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 Basketball: U.S. outslugs rugged Russia Americans win, 85-70, advance to semifinals Friday, September 29, 2000 By Chris Sheridan, The Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Vince Carter ran after a Russian player, pointing and yelling in anger. Gary Payton and Vin Baker joined in, too, pushing and shoving the latest opponent to show neither fear nor awe.
The Americans got ugly on their way to the locker room at halftime of their quarterfinal game against Russia, and they had no regrets or remorse after their 85-70 victory.
"If the Russians had done it, they'd be cheering them," Payton said. "We're going to take some hits, so we'll take the hits and take the gold and go home and forget about it. Then we'll come back in 2004 and do it all again."
With the basketball getting rougher and the final scores getting closer, the Americans feel they are responding accordingly.
And if the folks back home or the rest of the world don't like it, well that's just tough.
"We're being picked out because of who we are, Americans," Carter said. "I've seen other teams do the exact same thing, and nobody says anything.
Criticism "doesn't bother me, because I know what I'm here for. If we lose, people will have something to say. So why not go out there and play hard, play with pride and give it your all?"
On this night for Carter, that meant standing up to a cheap shot by a Russian guard who elbowed him in the lower abdomen when he went up for an alley-oop dunk.
Carter lay on the ground writhing in pain for several seconds before getting up clutching his belly. As the first half ended, he mistakenly went after a different Russian player than the one who had elbowed him.
The American coaches restrained Carter, but Payton and Baker continued mixing it up with the player who had elbowed Carter, Yevgeny Pachutin, who himself had to be bearhugged by one of the referees as he tried to retaliate.
"I've been undercut before, and I ended up breaking my wrist," Carter said. "People can say whatever they want to say, but I think I handled it well. There was no fight.
"I just pointed my finger and said the low blow was not necessary. I wanted to let him know that the game is not played that way."
The Americans again fell behind by 10 points in the early going and led by only five at halftime -- their smallest lead at intermission in either the 1992, 1996 or 2000 Olympics -- but were never seriously challenged in the second half and led by at least 10 points throughout the final 10 minutes.
Next up is a semifinal game today against Lithuania, which lost to the Americans by only nine points in the preliminary round.
In the other quarterfinals, Australia defeated Italy, 65-62, and France surprised Canada, 68-63. Lithuania advanced by beating Yugoslavia, 76-63.
Kevin Garnett led the Americans with 16 points. Carter, who laughed at himself after blowing a breakaway dunk early in the first half, added 15, and Baker had 13.
Alexander Bachminov led Russia with 12 points before fouling out.
Carter made a point of shaking each Russian player's hand before the second half tip-off, and the final 20 minutes was largely free of any bad intentions.
"Everybody forgot about that moment when we came out for the second half," Russia forward Nikita Morgunov said.
"Don't worry about it. No Cold War in basketball."
Payton made two free throws with 15:41 left to give the U.S. team its first double-digit lead, 58-47, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim scored on a drive with 1:07 to go for the Americans' biggest lead, 85-68.
With 85 points, the U.S. team had its lowest point total since the bronze medal game of 1988 -- four years before NBA players started representing the United States.
"It is clear they are the best team and the result is determined by how they want to play, and tonight they played well," Russian Coach Stanislav Eremine said. "Can they be beaten? Yes. But they have to play poorly and the opponent has to play A-plus."
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