USA vs. Canada

USA vs. Canada

The "Redeem Team" put the world on notice on Friday night in Las Vegas.

Next stop, China for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team – who embraced the moniker by seeking a toad to redemption after failing to win Olympic Gold in eight years – routed Canada, 120-65 at the 2008 State Farm USA Basketball Challenge, thanks to some balanced scoring and Michael Redd's deadly stroke.

Redd finished with 20 points after going 6-8 on three-pointers, and about halfway through the second quarter the US Team had started to blow the game wide open. At that point, the backcourt combination of Redd, Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade (who finished with 20 points and looked like his old self) and Kobe Bryant had scored 29 of the teams 41 points.

Yet the writing was on the way even before that.

When Kobe Bryant banked in a three-pointer with 2:52 left in the first quarter and the shot clock going off, you just knew it was going to be one of those nights for the US Team, and Canada for that matter.

By the end of the third quarter, the score was 95-56, and the US Team had easily secured their first – and only – win on American soil before heading over to China where they will compete in four more pre-Olympic exhibition games. They face Turkey (July 31) and Lithuania (August 1), before squaring-off against Russia (August 3) and Australia (August 5) on their way to Beijing and the 2008 Olympics.

The first game for the US is August 10 against the host team, China, where they will begin competition in Group B, along with Spain, Angola, Greece and Germany. Argentina, Australia, Croatia, Iran, Lithuania and Russia make up Group A.

While the easy win over Canada – a squad who didn't qualify for the Olympics and who gave a valiant effort but were overmatched – was simply a primer before the real task at hand, the "Redeem Team" certainly showed their true colors Friday night in Las Vegas.

Three years ago, Jerry Colangelo and US Men's head coach Mike Krzyzewski knew it would take a true commitment to capture Gold once again after a serious draught. The commitment is there from this NBA All-Star roster. The team chemistry is there too. Both are attributes that were clearly missing from the previous national teams before Colangelo took matters into his own hands.

At times though, that unselfishness appeared to hurt the US Team against Canada. Big time scorers like Bryant and Wade - for example - passed on many open shots early, while Kidd (who went scoreless) and Williams tended to go choose the extra pass over a gimme in the paint.

It's not a knock. It's just reality: these guys have invested in Coach K's "team ball" system and in the end that will pay off nicely in Beijing. But they can't forget what got them on the squad either. All of these guys can fill it up.

Come this summer, hopefully they will keep to those roots while mixing in the ball movement.

Friday night provided the chance to build upon what is already some deep team chemistry. But it also gave Krzyzewski and company the chance to establish pressure defense and hit some jumpers. With Dwight Howard at 6-11 being the US Team's tallest "big", the guards and forwards must be aggressive defensively, while also showing they can knockdown the outside shot.

They'll be faced with plenty of zone defenses competing overseas, that's for sure.

Then again, getting LeBron James - who sat out as a precautionary measure after spraining his right ankle earlier in the week – back once the team arrives in China in the coming days will only help lift a US Team already on the top of the world.

The road to redemption is officially underway.