What if: The USSR played at the Olympics?

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a beast -- they launched the first man into space; were a huge World Power; and dominated half the globe up until the fall of communism. Along the way the 'Reds' gave us something to laugh about and made Doug Collins a bitter, bitter man.

After 1991 it all went down hill for the Commies and the once proud, mighty USSR became the states of: Russia (FIBA rank #15), Belarus, Ukraine (FIBA rank #39), Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan (FIBA rank #41), Uzbekistan (FIBA rank #54), Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Estonia (FIBA rank #62), Lithuania (FIBA rank #6) and Latvia (FIBA rank #34). [FIBA rankings are the most recent official ones from after the 2008 Summer Games.] Sure, there is only one nation in the Top 10 . . . but 5 in the Top 50. None of these nations earned a medal at the 2008 Olympics, but these guys can play basketball, let's hypothesize a 12 man rotation for a hypothetical USSR team.

	Name	Country	Team	Ht	Positions	Notes:
1	Sarunas Jasikevicius		Panathinaikos BC	6'4	PG/SG	Former NBA player and current European Point God. 13 ppg, 5.3 apg, 2.5 rpg, 1.3 spg, 1.5 3PTM/game (@ 39%) in the Olympics. Part of the team that beat the USA back in 2004.
2	JR Holden		CSKA Moscow	6'1	PG/SG	American born player and only black guy on this team. Averaged 17.6 ppg, 4.8 apg, 2.6 rpg, 1.4 spg and 1.8 threes a game in Beijing. He gets to the foul line and plays 38.6 mpg in a 40 mpg tournament. Of course, if the Cold War was still on, would this guy even be playing for Russia?
3	Ramunas Siskauskas		CSKA Moscow	6'6	SG/SF	Euroleague MVP 2008 who scored 11 ppg (50% shooting, 45% from three), and added 4 rpg, 1.9 apg, 1.3 spg while doing a lot of the heavy lifting on offense for his club.
4	Andrei Kirilenko		Utah Jazz	6'9	PG/SF/PF	European Player of the Year 2007, former NBA All-Star who can pretty much do it all: 15.8 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 3.4 apg, 2.6 spg, 2.2 bpg in the Olympics.
5	Zydrunas Illgauskas		Cleveland Cavaliers	7'3	C	Did not get permission to play in the Olympics, but that would not be an issue if he was a member of the USSR National Team. He would probably be coerced to play . . . forever!
6	Andris Biedrins		Golden State Warriors	6'11	PF/C	Young guy with good instincts for blocking shots and rebounding.
7	Linas Kleiza		Denver Nuggets	6'8	SG/SF/PF	The fiery heart of this team shot 40.7 3pt% during the Olympics and netted 11 ppg, 4.6 rpg and got to the line 26 times (making 24).
8	Zaza Pachulia		Atlanta Hawks	6'11	PF/C	Stood up to KG in the NBA playoffs, is not intimidated by anyone.
9	Viktor Khryapa		CSKA Moscow	6'9	SF/PF	Former NBA player (Portland & Chicago) who shot 54.3 fg% and 52.4 3pt% on his way to 13.5 ppg. Also had 6.5 rpg, 1.5 spg, 1.0 apg, 0.8 bpg. Made 11 threes in the 4 games he played in China.
10	Simas Jasaitis		TAU Ceramica	6'8	SG/SF	Only got 8.8 ppg, but brought it with 55.3 fg% and 43.3 3pt% (made 13 threes). Contributes in other ways as well, making all of his FTs and getting 3.8 rpg and a few steals.
11	Oleksiy Pecherov		Washington Wizards	6'11	PF	He adds more depth up front for USSR, and can hit the three.
12	Sergei Monya		Dynamo Moscow	6'8	SG/SF	He had a crappy Olympics, but is a former NBA player (Portland & Sactown) who when teamed up with Andrei and Viktor can become a great defensive force.

Alternates: Kyrylo Fesenko (C), Ukraine; Darius Songaila (SF/PF), Lithuania; other guys on the National Teams that I don't know much about; other ex-NBA players from the former USSR who play in other leagues.

Well, the next logical question would be if this neo-USSR team could be a force in international basketball? I think that they could, and they could have surely won a medal at this past Olympics. (Maybe even to the Gold Medal game) The future of this team looks bright even though Zydrunas is getting up there in years, as there are plenty of bigs to fill in the void -- Kyrylo Fesenko (of the Ukraine) looks to develop into one of the better NBA playing Europeans who are above 7 feet tall.

Would this team have a shot against the Redeem Team? They have an obvious advantage inside, but the guards are not very deep . . . this team *could* have an outside shot at beating the USA in any single game, but I wouldn't bet against our boys in a best of 7 match.

Gold Medal Game: Spain vs. USA

	USA beats  Argentina 101 - 81
	Wow! The United States had a tougher than expect fight against an Argentinean team that only had Manu for 6 minutes of action, eventually winning 101 - 81. Luis Scola had a great game for his nation, with 28 points, 11 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Carlos Delfino added 17 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals to the cause -- though his shooting percentages were inefficient (33.3 fg%, 30.0 3pt%) to say the least. The American side was, once again, a balanced attack that features 7 players in double figure scoring (Anthony 21, James 15, Wade 12, Bryant 12, Paul 12, Bosh 11, Howard 10). The USA team won the battle of the glass 43 to 32, but that was really it. Both teams shot in the mid 40s (Argentina 44.1%, USA 47.1%); and both teams had the same number of turn overs (Argentina 16, USA 15) -- the difference, though, was the surprising proficiency the Americans had at the three point line (they made 10 threes this game, while Argentina only made 6), and the fact that the free throw disparity was ridiculous. Argentina went to the FT line 16 times and made 15 of them. The United States went to the free throw line 36 times (and made 27 of them). I didn't watch the game, so I don't know how it went -- but the more aggressive team usually gets to the line more. The boxscore suggests that this team was the USA.
	Spain beats Lithuania 91 - 86
	The other game ended up being (to me at the very least) an upset victory by Spain over Lithuania. Sure, Spain has all of those high profile players, but Lithuania is (usually) a better team. (Lithuania is like the Detroit Pistons -- they are always at the final four stage, but hardly ever break through) Spain was up by 2 at the end of the 1st quarter. Then Lithuania was up by 2 at the half. Then Lithuania goes up by 4 at the end of three. Spain had a 4th quarter come back and ended up outscoring the Lithuanians by 9 to finish the game with the 91 - 86 win. The first thing that is interesting is that Spain wins by 5 points in a game where Lithuanian workhorse Linas Kleiza plays only 11 minutes and doesn't score at all. Why is this important? It is because in previous games this Olympics he had scored 13 (+ game winner), 22, 18, 12 and 15 points. He was a major cog for this team -- and despite his absence (due to an ejection early in the game), the Lithuanians were able to go into the 4th quarter with the lead.
	Spain was, of course, playing without Jose Calderon, so it should cancel out, right? (Except Spain is deeper at PG than Lithuania is behind Kleiza) Raul Lopez had 7 points, 3 assists and 2 steals for Spain, and Ricky Rubio had 4 points and 4 assists in Calderon's absence. Together they also totaled 8 rebounds -- not too shabby from your 2nd and 3rd string point guards. Aside from that, the usual suspects did their things (Pau Gasol had 19, Rudy Fernandez with 18, Sarunas Jasikevicius had 19 and 6 assists, and Simas Jasaitis had 19 points and 8 rebounds)

I fully expect Lithuania to win the Bronze now, especially how close they got to the Gold Medal game, this is a certainty if Manu can't play in that game. As for the big show, well, you have to think that the USA team will try to embarrass Spain a 2nd time on their way towards achieving International redemption.

Team Russia дерьмо кровать !!!

Game 1: 102 - 61

Greece (2-2) put an Olympic sized beat down on Angola (0-4) and really, Angola is not doing well in this tournament at all. The Greeks shot 58.7 % for the game, while Angola shot 39.1 %. Greece was only up by 1 after the first quarter, but scored 69 points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters -- which would have still beaten Angola by 8. Looking at the box score it was a very dominant showing by Greece -- made even more so by the fact that Angola elected to only play their bench guys significant minutes in this game. For example, Carlos Morais, one of the top scorers in the entire tournament, did not even play a single minute in this game.

Game 2: 95 - 80

According to Google.com, that means sh!t the bed in Russian. And that's exactly what Team Russia (1-3)did getting beat down by Australia (2-2) by 15. Things aren't looking good for Andrei and crew, as they have only 5 points to their names. If they advance they are going to have to face either the mighty United States team or Team Spain -- who may have some unfinished business to help motivate them.

Australia D upped Russia pretty bad, forcing them into shooting 44.4% from the field and causing 16 turn overs. Andrew Bogut and C. J. Bruton both scored 22 for Australia, and won the game in the 1st quarter (27-16), Russia didn't get it going and faced an uphill climb from there. Holden had 20 points and 6 assists for Russia, and Viktor Khryapa finally showed up making all 6 of this three point attempts, while pulling down 9 boards and swatting 2 shots -- he led team Russia with 21. Andrei shot horribly, 1-10 in the game, he made all of his FTs this time around, and still managed 6 boards, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block. If Russia can get their good players to play well in the same game, they can beat any team. So far it has not happened in this tournament. After this type of upset loss, I don't know if Russia can still get back on track.

Game 3: 86 - 73

Lithuania restored order to the universe by knocking Croatia down a bit, the Lithuanians are 4-0 in this tournament and are looking at the podium. Croatia is down to 2-2 and depending on how things turn out in the last of the round-robin stage, may not advance. Croatia was actually up by 4 going into the final quarter, but Lithuania won that handedly (28-11), and did so in a convincing fashion. Ukic, owned by the Toronto Raptors, led his team with 13 points but shot abysmally -- 38.5% (which was still better than what Andrei brought to the table the last two games). Zoran had 11 but only played 16 minutes for some reason. Croatia's torrid shooting from deep finally cooled down, as they went 5/17.

Lithuania's balanced attack continues to roll on, Mindaugas Lukauskis had 20, Kleiza had 18 and Simas Jasaitis had 12. Sarunas Jasikevicius has 6 assists. Lukauskis and Kleiza gave Croatia a taste of their own medicine, going a combined 7/10 from three.

Game 4: 97 - 82

Argentina (2-2) took care of business against Team Iran (0-4) by 15. "Who's your" Ehadadi continues to play well, having a 21 and 16 game. Team Captain MSNB shot poorly, as he was the focus of the Argentinean defense. Hamed Afagh nailed four threes on his way to 19 points. But really, it was the Manu show -- 32 points (71.4 % shooting), 4 threes, 4 assists, 3 boards and a steal and a block. Luis Scola added 20 points and 7 rebounds and 2 steals. Guys like Oberto, Delfino and Nocioni didn't even have to shoot more than 13 entire times because Manu took care of business early.

Game 5: 59 - 55

China (2-2) holds on to win against the German (1-3) team -- proving to the world that Germany is a paper tiger after all. This was a Yao Ming vs. Dirk Nowitzki battle. Dirk had 24 points and 17 rebounds. Yao had 25 and 11 -- but more importantly, the win. China was up by 10 after the end of one. Germany stormed back to hold a 4 point lead at half. China erased that lead with a 20-8 3rd quarter. In the end, Germany did not have enough to pull out the come from behind win, eventually losing by 5. Germany made all 13 of their free throws, and China went to the line 21 times. Hmmmmm. Chris Kaman had 10 and 12, but no one else really showed up for Germany. Yi Jianlian had 9 and 11 for China.

Game 6: 119 - 82

There really isn't much to say about this game . . . LeBron James had 18 / 5 / 8 / 4, and eight guys scored at least 10 points for the good guys. The United States won each quarter 31-22, 30-23, 25-18 and 33-19 and Spain managed to shoot 39.4% for the game. They also were hounded into 28 turn overs. I have a very hard time conceptualizing a way that this, so called, 'Redeem Team' loses this tournament.

Olympic Men's Basketball Stats Leaders

After three games have gone down this is who's doing what for each team:

	Points per Game				Rebounds per Game
1	Dwyane Wade		18.3	1	Yao Ming		8.7
2	Yao Ming		18.0	2	Hamed Ehadadi		8.3
3	Emanuel Ginobili		18.0	3	Andres Nocioni		8.3
4	Pau Gasol		17.7	4	Yi Jianlian		7.7
5	Vasileios Spanoulis		17.3	5	Robertas Javtokas		7.0
6	Carlos Morais		17.0	6	Pau Gasol		6.7
7	Andrei Kirilenko		16.7	7	Linas Kleiza		6.7
8	JR Holden		16.3	8	Antonios Fotsis		6.3
9	Mohammad Samad Nikkhah Bahrami		16.0	9	Joaquim Gomes		6.0
10	Dirk Nowitzki		15.7		Fabricio Oberto		6.0
					Oshin Sahakian		6.0
	Assists per Game				Steals per Game
1	Emanuel Ginobili		5.7	1	Jonas Maciulis		3.5
2	Sarunas Jasikevicius		5.3	2	Dwyane Wade		3.0
3	LeBron James		4.7	3	Andrei Kirilenko		2.7
4	JR Holden		4.3	4	Pablo Prigioni		2.3
5	Chris Paul		4.0		Ricky Rubio		2.3
6	C.J. Bruton		3.0		Ramunas Siskauskas		2.3
7	Rudy Fernandez		3.0	7	C.J. Bruton		2.0
8	Andrei Kirilenko		3.0		Sergei Bykov		2.0
9	Dimitrious Diamantidis		2.7		JR Holden		2.0
	Steffen Hamann		2.7		LeBron James		2.0
	Rimantas Kaukenas		2.7
	Marko Popovic		2.7
	Pablo Prigioni		2.7
	Ricky Rubio		2.7
	Vasileios Spanoulis		2.7
	Roko-Leni Ukic		2.7
	Deron Williams		2.7
	Blocks per Game				Minutes per Game
1	Andrei Kirilenko		3.0	1	JR Holden		38.0
	Hamed Ehadadi		3.0	2	Andrei Kirilenko		36.0
3	Yao Ming		2.7	3	Hamed Ehadadi		35.7
4	LeBron James		2.3	4	Hamed Afagh		34.3
5	Ksystof Lavrinovic		2.0	5	Mohammad Samad Nikkhah Bahrami		34.0
6	Robertas Javtokas		1.7	6	Yi Jianlian		32.7
7	Pau Gasol		1.3	7	Andres Nocioni		31.7
8	Andrew Bogut		1.0	8	Eduardo Mingas		31.0
	Patrick Femerling		1.0	9	Pablo Prigioni		30.7
	Dwight Howard		1.0		Yao Ming		30.7
	Carlos Jimenez		1.0
	Darius Lavrinovic		1.0

Bolded = NBA player