RIO DE JANEIRO – The U.S. men's basketball team has won 50 straight international games, 22 of them in Olympic play.
It is undefeated in this Olympics, heading into Wednesday's 4:45 p.m. quarterfinal matchup against Argentina.
It has a Hall of Fame coach and brings stars off the bench.
And it seems to be in more trouble than any U.S. team since a bronze medal in Athens in 2004 prompted an overhaul of the program and led to the Redeem Team that dominated in Beijing.
"To start out, I thought, personally, that we were going to dominate, that these games were going to come easy," said U.S. forward Paul George. "But you start playing better competition, and you see across the board that these teams are pretty good."
Seemingly all of the nice things that the U.S. coaches and players said about their opposition before the Olympics began have turned out to be prophetic.
Other teams have more continuity. Other teams are more accustomed to the international style of play, which includes touch fouls, and frequent fouls in the open court to prevent the kind of fast breaks NBA players thrive on, and shorter quarters.
And while the American women have roster continuity and a massive talent advantage over teams, the men have only two players returning from the team that won gold in London, and are facing foes that, while not as talented as the U.S., feature NBA players who are not intimidated by American stars.
"The difference there is familiarity," China women's coach Tom Maher said after a blowout loss to the U.S. "There's still a difference in talent, but the men have at least been on the same court as the best men's players, have been in the same league. There is no fear, at least."
The lack of continuity among the American men is most noticeable on defense. They are getting beat on backdoor cuts. They are losing track of quality shooters and giving up uncontested three-pointers. They are driving Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau, a U.S. assistant, to distraction.
And they are struggling, in relative terms, against teams that were not supposed to be in their league. Spain without Marc Gasol is not the same team that challenged the U.S. in the past two Olympic gold medal games. Argentina's best players are on their last legs. Australia was not considered a strong contender but has played a passionate, physical style highlighted by beautiful passing.
The U.S. seems to be trending in the wrong direction. Its margins of victory have been 57, 44, 10, three and three. Its latest three-point victory came against a French team that played without star point guard Tony Parker.
On Wednesday, the Americans open the knockout portion of the schedule with a quarterfinal against Argentina, which features Manu Ginobili and Luis Scola.
If the U.S. wins, it will face the winner of France and Spain in the semifinals on Friday. Because Spain and France were expected to be two of the U.S.'s primary challengers, the schedule may be doing the Americans a favor.
The Argentines are typical of teams that have given the U.S. trouble in this tournament. They are experienced, cohesive and deft passers.
As George said, even if the Americans win, they no longer expect it to be easy.
