LAS VEGAS – The court is a stride shorter. The three-point shot is a yard closer. The ball is slightly smaller in circumference. The paint requires a little more paint.
Geometrically speaking, Olympic basketball involves different dimensions than the game first standardized on these shores, plus the quadrennial rush of being able to invoke the word “trapezoidal” to describe the shape of the lane.
Yet in a more general sense, everyone is working the same angle: to put the ball through the hoop.
“It isn't the red clay or the hard surface, like tennis,” Mike Krzyzewski said yesterday. “These are good players whatever the rules are.”
The head coach of America's Olympic basketball team is willing to acknowledge adjustments, and to admit that foreigners tend to play the international game more “instinctively,” but he is scrupulously avoiding alibis.
If Team USA fails to recapture the gold medal four years after its fiasco in Athens, it will not be for a lack of familiarity with the international game or with each other.
A more structured and sensible program has been put in place. A better class of player has made a multiyear commitment to the competition that culminates next month in Beijing. Though the international game allows players to loiter in the lane indefinitely on defense, and to touch the ball above the cylinder of the basket, neither the rules nor the nuances are likely to beat Coach K's Redeem Team.
That leaves three plausible threats to domestic hoops tranquility: the hot hand, the cold night and the referees.
“The biggest difference is going to be adjusting to the way the game's officiated,” Kobe Bryant said following yesterday's workout at Vegas' Valley High School. “These are officials that we're not accustomed to playing in front of, whereas the teams that we'll be playing against, these are their guys. These are their referees . . .
“It will be on us to adjust and adjust pretty quickly.”
International basketball is based around many of the same principles that decide most NBA games: ball movement, ball security, penetration, shot selection, rebounding, etc. Yet the exercise of those core principles often entails a greater physical pounding in the global game.
Generally speaking, international referees are less vigilant about finding fouls, particularly when the contact occurs away from the ball. Accordingly, Krzyzewski's analysis of the 2004 team told him to assign a premium to “physicality,” particularly at point guard.
This helps explain the past-prime presence of 35-year-old Jason Kidd, the muscular point guard of America's 2000 gold medalists. It helps explain, too, the seeming emphasis on versatility and elbows in roster selection
“It's a more physical game, which I love,” said Carlos Boozer, the Utah forward who previously served Krzyzewski at Duke. “In the NBA, when a cutter goes through, they used to let you check them through the lane. You can't do that anymore. In international play, you can be as physical as you want off the ball.”
Maybe the most telling thing about Krzyzewski's tactics is that he plans to deploy the NBA's Most Valuable Player as the point of attack for his defense. Bryant has embraced this role and, given his length and athleticism, ought to excel at it.
Bryant's concern about how tightly the games get called appears to be motivated as much by his desire to create havoc as it is to shoot free throws. He knows that no one remembers the leading scorer on an Olympic team; only its ultimate place on the medals stand.
To that end, Americans should be encouraged. With a projected lineup of Bryant, Kidd, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, Team USA could have its strongest starting five since Dream Team II swept through Atlanta in 1996.
“We have all the guys on the team that you dream of,” said Miami guard Dwyane Wade. “It's great to have that. You don't have to go out and do everything. You've got a lot of do-everything players and that makes it a lot easier . . .
“Kobe is the one guy who kind of fits (the international game). He plays the aggressive defenses that they play. He can shoot the (20-foot, 6.1-inch) three that they've got really well. That's his game in the NBA. He does it all.”
Tonight's exhibition game against Canada is more interesting as a chemistry experiment than a competition. The Canadians are here as cannon fodder, having failed to qualify for the Olympic tournament, and having neglected to bring Steve Nash along to torment his NBA peers.
The only NBA player on Canada's roster is Joel Anthony, who averaged 3.5 points per game as a Miami Heat rookie last season. The only suspense should be whether James tests his tender ankle after Krzyzewski described him as “95 percent no-go.”
James is on record as “absolutely” guaranteeing a gold medal for Team USA. Though that brash statement was probably imprudent, there's every reason to think he's right.
Tim Sullivan: (619) 293-1033; tim.sullivan@uniontrib.com
