Questions after Team USA routs Nigeria
Aug-03-2012

After the United States was done delivering the most devastating defeat in the history of Olympic basketball, a 156-73 obliteration of Nigeria, USA coach Mike Krzyzewski sniffed over the suggestion that the Americans had gone too far in an 83-point humiliation of a fledgling African program.
Records tumbled in stunning and spectacular fashion, a surreal 29 Team USA three-pointers dropping into the basket in Thursday's Pool A Olympic tournament game. Carmelo Anthony had 37 points, and did so playing in a mere 14 minutes. No one had ever scored so many points in an Olympic game - 138 by Brazil in 1988 was the record - and the record for three-pointers had been broken before halftime.
Nevertheless, a question in the postgame news conference about the U.S. running up the score stiffened Krzyzewski, inspiring him to respond with marked defiance.
"We didn't play LeBron [James] and Kobe [Bryant] in the second half, and with Carmelo shooting like that, we benched him," Krzyzewski said. "We didn't take any fast breaks in the fourth quarter, and we played all zone. You have to take a shot every 24 seconds, and the shots we took happened to be hit.
"I take offense to this question because there's no way in the world that our program in the United States sets out to humiliate anyone."
Krzyzewski nodded toward Nigeria coach Ayodele Bakare and decided to speak for him too. "Coach would think it humiliating if we didn't play hard."

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