USA Women hoopsters take their turn drubbing their Chinese hosts

No matter how many “wishful thinking” type commentaries the sports media writes about how the rest of the world has “caught up” to the United States in basketball; no matter how fervently they repeat the mantra that American basketball players don’t get the FIBA rules, don’t play as a team, can’t shoot from outside, or whatever the “rationalization d’jour” might be, the US hoop teams have a trump card. Their refutation for how they matchup in these Olympics, at least against the host team from China?

Scoreboard.

One day after the US Men’s team walloped China by 31 points in what might be the most watched basketball game in history, the American distaff hoopsters did their male counterparts one better by trouncing the host team by 45 points. And the Chinese success at “closing the hoop talent gap”? That’s a 76 point combined margin of victory. The fact that the China men’s team had some serious height and a legit NBA superstar in Yao Ming doesn’t bode well for the rest of the world. In women’s hoop, the “talent gap” is more of a chasm—the blowout win for the American women represented the worst loss for China in Olympic basketball history.

Perhaps motivated by fawning anti-American journalists who tried to spin the fact that China’s men scored the first basket and held a 3-0 lead as a sign of “weakness”, the US women raged hard from the opening whistle. China tried to slow the tempo early and actually held a 1 point lead midway through the first quarter. That, however, was as close as they got to an “upset” as the American women went on a 23-0 run to put the game away before halftime. They led 33-11 at the end of one, and 61-27 at halftime. They then’ took their foot off the gas’, outscoring the Chinese by “only” 11 points in the 2nd half en route to a 108-63 victory.

Here’s the bad news for the rest of the world—China was supposed to have been the US women’s toughest test prior to the medal rounds. Next up is a horribly overmatched squad from Mali, who’ve lost their only WNBA representative (Hamchetou Maiga) to injury. Mali lost yesterday to the Czech Republic by 34 to drop to 0-2 after losing a close decision to New Zealand in their opening game. The reality for Mali is that no matter how sparingly the US plays their starters, a blowout loss is almost a foregone conclusion against the presumptive gold medal favorites.