A. Team USA is twice as good due to point guard improvement.

In my mind, Kirk Hinrich is a good point guard with tons of potential. But Jason Kidd has experience and a special level of talent, so just making that switch puts team USA at another level all together. Billups, although vastly overrated, did a decent job at backup, and Deron Williams is going to be, if he isn't already, a huge star. I think the sky is the limit for Williams.

B. Venezuela sucked.

Yes, they were facing a very tough and talented USA squad, but Venezuela showed in the first quarter that they were giving up with several hard, proabably intentional fouls. They were constantly looking to the bench with looks that said something like, "I'm going to freaking stab Kobe, man!"

My point here is that perhaps this young Venezuela team was not the best barometer for team USA's abilities right now, so we shouldn't read too much into the 112-69 final score.

C. Seven players scored in double figures for USA.

Carmelo was the leading scorer, and he only had 17 points. This speaks volumes to the critics who condemn USA basketball as a collection of selfish prima donas, which was not the case at all in last nights game.

D. Bill Walton is awful.

As much as I'd like a comparison to a rebound Walton saw in 1956 (he seriously did this last night) I think I'd rather have my mom call the game. It would be something like this, "Oh good, the white team scored again, but I don't know if it was a two or three pointer.... how do you even tell?"

This is far less obnoxious than Bill Walton praising players from 300 years ago that my grandpa has never heard of, or calling the Spurs an exciting team. I had forgotten how bad he was during this awful offseason.

E. Phoenix Suns coach Mike D'Antoni was on the bench.

This is good news for team USA, because they are now twice as fun to watch. Even casual fans must have noticed that the Americans had fun in transistion last night, scoring easy layups and dunks almost at will. There were a few turnovers on inbounds passes, but the passes delivered by Kidd were converted much more frequently.

So we didn't really learn too much about team USA's improvement from this game, and tonight's game against the Virgin Islands should be no better, but at least you should see some sweet dunks.

Your comments are welcome. You may comment below or email thejackdaddy at jackhoops@gmail.com.