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The United States escapes by 2 points to make the gold medal game.
By GARY SHELTON
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 30, 2000
SYDNEY, Australia -- Turns out they dream in Lithuania, too.
The only problem is, the dream faded a little bit to the left as time ran out.
The vaunted men's basketball team of the United States on Friday had its most narrow escape since professionals from the NBA were invited into the Olympics. It beat Lithuania 85-83 but won only when a last-second three-point attempt bounded off the left side of the rim as time ran out.
Consider this: Sarunas Jasikevicius had the ball, slid to his left, turned and launched. Given that Jasikevicius had scored 27 points, including hitting 5 of 10 shots from three-point range, it wasn't the most comfortable feeling in the world for the Americans.
This time, however, Jasikevicius missed, and the United States escaped. Barely. Jasikevicius immediately put his head down on a courtside rail.
Had his shot gone through, you can only imagine the reaction.
"You would have had 12 guys who had to change their identity," said Jason Kidd, a Phoenix Suns guard. "A lot of us have saved a lot of our money. We would have to get away as far as possible. They say New Zealand is as far away as you can get, so that would have been my pick. You guys (the media) would have been handing out visas. ... It would have been embarassing. We all know that. It would have been a disaster."
It would have been an upset, too, but maybe not the size people would have considered it. This group of Americans has been pushed in this tournament. It won an earlier game against Lithuania by nine, and it beat France by 12, and it was pushed by Russia on Thursday. It was hardly the team Alonzo Mourning proclaimed "won't lose in my lifetime."
Either that or Mourning's life expectancy is not what you would expect. For the entire game Lithuania stood toe to toe with the Americans. Even when a burst by the United States left it ahead by 12 points (48-36) at the half, the Lithuanians continued to work the ball slowly and cut its deficit. By contrast, the Americans played at a more frenetic pace, often forcing plays.
Perhaps this signals that the world is getting closer to the Americans. Certainly, the rest of the world is less in awe than it once was. Opponents aren't asking for autographs anymore.
"I think the eyes are smaller (than they used to be," Kidd said. "The awe is gone. There is no awe."
There almost was no victory, either, which would have knocked the Americans out of Sunday's gold medal game against France. The United States trailed 81-80 with 43 seconds to play. Suddenly the American players were standing on the sideline, and at one point, coach Rudy Tomjanovich fell to one knee and pounded the floor with his palm in frustration.
After the game, the players talked about how the Americans were upset in Munich in 1972 by the Russians on a series of blown calls. The message was that if they had lost this game, it would have been a similar situation.
"It's just amazing looking at the history of the Olympics," Mourning said. "It pretty much rewrites what has happened in the past."
It is true there seemed to be a few missed calls against the Americans: a charge called on Kidd, a foul on Mourning. But there also were missed calls against Lithuania. For instance, when Antonio McDyess put back a missed free throw by Kevin Garnett with 25.9 seconds to go, he admitted he pushed off.
Still, with much of the crowd rooting for the Americans to be upset, there seems to be a feeling of the Americans against the world.
"They hate us," Kidd said. "Well, I don't want to say hate. But they want to see us get beaten. They don't want to see the damn Americans win."