By John Altavilla, The Hartford Courant –
WASHINGTON — The depth of USA women’s basketball is its greatest weapon. Any five from the dozen are talented enough to win gold. Truth is, it’s as dreamy a team as any put on the floor in the history of the Olympics.
But how to make the pieces fit without fraying is what will keep Geno Auriemma thinking until the 2012 London Games end. It’s a good problem, certainly, but a problem nonetheless.
(PHOTO: Related media: USA’s Lindsay Whalen (4) scores over Brazil’s Karla Cristina Martins Da Costa (5) during the second half of their exhibition game at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., Monday, July 16, 2012.)
Monday night, the versatility of the team expected to win a fifth consecutive gold medal was displayed at the Verizon Center when Team USA drubbed Brazil, 99-67, in its final domestic action before the Games.
When the team took the floor for pregame introductions it was clear someone was missing. Sue Bird, perhaps the best point guard in the world, was not there. Turns out, she left the team because of a death of a close member of her family. The program does not know when she will return.
So Auriemma turned to Lindsay Whalen, the former Connecticut Sun all-star who helped lead Minnesota to its first WNBA championship last season.
It was like Aretha Franklin stepping in for Ella Fitzgerald; different tone, same sweet beat.
Whalen led the USA with 21 points and five assists. Diana Taurasi scored 16 in nearly 24 minutes.
Whalen, in her first Olympics, began the game with 10 points and three assists in the first quarter to help the USA build a 27-14 lead. She added another four points in the second as the USA extended the lead to 51-31.
At some point early Tuesday morning, after the USA men play Brazil, the entire USA Basketball traveling party will board a charter flight for Manchester, England. That’s where the women will initially begin the final phase of training for their Olympic opener July 28 against Croatia.
What happens with personnel that day is still subject to fate and health, but Auriemma started Tamika Catchings, Candace Parker, Sylvia Fowles, Diana Taurasi and Whalen.
Taurasi’s inclusion is the surest evidence that her leg injuries, which have limited her to 36 minutes during the first of the WNBA season, are a thing of the past.
And that combination lit a quick fire as the USA opened an 11-2 lead.