ESPN Basketball

LAS VEGAS -- The charges of Brazilian player Marcus Vinicius against coach Lula Ferreira, the rumors that players had risen up against the coach and gained control of the team, and the Brazilian press' declaration that the team was leaderless, ended up demoralizing the players. The truth is, they reached the one game they couldn't lose (against Argentina) and had all the opportunities to make it directly to the Olympic Games, but were unable to deliver.

Argentina didn't have a good defensive start. In fact, the team reached an 11-point deficit and made it to halftime with an eight-point deficit. But in the second half, Brazil lost all its offensive effectiveness and started to depend on individual plays, and the ship that would have taken them to Beijing sank to the bottom of the sea. A major failure for a team that, on paper, was superior to the Argentine squad.

At the press conference, Ferreira was asked if internal problems had undermined the team's possibilities, and he said there were no such issues with the team. He claimed his alleged disagreements with the players were made up by malicious people and the relationships are as smooth as ever.

• As expected, Team USA kept the remaining spot to participate in the Olympic Games, defeating Puerto Rico in the second game of the evening. But we noticed something we hadn't before in the American team.

Puerto Rico played decently during the first half, and as minutes went by and the game remained close, the Team USA players and coaches became irrationally anxious. They argued each call as if it were their last, and their faces showed preoccupation.

I think the reason might be that these games of single elimination, where the stakes are high, evoke bad memories, because it is in these instances that they have failed to deliver in previous tournaments. This is something to have in mind if Argentina manages to keep the final game close for a long period of time and when they face tougher teams next year in China.

---

The success of Argentina's national teams is the result of an institutionalized way of playing. All the versions of this country's teams play the same way.

This is true in terms of basketball philosophy. They consider a solid defense, an organized offense and team play to be key factors in obtaining better results; but in terms of tactical schemes, Sergio Hernandez's assistants are free to follow their own ideas when they take charge of their own teams.

This summer, we've seen three Argentine teams in different tournaments: the Juveniles under Guillermo Narvarte, the one that participated in the Panamericanos under Gonzalo Garcia, and this one, in a quest for a ticket to the Beijing Olympics, under Hernandez.

Each coach applies his own offensive scheme adapted to the available personnel, although one or two plays do coincide. Navarte confirmed this tactical independence is authorized and encouraged by Hernandez for the better performance of each team and because he trusts the judgment of his assistants when they take charge as head coaches. This confirms that in order to play good basketball, one team doesn't have to be a perfect copy of another.

• Last Wednesday, before its game against Brazil, the Argentine team welcomed the press covering the Tournament of the Americas into a Palms Hotel luxury suite.

Reporters could talk with coach Hernandez and several players, including Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino and Paolo Quintero, in a friendly environment. The invitations were issued by the firm in charge of promoting the team, on behalf of the Argentine Basketball Confederation.

• On Friday night, after a hard practice for their semifinals game against the USA, the Puerto Rican players and the coaching staff were surprised by an invitation from their general manager, Salvador Vilella, to a dinner in the only Puerto Rican restaurant in Las Vegas. El Coqui turned out to be somewhat small for the party of 24, but Dona Carmen's food and attention were first class.

---

Both Brazil and Puerto Rico were in full control of their tournament destinies on the last day of the FIBA Americas quarterfinals. If Brazil beat Uruguay and Puerto Rico beat Canada, they would advance to the Final Four and secure spots in next year's pre-Olympic tournament, regardless of the results of the other games of the day.

And that's precisely what the Brazilians and the Puerto Ricans did. Brazil took care of Uruguay and the Puerto Ricans downed the Canadians in an exiting and close game that went down to the wire. In the final 36 seconds Puerto Rican guards Jose Juan Barea and Filiberto Rivera put away the game with four consecutive free throws.

Those four winning free throws were the only shots Puerto Rico attempted from the line in the entire game, and they came because Canada was forced to foul in order to stop the clock and recover the ball. In contrast, the Canadians had 24 free throw attempts in the game.

Even though Canada had six times as many free throw attempts than Puerto Rico, they couldn't get a lead because they missed half of those shots. In addition, they were shooting only 26 percent on 3-pointers compared to Puerto Ricos 40 percent from behind the arc.

Coach Leo Rautins blamed the shortcomings on the fatigue that comes after playing eight games in nine days.

• Following tradition, FIBA sent its most qualified European refs to the tournament in order to raise the level of officiating. These referees, known as neutrals, are regularly assigned to the most important games of the day. That's why we've seen Slovakia's Petr Sudek, Italy's Guerrino Cerebuch and Spain's Miguel Angel Perez officiating Brazil vs. Argentina on Wednesday and Puerto Rico vs. Canada on Thursday. However, according to an informal poll of reporters from different countries, only Sudek got good grades. Some said Cerebuch and Perez were the worst referees of the tournament. The FIBA America directors could have saved the expense.

---

Brazilian forward Marcus Vinicius, also of the New Orleans Hornets, is out for the remainder of the Tournament of the Americas after dislocating his finger, according to team doctor Carlos Vicente Andreoli.

The injury happened Monday, during the loss against Puerto Rico, and doctors will need to immobilize Vinicius' hand for a week, meaning he won't be able to participate in the rest of the tournament.

The Hornets' management is obviously worried by the health of its 23-year-old, 6-foot-9 prospect, and wants a second opinion from its own medical staff, so the Hornets have demanded Vinicius travel to New Orleans immediately. Today we saw him leaving the hotel for the airport and, in spite of his setback he seemed to be in good spirits.

•With their defeats against Puerto Rico and Canada respectively, Venezuela and Mexico have lost their chances of finishing as one of the top-five teams of the tournament and therefore will not be able to participate in next year's pre-Olympic tournament. This is because even the winner of the game between them will be able to push only a triple tie in fifth place (if Uruguay and Puerto Rico lose in the final day), and in both cases the tiebreaking method doesn't work in their favor.

Should Mexico win the game, Uruguay would qualify in fifth place having defeated the Puerto Rican and Mexican teams. Should Venezuela be the winner, Puerto Rico would qualify due to the best point differential. Puerto Rico currently has a plus-26, while Uruguay at minus-6 and Venezuela at minus-20 fall short.

•After its defeat against Argentina, Brazil, one of the heavy favorites to obtain one of the two tickets to the Beijing Olympics, is now forced to beat Uruguay in the final day. The Brazilians could drop to the fourth or fifth position (depending on the results of the other games) and lose their chances of direct qualification. If they were to finish fourth, they would most likely be eliminated by Team USA in the semifinals.

---

Venezuela and Puerto Rico needed to win early in the second round in order to have a chance of earning a top-five spot, which would secure a place in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament next summer. Puerto Rico's turn came first on Monday, and it dominated Brazil by a wide margin. Venezuela was successful on Tuesday, beating Uruguay and staying in the battle for a spot in next year's Olympics.

This means that, when these two teams meet today, the winner will have a good chance at qualifying, while the loser will be practically eliminated.

• A 46-16 score at the end of the first half is the kind of lead we are accustomed to seeing from the United States in this tournament. But it was Argentina who pulled off this feat, playing an almost perfect first half and taking a nice lead to the locker room against Canada, which has been one of the most consistent teams of the tournament. Canada had even defeated Argentina a little more than a week ago in Puerto Rico's Copa Genaro Marchand.

But Canada scored only eight points in each of the first two quarters, shooting 25 percent from the field, while allowing Argentina to shoot 46 percent. As expected of such a talented and proud group as the Canadian team, it played better and cut the final lead to 15 points.

With the win, Argentina secured at least the third seed in the final round. And more importantly, it won't have to face the U.S. in the semifinals.

• After comparing Puerto Rico's and Brazil's rosters and taking into account each team's performance before they met on Monday, one could say Puerto Rico's win was unexpected. But take a closer look at its recent history in these pre-Olympic tournaments.

Puerto Rico's win Monday was its fourth in a row over Brazil in these tournaments. Puerto Rico also prevailed in 1995, 1999 and 2003.

These teams have dominated each other in turns. Before this streak of pre-Olympic defeats against its Caribbean rival, Brazil had a spell of six consecutive wins: in 1980, 1984, two in 1988 and two more in 1992.

---

The second part of the tournament began Monday and teams are meeting opponents from the other group. In the first round, Group B seemed stronger than Group A. This conjecture proved true to some extent on the first day of the second phase, which saw four games.

Argentina, Group A's indisputable leader, and Puerto Rico, which ended up in third place in Group A, won easily over Group B's fourth-place and second-place seeds, Venezuela and Brazil, respectively.

The United States (first in Group B) routed Mexico (fourth in Group A), while Canada (third in Group B) managed to beat Uruguay (second in Group A) with a solid performance. It was a key victory for the Canadian team. It improved Canada's chances to finish in the top four in the second phase, which would make Canada a semifinalist Saturday and secure it a place in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament, where Canada would have another shot at a spot in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

For several of these eight teams, what matters is finishing among the top five in order to qualify for that world pre-Olympic tournament, which will grant three more spots for China. It's almost certain that the U.S., Brazil (regardless of its unexpected loss to Puerto Rico) and Argentina will finish in the first three positions. Judging by its solid performance, Canada appears to be the favorite for fourth place.

Uruguay, Mexico, Venezuela and Puerto Rico will need to put up a worthy fight for fifth place, yet the Venezuelans and Puerto Ricans find themselves at a disadvantage having reached the second round without computable victories. Venezuela's win over the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico's win over Panama don't count because their opponents were eliminated in the first round.

However, Puerto Rico's solid win over the Brazilians and its patience in protecting its first-half lead -- (something it didn't do in the last two games of Round 1) -- could suggest this team is gradually reaching its true potential and could end up among the best of the tournament.

---

Under Nolan Richardson, the Mexican team has changed to a new pressure defensive system. Richardson has his team double-teaming all over the court throughout the entire game. In the past, Mexico has tried not to risk so much on defense and control the offense.

The new system helped Mexico upset Puerto Rico in its opening game of the Tournament of the Americas, but opponents have since solved the defense. Mexico has lost three straight to Panama, Argentina and Uruguay. But don't try to convince Richardson that he doesn't have the ideal squad to handle his famous "40 minutes of Hell" scheme. The coach points out that with this system Mexico had won 20 straight games, counting 19 prep games and the victory over Puerto Rico.

Richardson has a more logical explanation for his team's competitive drop. He calls it "accumulative fatigue." Many of the team's tune-up games were played against professional teams from all over Mexico. The team often traveled 12 hours by bus to play these games. The Mexican Federation wanted to take the team to different places across the country in order to raise sufficient funds to cover the expenses of the tournament.

The result, according to the coach, is that the players are extremely tired and have no remaining fuel for the final stages of the games.

The last contest of the first round in Group B, Sunday night's game between unbeaten Brazil and United States, is a matchup between the two best teams in the group and probably the tournament.

The truth is that the United States is at least two steps ahead of Brazil and shouldn't have a problem winning the game, except perhaps if the bus taking them to the Thomas & Mack Center breaks down on its way there.

With no disrespect to the Brazilian team, the talent presented by the United States in this tournament is far superior to that of its rivals. In their first three games, the American beat the opposing teams by an average of 52.3 ppg. While Brazil has the ability to lose by less, they cannot put the American team's trophy in danger.

The game will feature two pairings of NBA teammates facing each other. United States forward Carmelo Anthony, a strong offensive player in this tournament, might, in his new power forward role, face his teammate from the Denver Nuggets, Nene, who has returned to international competition after several absences due to disagreements with Brazil's federation. So far, Nene is averaging only 7.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.

The other pair of rivals/teammates who will be sharing the stage in this match is Brazilian guard Leandro Barbosa and U.S. center Amare Stoudemire, both from the Phoenix Suns.

Brazil also counts on big man Tiago Splitter, who was selected in the 2007 NBA draft by the San Antonio Spurs (although he'll be spending one more season in Spain), guard Alex Garcia, who had a short stay in the NBA with San Antonio and New Orleans, center J.P. Batista, and three players who are very successful in Europe, Marcelo Machado, Guilherme Giovanoni and Marcelo Huertas.

---

Uruguay's two victories in the FIBA Americas tournament have been built upon effort, mental strength and faith. In both matches the team had to overcome considerable disadvantages after playing badly the first half.

The triumph in the first game, against Panama, came in overtime, after a 15-point deficit in the first half. In Saturday's win against Puerto Rico, Uruguay trailed by 19 at halftime but prevailed thanks to an excellent defensive performance that allowed Puerto Rico only 31 points in the second half.

In both matches, the indisputable hero has been Esteban Batista. The former Atlanta Hawks center had 26 points and 19 rebounds while playing the entire 45 minutes against Panama, and then 34 points and 15 rebounds playing the full 40 minutes against Puerto Rico.

• This has been the tournament in which the rivals of Puerto Rico have gotten their revenge.

First it was Mexico, which got its third win against the Puerto Ricans in 18 years.

But Uruguay's case is even more extreme. As in the case of Mexico, Uruguay's last win against Puerto Rico was 12 years ago, in the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata. Before that, you ask? We have to go back to 1984, to the Sao Paulo Pre-Olympic tournament.

---

Day 3 of the Tournament of the Americas was characterized by some huge mistakes by both the game referees and officials at the scorer's table. Since the beginning of the tournament, there have been complaints that officials mix up players when charging personal fouls or award assists to the wrong players.

The officials at the scorer's table are not used to working in international basketball and sometimes don't understand the referee's signs. The teams and coaches have complained that the scorer's table is incorrectly recording fouls and other important game information. No one can explain how some point guards finish games with two or three fewer assists than are being counted by reporters and unofficial scorers.

But Friday the confusion reached new heights. Several inexplicable mistakes were made during the Argentina-Puerto Rico game. With 14 seconds left in the first quarter, Argentina committed a 24-second violation. When the horn sounded to mark the infraction, the official announcer said: "At the end of the first quarter the score is&," not realizing that Puerto Rico had recovered the ball with 13.8 seconds to go.

In addition, Puerto Rico guard Carlos Arroyo scored a three pointer and the announcer awarded the shot to Elias Ayuso. This would have been a minor mistake if the official scorer hadn't awarded the three points to Ayuso, when everyone at the Coliseum clearly saw the basket had been Arroyo's.

Referees also played an important role in this comedy of errors. With 19 seconds to play in the first half, Brazilian official Renato Dos Santos charged Ayuso with a personal foul on Paolo Quinteros. For some inexplicable reason, Italian referee Guerrino Cerebuch ordered Luis Scola to attempt two free throws, which the power forward drilled successfully.

Puerto Rico's bench protested, claiming the wrong player had attempted the free throws and demanded the points be canceled. After a long discussion, the referees decided to deduct Scola's two points but didn't allow Quinteros his two free-throw attempts. Argentine coach Sergio Hernandez subsequently made his complaint, to which the Italian referee replied: "I made a mistake, but sadly you have to pay."

---

Mexico's win over Puerto Rico on the first day of the tournament was very important, not only because it got a win against a rival for a spot in the second round, but because a victory against Puerto Rico is so rare.

Before Wednesday's win, the last time the Mexican team beat Puerto Rico in an international competition at any level was in Argentina at the Mar del Plata Panamericanos in 1995. Before that, you have to go all the way back to the Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe finals in 1990, played in Mexico City.

Three wins in 18 years (including 1990) against a rival Mexico continually faces at the juvenile, under-21 and senior levels may definitely be called sporadic.

• In Canada's win over Venezuela on Day 2, Haiti native and Canadian citizen Samuel Dalembert dominated with 18 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks.

Dalembert forced Venezuelan players to alter their shots in the lane. Team Venezuela insiders told me that the team misses Richard Lugo, who could have had the same intimidating effect as Dalembert, his presence could have tipped the scales for the South Americans.

Lugo's absence on the Venezuelan team is the result of a generational shift that has favored coach Nestor Salazar and made the 34-year-old center out of place. Truth be told, Venezuela doesn't have solid centers and Lugo is still very productive at any level. The team misses him.

---

The first day of the Tournament of the Americas ended with one surprise outcome, three games that followed the script and the ejection and further suspension of one player.

In the first game, in which Uruguay beat Panama in overtime, 88-84, two of the best active Latin American rebounders faced each other: Panama's Antonio Garcia, who grabbed 11 boards in 37 minutes, and Uruguay's Esteban Batista, the star of the match with 26 points and 19 rebounds.

Uruguay displayed the patient and disciplined tactics Panama lacked, and was able to discount a 15-point deficit. But when it comes to competitive discipline, Uruguay seems to be the worst team in the tournament. The team disputes each and every call -- not only the players on the court, but also the players on the bench and the coaching staff.

• The match between Puerto Rico and Mexico broke the pattern of previous contest between these two teams. Mexico used constant pressure and a strong defense, while Puerto Rico lacked offensive power. The Mexicans took advantage of 27 turnovers by Puerto Rico and were the first to surprise in the tournament, winning 100-89.

The credit for Mexico's new approach goes to Nolan Richardson, who was able to institute a new version of the "40 minutes of hell" that made college basketball at Arkansas popular.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico's Jose Juan Barea, a guard with the Dallas Mavericks, fouled out and was ejected from the floor after making unsportsmanlike comments toward Spanish referee Miguel Angel Perez. Later on, the tournament's technical commission punished him with a two-game suspension.

• The Canadian press had shown optimism over the result of Canada's match against Brazil in the recent "Tuto" Marchand Cup in Puerto Rico. The media felt the Canadians' 13-point loss to the tournament champs had a taste of victory because coach Leo Rautins gave Samuel Dalembert and Carl English a rest, while Brazil used all of its stars.

Dalembert and English helped Canada keep it close in the rematch, but not close enough, as Brazil won by eight points, 75-67.

• As expected, the U.S. team didn't have a problem defeating Venezuela (112-69), but there were two things of note. Team USA tends to have a stronger defense, and its half-court plays seem more effective when Jason Kidd's on the floor.

Something that was made clear in the World Championships in Indianapolis in 2002 is that most U.S. fans don't appear to care about FIBA basketball, even when they get to see their favorite stars. The same was true on this first day in Las Vegas. During the third quarter, when the local team had a 30-point lead, a small group of about 10 fans started shouting and singing "USA," but the cheers died out immediately because the group wasn't supported by the rest of the audience.

Carlos Morales currently is ESPN International's NBA analyst for its Spanish-language broadcasts. He has coached for over two decades in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and coached Puerto Rico's national team at the highest levels of international competition.