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A Defense That Never Rests

ATLANTA -- It will be a shame if all the highlights of the U.S. women’s basketball team’s gold medal win over Brazil are of offense, because it beat Brazil, 111-87, Sunday as only an American team can: by shutting down the big scorers with waves of players getting in somebody’s face.

The fabulous Hortencia Oliva scored a measly 11 points and missed 6 of 11 shots. The fabulous Marta DeSooza Sobral scored 19 points, but only eight came after an 11-point outburst to start the game. And the fabulous "Magic" Paula Silva was held to one field goal in eight attempts. Janeth Arcain was the only one the U.S. defense couldn’t lock down, but her 24 points weren’t enough.

There is still this one part of basketball where the United States is without peer: defense. Other teams may shoot the ball better, dribble and pass better or as well. Some countries have taken principles of offense and expanded them to points previously unexplored.

But not defense.

The U.S. invented pressure defense and still has the patent. In South America, Brazil in particular, they love the inventiveness of the game, the spontaneity.

But defense, that’s our deal. And this is why the U.S. women’s basketball team earned a gold medal Sunday. If you picked teams as they do on the playgrounds, where the best offensive players are most valued, you might have been inclined to take Brazil’s Arcain first. You might want to take Oliva next, even at 36 years old. And even though she had a bad game Sunday, Brazil has a point guard with so many skills, Silva, that she wears a headband which says, "Magic Paula."

"They watch the NBA highlights in all those countries, and all the highlights are of offense," U.S. guard Dawn Staley said.

The first 19 minutes were like an ABA shootout between the San Antonio Spurs and the Virginia Squires. Layup on one end, three-pointer at the other. The U.S. scored on nine straight possessions at one point, but Brazil kept firing and got to 31-27 on, what else, a three-pointer by Magic Paula. Brazil’s Superfan, the 500-plus pound Bola Sete, a man who follows Brazil teams to every corner of the Earth—sometimes wearing a blond wig!!!—almost stood up, he was so excited.

But this isn’t the way Americans play defense. Tara VanDerveer ain’t Tark. She’s closer to Bobby Knight. She believes in defense, especially because trying to outscore Brazil is not the thing to do. (See August 1987, Pan Am Games, Oscar Schmidt clips vs. the U.S. men’s team. )

"We’re not just taught to shoot and score in the U.S.," Venus Lacey said. "We’re taught to play defense and it always seems to work to our advantage that we do. We didn’t let them make any of their favorite moves."

Nearby, the elegant Sheryl Swoopes wasn’t ready to agree that nobody plays defense except Americans. "Well, Australia has a pretty good defensive team," she said. "But it’s true that Brazil wants to stay on offense. They don’t like to be on the defensive end. They’ve got three great perimeter players who can go off at any time."

But they never did. Somebody would be belt-to-belt with Hortencia and Magic Paula. Arcain got her’s, but stopping two out of three isn’t bad. It’s great when the other team—in this case, Brazil—can’t stop anybody. Swoopes hit seven of 12 shots and could have scored every time she touched the ball if she had one selfish bone in her body. Lisa Leslie, the center/runway model, hit 12 of 14. Katrina McClain hit 6 of 8. The reserves made 9 of 13. In the first half, the United States shot 70 percent. The only way you can shoot that high a percentage unless you’re Villanova is that the other team is playing no defense!

"The bottom line," Jennifer Azzi said, "is that international teams want to shoot. I don’t know why they don’t stress defense over there."

Canada? No D. Mexico? No D. Europe? No D. Asia? No. D. Africa? No D. South America? Absolutely no D. Black, white, other. Male or female. "They throw some junk defenses at us to confuse us for awhile," Nikki McCray said, "but we’re playing for a coach who knows how to coach championship defense. And we had to buy into her system—or else."

And it didn’t hurt that a few of the Brazilians talked about how they’d love to celebrate on American soil the way they celebrated in Australia after beating the United States to win the 1994 world championship. "Going into the game," McCray said, "you could feel the bitterness some of the older players had toward the Brazilians."

Revenge and defense. Now, there’s a plan. It’s a big part of a formula that’s been on display now through 60 straight U.S. women’s victories, the last one good for an Olympic gold medal. It’s a result of discipline, intensity and unselfishness that any highlight reel will have a hard time capturing.