Downright defensive, US women’s Olympic basketball team fine-tunes its defense ahead of first game

PARIS (AP) — One of the challenges that the U.S. women’s basketball team faces at the Paris Olympics with limited practice time is getting everyone on the same page defensively.

There’s no doubt that all 12 players on the roster can score at will, but it takes time to build the chemistry and trust necessary to be a great defensive team.

For now, it’s a work in progress, with the first test coming Monday against Japan.

“We spent a little more time on it,” U.S. coach Cheryl Reeve said before practice Sunday. “Each team that you play poses a different challenge. Certainly Japan, you know plays different than the rest of the group. We have to tweak our scheme a little bit.”

Japan plays a style with all five players on the perimeter, which negates a little bit of the Americans’ interior advantage. That means that players like Brittney Griner, A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart may have to guard more on the outside with no true post player for the Japanese team.

“I know I may have to play outside more defensively and I’m ready for it,” Griner said.

The two teams met for the gold medal in the Tokyo Games and the Americans came away with a 90-75 victory. Griner finished with 30 points, making 14 of her 18 shots. It was the most points ever by a U.S. player in a gold medal game, surpassing the 29 by Lisa Leslie in 1996.

While the Americans have been able to outscore their opponents easily during the 55-game Olympic winning streak that dates to the 1992 Barcelona Games, being able to stop the opponent certainly has helped.

The U.S. gave up an average of 68.7 points at the Tokyo Games, the most since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when the streak of seven straight gold medals started.

There is a wealth of talented defenders on the U.S. team. It just takes a little bit of time to get used to playing with one another and the defensive plan that Reeve has installed. The U.S. had only about 14 hours of practice time together before the Olympic opener.

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“I think the biggest thing was taking away our schemes that we may have with our (WNBA) teams where we just know how to guard people and just trust the process,” two-time WNBA defensive player of the year A’ja Wilson said. “Sometimes we’re just so used to schemes and this player wants to get here versus overseas is like literally just play everyone honest.”

Wilson said the biggest thing is trust and that just takes time.

“The more we play alongside each other, the better,” she added. “I think we’re slowly starting to trust each other and getting an understanding of just knowing we have to have layers and we’re starting to get it.”

If all else fails, it always helps to have the 6-foot-8 Griner or the 6-foot-4 Wilson waiting to block shots.

“You talk about help side,” wing Kahleah Copper said, laughing.