 3 minutes, 1 rebound, 3 fouls – D

Iguodala got in early but picked up three very quick fouls and never came back in. Coach K likes him and will continue to use him in some spots. Team USA honestly could have used him more in this one since he is one of their best defenders on the perimeter and a good rebounder. Nothing much more to say about him vs. Lithuania though.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

The United States will play their first Olympic Basketball game Sunday, July 29 at 9:30 a.m. EST against France.

The United States prepared for the Olympics with five exhibition games and won them all by an average of 26.6 points.

Kevin Durant averaged 17.6 points per game and shot .552 percent from three in those exhibition games. LeBron James led the team averaging 18.6 points to go along with 4.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists.

Team USA is the favorite to win the gold medal but France is one of the teams expected to give them a decent game.

France is led by San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker who is coming off one of the best NBA seasons of his career in which he led the Spurs to the best record in the NBA and a Western Conference Finals appearance.

Parker is joined by a few other NBA products in Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, Kevin Seraphin and Nando De Colo who should make up the starting five for them.

France is ranked 12th in the world and the last time they played the U.S. in the Olympics was back in 2000 in Sydney for the gold medal game which the United States won 85-75.

The blatant weakness for Team USA is their lack of size. They start Tyson Chandler at center and then have only two other legit bigs on their bench in Kevin Love and Anthony Davis, each who didn’t play much at all in their exhibition games.

Instead, head coach Mike Krzyzewski has elected to play smaller lineups consisting of LeBron and Durant at power forward and center a lot of times. This has its advantages on offense but disadvantages on defense. The consensus still is that the United States are talented enough that this size disadvantage shouldn’t stop them from winning gold.

France isn’t a particularly big team either so the United States should really have no trouble handling them. Parker will surely be the main point of emphasis for the U.S. defense which should be more than capable of slowing him down with Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Deron Williams in their backcourt.

In Pool A, France has a good shot at coming out of pool play as the 2-seed. Argentina and Lithuania will be the other two teams competing for that spot. Finishing pool play as the 2-seed would mean avoiding the U.S. in the medal round until a potential gold medal game.

France is often overrated and seems to underachieve in international competition. This will be revealed when they play the U.S. as the game has no business remaining close for too long.

The question only will be which U.S. player steps up and has a big game. We’ve seen Durant and LeBron do it consistently in the exhibition games as well as Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony.

It will also be interesting to see if the U.S. struggles at all if they see any zone from France. That will be the main defensive tactic thrown at the United States by other countries and the U.S. could be contained to some degree playing against a 2-3 zone.

The United States attempted 27.6 threes per game in their five exhibition games so they aren’t shy to toss up treys at will. In the closest of those exhibition games against Brazil, the U.S. went just 6-for-24 on threes and shot just over 40 percent from the field in the game.

A cold shooting night from three is definitely a key ingredient for a potential upset against Team USA. Again though, it really shouldn’t matter against France. The United States are fully prepared to roll to a victory in their first Olympic game of 2012.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

The United States beat Argentina yesterday 86-80 and are now 4-0 in their exhibition games leading up to the 2012 London Olympics.

Kevin Durant had 27 points, six assists and made seven 3-pointers in the game and LeBron James had 15 points, five assists and seven rebounds.

“We started off pretty well, got a couple of shots,” Durant said after the game. “Argentina did a great job of slowing the game down, making the right passes and penetrating and executing. So, it was a good game for us. We learned a lot tonight. We just have to keep getting better for the Olympics and our guys did a good job of playing through everything, playing hard, playing together.”

Durant and LeBron have emerged as the two best players in the NBA and the two best on this team. Believe it or not, Team USA is at its best with them on the floor together.

Team USA has outscored its opponents by 65 points in the 76 minutes Durant and LeBron have played together in the four exhibition games. Team USA won two of the games in blowout fashion but they’re still not dominating in all facets of the game.

The United States are small and they’ve had issues trying to go to smaller lineups. In the 58 minutes of action playing without any true big (Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love or Anthony Davis), the U.S. has been outscored 116-115.

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski has often gone with very small lineups featuring a combination of Durant, LeBron and Carmelo Anthony playing the four and five positions. This looks cool but it really puts the United States at a disadvantage.

This was more common in the first two exhibition games when Krzyzewski brought Durant off the bench. The first sub for Team USA in each game has been taking Chandler out. He was replacing him with Durant at center in the first two games, a move that leaves the United States vulnerable inside.

Krzyzewski will continue to play these small lineups although he should try and limit their time on the floor the most when Team USA plays a team like Spain. One way to make sure Team USA is still in good shape when these lineups occur is to start Durant so he can be out there with LeBron.

Durant is the perfect international player with his ability to easily shoot the shorter three over defenders. He’s a shooter that likes to get shots up early in a game too so coming off the bench doesn’t suit him the best.

LeBron compliments Durant perfectly especially at the start of games where LeBron prefers the distributor role as he feels out the game.

Krzyzewski has started Durant over Anthony in the last two exhibition games but did not in the first two. He has also said that this team essentially has seven starters and it doesn’t matter who he starts.

Durant and LeBron make for the perfect zone buster as well. Durant is the best catch-and-shoot player in the world and LeBron the best skip passer and ball mover in the world. When the United States has LeBron at the free throw line making decisions against the 2-3 zone and Durant is spotting up, good luck world.

It’s not rocket science that Team USA would be better with LeBron and Durant out there together but it’s also not impossible for Krzyzewski to fathom a rotation where the two aren’t necessarily playing together that much.

We’ve just seen exhibition games so far and Krzyzewski is likely to condense the rotation and play Durant and LeBron more minutes when the Olympics start this Friday.

The fact still remains though that Team USA will be at a disadvantage a lot during these Olympic Games. Going small is something we will see a lot of from them and when that happens, they’re not necessarily the best team in the world anymore.

The next test will be their last exhibition vs. Spain Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. EST on ESPN2. No team has better size than Spain and more potential to upset mighty Team USA.

“It’s going to be a tough game,” Durant said. “They’re on their homecourt. Those guys are big but I think we come out and play hard, play together, we’ll be fine. It will be fun playing against my teammate but on Tuesday, he’s not my teammate , he’s not my friend. I’m going to go out there and give it all for my group of guys and it should be fun.”

Kobe Bryant was asked if he thought the 2012 Olympic Team could beat the ’92 Dream Team and said, “I think we’d pull it out.” In describing the potential matchup, Kobe said the ’92 team would have an advantage inside but that their wings were a lot older.

Charles Barkley responded to Kobe’s comments a little more confidently.

“I just started laughing,” Barkley told The Mike Missanelli Show. “How old is Kobe Bryant? He’s 34? And he’s calling us old? At the time, we were only like 28, 29. Michael Jordan and me were the same age. We were both 29. Other than Kobe, LeBron (James) and Kevin Durant, I don’t think anybody else on that team makes our team.”

So what would happen if these two teams did played? How would each player do and which team would win?

The game would obviously be played with FIBA rules. These rules have affected the more recent U.S. Olympic teams and the rules would affect this game somewhat but it wouldn’t be as drastic since both teams are comprised of NBA players.

Both the ’92 team and this year’s team take advantage of their ability to pressure other countries’ guards in the backcourt. That wouldn’t happen in this matchup and the pace would resemble more closely an NBA game.

Let’s go through the matchups.

David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone vs. Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love, Blake Griffin

This is the most obvious advantage for the ’92 team. Their size advantage would be tremendous and it probably would prove impossible for this year’s team to overcome.

Looking at the rosters it feels like Chandler would have to try and play the entire game for the 2012 team. Love and Griffin would have no chance against Robinson-Ewing-Malone.

The ’92 team definitely gets a huge edge here and would get a ton of second-chance looks and be able to run much more of their offense in the post.

Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin vs. Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook

These are the backup wings that would get the most run. Let’s assume that Bird, Laettner, Iguodala and Harden don’t play much in this matchup.

This one is a little closer and maybe a tossup between the two teams. All four of these players should be effective in this game but not enough to swing the game either way.

Westbrook may have the most trouble because he will be playing the two-guard for the 2012 team and matching up with Drexler or Jordan will be very tough for him.

Carmelo could be effective on offense playing the four but would have trouble on defense and rebounding.

Mullin went 14-for-26 on threes in the ’92 Olympics so would be pretty automatic if left open. Drexler’s specialty would be an automatic two points on the fast break.

Magic Johnson, John Stockton vs. Chris Paul, Deron Williams

Magic was past his prime in ’92 but not by that much. Stockton was realizing his though so the ’92 team would have another advantage here.

Magic would be a huge mismatch problem of course and whenever Paul was on him he would probably take him into the post. This would be near impossible for the 2012 team to contend with.

If Magic has to try and guard Paul then that’s not a great thing for the ’92 team though.

Magic’s personality would win out though. When you envision this matchup you envision him dominating, talking trash throughout the game and picking up a ton of assists.

This one is close but an advantage again for the ’92 team.

Charles Barkley vs. Kevin Durant

Barkley and Durant won’t necessarily be guarding each other in this matchup but their effect in the game would be similar. Both would score a lot of points, possibly leading their team in that department.

Durant might be the best international style player ever and would be a really tough matchup for the ’92 team especially with the shortened 3-point line.

With the 2012 team’s lack of size, Barkley would feast on them down low. Barkley will struggle with whoever he has to guard though on the 2012 team.

This one is a tossup too. The point being that these two would both underrated-ly dominate in this game and score a ton.

Scottie Pippen vs. LeBron James

LeBron is obviously the better player but Pippen is probably the best shot at guarding him. In this setting, LeBron is not his usual dominant self and defers more than ever to teammates so Pippen should be able to do a decent job on him.

LeBron might be asked to do other things like guard Barkley or Malone or even Magic at times.

This one is closer than you think but the edge has to go to the 2012 team.

Michael Jordan vs. Kobe Bryant

This is really what this matchup would come down to. Not because they are the two best players but because you know if somehow these two were able to go at it like this, they wouldn’t hold anything back.

The matchup is really not close at all. Kobe is a shell of himself while MJ was at the peak of his powers in ’92. Even Kobe in his prime vs. this MJ would have no chance.

It would be the coolest part about this matchup though watching MJ and Kobe isolate on each other. Jordan would torch Kobe though and shut him down on the other end.

The 2012 team should probably put LeBron on Jordan but there’s no way Kobe would allow that by backing down from the challenge so get ready for Jordan doing pretty much whatever he wants while Kobe has a nice 6-for-19 shooting night or something.

This is where we stand. At the end of the day no one is beating the Dream Team. They are the best basketball team ever assembled and having the best player ever playing in his absolute prime is a big reason why.

We’ll never truly know what would happen though but it’s always fun to think about.

The 2012 team will kick off their exhibition games tonight at 9 p.m. EST on ESPN vs. the Dominican Republic. The London Olympics begin July 27.

James Harden, Blake Griffin and Andre Iguodala were the last three players to make the final cut for Team USA. Rudy Gay, Eric Gordon and Anthony Davis were the final three cut and will serve as alternates for the team.

Jerry Colangelo revealed that there were nine players who were locks to make the team a week ago: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler.

The Oklahoma City Thunder become the first NBA team ever to send three players from their roster to play for Team USA in the Olympics.

Harden made the final cut, beating out Gordon in what was a close decision.

“I think he surprised people,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said. “Two months ago he was on the radar screen, but not shining brightly necessarily. Given the opportunity, he finished so strongly this season, he gave us something to really sit back and think about. He has size, he has length at his position.

“Defensively, he’s more than adequate,” he continued. “He comes up with a lot of loose balls, a lot of steals and he is a scorer. And by the way, he can also shoot it. I think there’s a little bit of a difference between the two. Tough choice we had to make, Eric Gordon, James Harden. Harden deserved it for the reasons I mentioned and we expect him coming off the bench as he did and he’s accustomed to and to play whenever he’s called upon.”

Durant was an obvious choice for Team USA. Durant did not make the team four years ago and was one of the last cuts back then when he was only 19 years old.

“Well first of all, this young man was born to play the game. He’s a coach’s dream,” Colangelo of Durant. “He has great character, he has great passion for the game. And then his skills are off the charts. He plays with such enthusiasm that it’s difficult to keep him off the floor and in the World Championships he just rose to another level.”

Westbrook became a no-brainer when players like Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade pulled out of the Olympics because of injury. Westbrook was a part of the 2010 World Championships team with Durant.

“No, there isn’t [a more explosive player],” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I love Russell. It’s an honor to coach him. He is such a versatile player and as good an athlete as there is on this planet playing basketball. He plays with an abundance of energy and courage. I’m a big Russell Westbrook fan.”

The Miami Heat were the only other team that could have also had three players make the roster. Four years ago, LeBron, Wade and Chris Bosh were all on the team and that was when it was rumored they decided to all try and play together when the time came.

The Olympic Games begin July 27. The first game for Team USA will be July 29 against France. Team USA will play five exhibition games before the Olympics start with the first one being July 12 vs. the Dominican Republic.

Here is the final roster:

Over the past few months, potential hopefuls for the final roster have been dropping like flies. Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will all not be playing this year.

Team USA will still have a pretty good roster and will be the favorites to win the Gold Medal. Jerry Colangelo announced last week that nine of the 12 roster spots were already secured.

Those nine players are: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler.

According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, Blake Griffin is also a lock now to make the final roster leaving two spots to be fought over between four players: Rudy Gay, Andre Iguodala, Eric Gordon and James Harden.

It is likely that the final two spots will be determined by two position battles: Gay vs. Iguodala and Gordon vs. Harden.

Gay vs. Iguodala

Both played on the 2010 World Championships team. Gay played some center for that team while Iguodala was the perimeter defensive specialist.

Looking at the 10 locks for the roster now, 3-point shooting seems like something the team would want to add. Gay is a better 3-point shooter than Iguodala by far but the versatility that Iguodala brings might give him an edge too.

Gay has more size but it is not significant enough. I believe Iguodala will make the team instead of Gay because Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski will want more versatility.

Gordon vs. Harden

This is a great battle between two of the best young shooting guards in the NBA. Gordon has had slightly better numbers throughout his career so far but Harden really came on last season.

Gordon didn’t play much last season and is dealing with some issues this offseason about wanting to leave New Orleans. Harden is working on an extension with the Thunder and would join Durant and Westbrook as the third representative from the Thunder, which could work against him since they like to spread out these kinds of honors.

I think Harden gets the nod at the end of the day. His game is really tailored to the international style and I think Colangelo is really partial to him.

If Harden makes it then the Thunder would be the only team in the NBA sending three players to represent Team USA. Serge Ibaka will also be representing Spain.

Here is my final prediction of the roster:

Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook will be representing their country in the 2012 Olympics this summer for Team USA Basketball. USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo announced that nine of the 12 roster spots are secured.

Durant and Westbrook are among the nine along with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler.

That will leave three spots left for five players to compete for. The five players left are Blake Griffin, Andre Iguodala, Rudy Gay, Eric Gordon and James Harden.

Many potentials have dropped out from the team, most recently No. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis and Lamar Odom.

“We will not be adding anybody,” Colangelo told Fox Sports. “We feel good with what we have.”

When you look at the nine secured spots, only two of those players play the four or five in the NBA in Love and Chandler. LeBron, Durant and Anthony could each play the four in international play but one would still believe Team USA needs some more size.

Griffin should make the team because of this and possibly Gay as well, who has more size than Iguodala and is also a better perimeter shooter.

That will leave one last spot for Gordon, Iguodala and Harden to battle for. The roster needs a shooter which would make Gordon or Harden most appealing but since they will be so small, a player like Iguodala could also be a good choice.

Right now, Gordon is probably the better spot-up shooter than Harden and would most likely get the nod but people shouldn’t underestimate Harden. It’s easy to remember his play in the NBA Finals and forget what he did this season before that.

Harden really made a leap this year inserting himself into “Top 5 SG’s in the NBA” conversations. The fact that Durant and Westbrook are going too could make the choice of Harden more likely as well.

“I’m very confident with the roster we will have,” Colangelo said. “We have a few days now to decide if we want a shooter, you’ve got Harden. Do we want a defensive specialist? There’s Iguodala. And Rudy Gay is versatile. He played (center at times) for us in the World Championships. We have people who are versatile.”

The final roster will be revealed Saturday night at 7 p.m. EST on NBA TV.

LeBron James led all players in votes as the NBA announced the 2011-12 All-Defensive Teams today.

LeBron made the First Team with 53 vote points. Serge Ibaka, Dwight Howard, Tony Allen and Chris Paul joined LeBron on the First Team.

LeBron led the Heat in steals (1.9) and defensive rebounds (6.4) this season.

The Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler was not named to the First Team. He instead made the Second Team along with Kevin Garnett, Luol Deng, Rajon Rondo and Kobe Bryant.

Howard finished with 41 voting points and received three more First Team votes than Chandler.

You can also download the podcast here.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Tyson Chandler was named Defensive Player of the Year today and that means that the player who blocked 106 more shots than any other player did not win it.

Serge Ibaka blocked 3.65 shots per game this season, the most by a player since the 2000-01 season.

But Ibaka didn’t get much respect this year for his defense. The new favorite thing for bloggers and sportswriters is looking at statistics like blocks that are now not seen as important as some of today’s new stats and acting like they mean nothing.

The consensus surrounding Ibaka this season is that he is an electrifying defender but not that good of a defender overall. That his readiness to go after every shot is a bad thing at the end of the day and hurts the Thunder defense as a whole.

There is logic that backs this up and maybe some numbers too. Basketball fundamentalists will tell you not to leave your feet too much on defense because you become out of position and leave the rest of your defense vulnerable.

There have been times this season when Ibaka went up to block a shot, missed, and the other team got the offensive rebound and scored. And Ibaka has had moments covering players like Dirk Nowitzki and not looking to good in trying to do so because those players get him to go for shot fakes very easily.

I will agree with these people that Ibaka has some of these problems and he is not the perfect defender or one of the greatest rim protectors (yet). I also agree that Tyson Chandler had one of the greatest effects on the defensive side of the ball in the NBA this season and is deserving of the award.

I just feel that Ibaka isn’t getting enough credit for his season and the defensive impact he had on the floor.

There’s something about blocking shots that doesn’t come up on the stat sheets. It’s an intimidation thing. When a player gets their shot blocked, they will change the way they play the rest of the game. They’re always thinking about if they’re going to get blocked again.

A missed shot is a missed shot but there isn’t one NBA player that doesn’t hate getting his shot blocked more than anything (except maybe Glen Davis).

Ibaka had this impact in almost every Thunder game this season. I can remember in mid-January when Boston played Oklahoma City. The Celtics tried to get Kevin Garnett established in the post early in the first quarter. Ibaka blocked one of his turnaround shots one time and the Celtics didn’t go back to that look for the rest of the game.

Now I’m sure everyone is nodding their heads at this. You’ve all noticed this before too and still feel that moments like that aren’t great enough to make Ibaka into a better defender. These are NBA players, they can probably get over getting their shot blocked so the intimidation factor isn’t a big deal.

I would argue that the effect of demoralizing plays in the NBA is a huge deal. There’s a reason players dunk in traffic and on fast breaks. There’s even a reason why players block shots out of bounds instead of trying to keep them in play (I’m not necessarily a fan of this but I don’t kill it as much as others).

We can act like good defensive fundamentals are so awesome but in the NBA there are so many skilled offensive players that good defense doesn’t always matter. Nick Collison can play Andrew Bynum perfectly in the post and go straight up when he shoots and it’s not going to matter. Ibaka can block one of Bynum’s shots one time and Kobe isn’t passing Bynum the ball anymore now.

I think that a few blocks in a game is more valuable in the long run than a guy who hedges real hard on pick-and-rolls and does a slightly better job rotating back on defense.

I know this doesn’t entirely make sense and stats don’t really back it up but you have to think about what really impacts a game.

Rotating over strong on defense and forcing a team to go to their second option with less time on the shot clock is great. But isn’t it more valuable to set the tone for an entire game with one play? When you can make one or two plays that change the way a player thinks (or simply start making them think) about simple plays like how high to shoot a layup off the glass.

I’m an Oklahoma City fan. I like almost every player on this team. But watching this team play every game this season I rarely find myself mad at Ibaka. When he makes mistakes that’s just kind of who he is and the player that Oklahoma City asks him to be. He made the biggest defensive impact on their team by far this season.

He’s 22 years old. He’s going to get better and he’s probably going to win a few Defensive Player of the Year awards before his career is done.

He had a great season this year though and he’s not getting enough credit for it.

Chandler led a change of culture on the Knicks team this year. Last season they were 22nd in defensive efficiency and this year they improved all the way up to fifth with Chandler being the large reason for that.

Chandler averaged 11.3 points, 9.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game this season and led the league shooting .679 percent from the field.

Chandler’s affect on the defensive end of the court was most evident last year in Dallas especially in the NBA Finals.

Chandler received 45 first-place votes.

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Serge Ibaka finished second and received 41 first-place votes. Dwight Howard finished third with 18 first-place votes and LeBron James fourth with seven first-place votes.

Dennis Wierzbicki-US PRESSWIRE

Derrick Rose injured his knee late in the fourth quarter of the Chicago Bulls’ 103-91 Game 1 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers Saturday.

Rose scored 23 points on 23 shots in 37 minutes before the injury and this is now the sixth injury Rose has suffered this season. Rose will have an MRI on the knee today.

It is amazing how good the Bulls have been despite Rose’s injuries this season but if they are to lose him in the playoffs, they would surely fall short of their expectations which are to win an NBA championship.

When you look at the injury it does look similar to those that result in ACL and MCL tears. An injury that sever would leave Rose sidelined for the rest of the year.

Considering the force and torque that Rose plays with, I have a feeling the injury will be a bad one. I lump Rose into the same class as Blake Griffin and Tiger Woods: they can do incredible things athletically but the wear and tear from playing the way they do makes it seem like injuries are inevitable.

The Bulls win Game 1 nonetheless and with or without Rose should have enough to get by the 76ers in this series.

Update: Rose now done for the season with torn ACL

It has been confirmed now that Rose is done for the year. The Bulls still played great this season without him and finished with one of the best records in the league but they definitely will need him to get past Miami in the playoffs and Boston.

It is very unfortunate that a great season by the Bulls and a team that had the potential to win an NBA title with their star healthy may now be wasted.

The road for Miami just got a lot easier.

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

The Miami Heat led by LeBron James destroyed the New York Knicks 100-67 in Game 1 of that series.

LeBron played some of the best basketball he has in awhile scoring 32 points in 32 minutes, going 10-of-14 from the field and 11-of-14 at the line and the Heat were plus-35 when he was in the game.

Carmelo Anthony was the complete opposite of LeBron shooting 3-for-15 in the game and scoring only 11 points.

Shane Battier did the most impressive job in the first half denying Anthony the ball when the Knicks tried repeatedly to get it into him in the post.

The defense overall was very impressive by Miami and the Knicks simply were not ready to match the intensity combined with execution.

I do feel that the blowout loss isn’t as bad as it looks for the Knicks in this series. Sometimes I feel that it can be more demoralizing to lose a close game than a blowout. Now, this was a huge blowout and I don’t feel the Knicks have a good chance of coming back in this series but I do think it can still go six games.

Tyson Chandler was noticeably not himself and had flu-like symptoms before the game. He is as crucial as any Knicks player to beating this Heat team.

With the Rose injury and Knicks no-show, the road to the Finals looks as bright as ever today after the first two NBA Playoff games of 2012.

If I had to rank the best chances that the Heat do not make it to the Finals this year it’d go something like this:

1. They meet Boston in the ECF and Rajon Rondo goes to another level and completely dominates four games of the series.

2. LeBron or Wade gets seriously hurt.

I think that’s it…

I was always afraid that by joining forces in Miami, LeBron and Wade would have too easy a time of making it to the Finals and winning championships. They had to go through a lot last year beating Boston and then Chicago but this year it may become a much easier path.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Thunder will cap off the first day of playoff games tonight when they host Dallas for their Game 1.

We’ve seen some potentially severe injuries so far today so hopefully that can be fully avoided tonight.

We’ve also seen the style of play picked up a notch by the top teams, Miami and Chicago. Oklahoma City needs to replicate this and send a statement to Dallas tonight. That is their next step to becoming a great team.

James Harden and his health will also be very interesting to see when he checks in roughly six minutes into the game.

You can read my preview of the Dallas series here. Also check out Pippen Ain’t Easy for the latest on the Rose injury and All U Can Heat and Buckets Over Broadway for more analysis on the Heat-Knicks series.

The best players weren’t excited to represent their countries back then and it resulted in a third-place finish in 2004. The culture has since changed and getting the best NBA players to play has been as important as anything.

The 2012 team is expected to be maybe the best basketball team ever assembled – even rivaling the 1992 Dream Team. On June 1, Colangelo will finalize the roster and while there are some obvious selections, there will also be some tough omissions.

Colangelo says that the team will be a blend of the 2008 Gold Medal team and 2010 World Championship squad. In 2008, we saw a team of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade. Those players did not play in 2010 on the squad led by Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook.

“Most people would say you need shooters because of the zone defenses,” Colangelo said to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. “And to some degree that is true. But we’re not varying from our concept. Basketball is the ultimate team game. We need players willing to sacrifice their own games. [In 2010] Coach K went with a seven or eight-man rotation. With this roster, in my opinion, he can go with all 12 if he chooses. He and I have had this conversation over and over: Players may be used different this time around.

“Size is still an issue. Without being specific, we have to figure out if we carry three centers or two. With the type of wing players out there, defenders are really important, too. But there is so much talent. Guys have worked really hard to improve. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose, Kevin Love — they have moved to a whole other level.”

These are all problems that any country would love to have. Do I start Chris Paul or Derrick Rose?

Colangelo does bring up a good point of bringing on players who are willing to play less minutes and be productive while on the court for shorter periods of time.

Here is the starting lineup we could be looking at: Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Dwight Howard. With Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Kevin Love, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Andre Iguodala and Tyson Chandler off the bench.

That snubs Deron Williams, Eric Gordon, Chauncey Billups, Blake Griffin, Rudy Gay, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Bosh and Lamar Odom.

While Durant is a lock, Westbrook may not even make the team despite a possible First Team All-NBA selection this season. Rose and Paul are likely going to be the first two point guards selected. That leaves Colangelo to choose between Westbrook, Williams, Gordon and Billups. He will likely only take one of those four.

The selection will be made on June 1 and Team USA will hold training camps starting July 6.