Dream Team wakes up

INDIANAPOLIS -- U.S. team coach George Karl paced left with less than a minute to go in the fourth quarter. Then he paced right. Finally, Karl went still as his team went from being favorites to being victims of a second upset, this time at the hands of Yugoslavia in the quarterfinals of the World Basketball Championships. In front of a crowd of rambunctious Yugoslavian fans and stunned Americans, the Slavic team battled their way to an 81-78 victory.

"I'm very proud how my team responded and played," Karl said. "It was a tremendously played game. We're tremendously disappointed. We played hard, but we just didn't make shots when we had to." Just as it seemed the U.S. had shaken off Yugoslavia, the Slavic team came back with a vengeance. Not 20 seconds after U.S. team member and L.A. Clipper Andre Miller scored on a breakaway dunk did Marko Jaric shoot a trey that found nothing but net, and tied the game at 71-71 with less than three minutes to go. Panic time set in for the Americans as U.S. team member and Indiana Pacer Jermaine O'Neal hit the rim twice on two free throws that would have given the Americans an edge. Instead, it was Yugoslavia that got help from the free throw line and the three-point line. As the final seconds started ticking off the clock with Yugoslavia clinging to a one-point lead, the U.S. scored two more field goals, but didn't regain the lead. "Yugoslavia made some great threes in the stretch run and made the free throws when they had to," Karl said. "But we missed our free throws and our open shots when we had them." Yugoslavia had a four-point lead going into the half, but the U.S. came out of the locker room firing on offense. After U.S. team member and Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller missed the first two field goals of the game, Boston Celtic Paul Pierce stepped in. Preceding a dunk that revived the U.S. fans was a three-point jump shot from Pierce that gave the U.S. team its first lead of the third quarter. Pierce and Andre Miller finished the game with a team-high 19 points apiece. From that point, the U.S. went on a five-to-two shooting spree that gave them a 10-point lead with just under two minutes left in the third quarter. But the Yugoslavia team, complete with five players from the NBA, would not go away. Led by Sacramento's Vlade Divac and Predrag Stojakovic, Yugoslavia kept the score within six to heading into the fourth quarter. "We knew we had to have intensity," Yugoslavia coach Svetislav Pesic said. "They are very quick, and we needed to have a fast defense to get back in transition." Whatever Karl had said to the U.S team was effective enough to get their offense and defense working together. Prior to the half, the U.S. team looked much like the lost boys who had lost to Argentina the night before. The Yugoslavia team got to the U.S players early in the game by drawing quick fouls on Pierce and Ben Wallace, U.S. team member and Detroit Piston. While the U.S. team was picking up fouls in the first quarter, Yugoslavia was picking up points, jumping off to a quick nine-point lead. "It was a hard-fought game from the beginning," Andre Miller said. "We play together, but we came off to a sluggish start tonight. We had a lead, we just didn't finish it." The U.S. team responded quickly in the first quarter, going on a 7-2 shooting spree, and getting a 14-13 lead. Yugoslavia, not backing down, quieted the U.S. with a three-point shot and a two-point lead. After going up and down the court with missed shots on both ends, the teams ended the first quarter tied at 20. The U.S. shot just over 37 percent in the first quarter, and saw little improvement in the second by gaining an average of 39 percent of field goals attempted and made. The U.S. team finished the game averaging just over 42 percent. "This is a tough situation," Wallace said. "It wasn't just the fourth quarter, it was the whole game that we just weren't the aggressor. I definitely didn't want to come in here and be on the team that loses. Right now it's not a great experience, it's something that I definitely didn't want to experience."