The 2008 Beijing Olympic was great while it lasted. Unforgettable games such as the USA vs Spain Olympic Gold Medal Game was a pleasure watching and one of the best. USA Womens Basketball kept things in check by winning yet another Gold Medal with Lisa Leslie on top is one of most game played in the Olympics by an American.

Wheelchair Basketball also had great moments in the Beijing Paralympic Basketball WheelChair Games. Australia Mens National Wheelchair Basketball team won gold over Canada who were quite favorite. On the womens side the USA Womens National Wheelchair Basketball team won its 2nd consecutive Paralympic Gold Medal over Germany!

Good Bye Beijing Basketball!

This is not the end however, there is lots of basketball in China that we will cover ALWAYS!

Australia Wins Paralympic Gold Medal after defeating Canada 72-60.

Down by four points at halftime, Australia dominated on offense in the third and fourth quarters to pull ahead of Canada. Australia, the silver medalist from the Athens Games, padded its lead in the last minute of play by hitting five free throws and a layup. Center Troy Sachs was the high scorer for the Australian team with 19 points. Teammates Justin Eveson and Shaun Norris combined for 33 points, and center Brad Ness had a game-high eight assists. Canada, the defending champion, could not match Australia’s scoring pace in the last quarter and missed several shots. Forward Patrick Anderson was the game’s high scorer with 22 points. Anderson and center Joey Johnson grabbed the most rebounds of the game (12 each), which ended with Canada’s first loss of the Beijing 2008 tournament.

Final Standings

1. Australia
2. Canada
3. Great Britain
4. USA
5. Germany

This is the second time in a row that the USA Womens Wheelchair Basketball Team has won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. After so much pressure to repeat they were able to do so with great effort over Germany 50-38.

Final Standings

1. USA (7-0)
2. Germany (5-2)
3. Australia (4-3)
4. Japan (5-2)
5. Canada (5-2)
6. Netherlands (3-4)
7. China (2-5)
8. Great Britain (1-6)
9. Mexico (1-4)
10. Brazil (0-5)

USA Mens Basketball Team proved that they were going to win a gold medal with the performance that displayed against a great Spain Mens Basketball Team. All of the NBA superstars stepped up their game to another level and made plays down the stretch. Don’t disregard Spain either because top NBA names and rookies for 2009 showed their stuff in the Final Show Down in the 2008 Olympics.

Top Players USA

• Unsung Hero - Dwyane Wade
• All Around MVP - Lebron James
• Best Inside - Chris Bosh
• Top Point Guard - Chris Paul
• Sacrifice - Carmelo Anthony

Top Players Spain

• Spain’s Most Valuable - Pau Gasol
• Best Youth - Ricky Rubio
• Unstoppable - Rudy Fernandez
• Strength Down The Stretch - Juan Carlos Narvarro
• Biggest Disappointment - Jose Calderon

USA Womens Basketball Team defeated Australia to go undefeated in the Beijing Olympics by. The well anticipated game of the USA vs Australia was expected but not as easy as the USA finally defeated the Opals 92-65. Australia started the game strong but the overwhelming defense and offense of the USA helped put them over top of Australia. Lisa Leslie went on to win her fourth Gold Medal as an Olympian.

“I’m just so overwhelmed right now,” she said. “It’s really hard to put into words what we’ve been able to do in one month.

Notes: USA Womens Basketball Team have now won 33 games in a row during the Olympics since winning in 2000.

Top scorers:

USA: Lawson (15), Leslie (14), Fowles (13), Parker (14)

Australia: Snell (15), Jackson (20)

Russia defeated China for the Bronze: 94-81

Team USA Men and Women have made their mark once again proving that they are the best in the world by just dominating the competition in the Beijing Olympic Basketball Tournament. The Redeem Team just blew out rival team Argentina by 20pts in an effort to change the past and get back the glory of being in the Olympic Finals once again. Lebron James and Kobe Bryant both promised their teammates that they would not let them down and would be in the Olympic Finals for a GOLD MEDAL ONLY.

Mens USA Basketball Team will face a young energetic Spain National Team who defeated Lithuania in the seminfinals by 5pts (91-86). In an earlier meeting, Team USA dominated Spain and took an easy win during the preliminaries.

On the womens side, both USA and Australia the only two undefeated teams during the Olympic Beijing Basketball Tournament will face off in another rivalary match up. USA defeated Australia in the last Olympic Finals in Athens and they hope to repeat. It will not be easy as the last game against Russia, the USA failed to make shots and dominate. On the other hand, Australia cruised in their victory over China in the semifinals and will have received more rest than the USA. It will be a good match up on Saturday.

Olympic Basketball Finals Schedule

Gold and Silver Medal

• (Women) Australia vs USA - August 23rd 2:30pm (China Time)
• (Men) Spain vs USA  - August 24th 10:00pm (China Time

Bronze Medal

• (Women) China vs Russia - August 23rd 7:30pm (China Time)
• (Men) Argentina vs Lithuania - August 24th 12:00pm (China Time)

Although Lithuania started the game with zone defense Spain’s Pau Gasol had too many moves for Lithuania to contest. He caused two fouls within 5 minutes for Lithuanias Javtokas. This opened up the inside play and gave Spain an inside edge. Also, Rudy Fernandez played big for Spain shooting and slashing inside while keeping his cool in the final quarter to make important free throws.

This win marks the first time after 24 years that Spain has advanced to the Olympic Finals where they played last in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Top scorers for Spain was Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez although it was a well fought out team effort. Spain will have to play big in the Olympic Basketball Finals when they face Team USA who beat Argentina by 20pts. In the first meeting, Spain vs USA the Americans dominated and won by plenty. Spain will look for revenge and show a give more competition for the Finals.

This could be Team USA Basketball destiny as they face up with Argentina who defeated the USA in the 2004 Athens Olympics for the Gold Medal. The 2008 Olympics’ has proved the USA an entirely new team with a new team name:  Re-Dream Team aka Redemption Team.

Team USA defeated Australia (116-85) in what was clearly a troubled first half was just a warm up for the USA who dominated Australia on both ends of the floor. While Argentina had a tough fight to get over Greece by only 2 points (80-78). Greece could have sealed the game with a 3 pointer but failed to make the attempt. Ginobili was the high scorer for Argentina and shot well from behind the arc going 6/13.

The match up should be good but maybe not much of a game if the USA continues to defend and score, Argentina could be in trouble.

China Mens National Team was defeated by Lithuania (94-68) in today’s semifinals game. China has made a good final run in the preliminaries but their hope for an Olympic medal in their host country has come to an end. China could not stop Lithuania from scoring and they could not defend four players from double figures. Yao Ming scored 19 points and 7 rebounds and only two other players reached double figure points.

Current active players playing are 28

• Argentina: Manu Ginobili (San Antonio Spurs), Andres Nocioni (Chicago Bulls), Fabricio Oberto (San Antonio Spurs), Luis Scola (Houston Rockets)

• Australia: Andrew Bogut (Milwaukee Bucks)

• China: Yao Ming (Houston Rockets), Yi Jianlian (New Jersey Nets)

• Croatia:  Roko-Leni Ukic (Toronto Raptors)

• Germany: Chris Kaman (Los Angeles Clippers), Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks)

• Lithuania: Linas Kleiza (Denver Nuggets)

• Russia: Andrei Kirilenko (Utah Jazz)

• Spain: Pau Gasol (Los Angeles Lakers), Rudy Fernandez (Portland Trail Blazers), Jose-Manuel Calderon (Toronto Raptors), Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies)

• United States : Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets), Chris Bosh (Toronto Raptors), Carlos Boozer (Utah Jazz), Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers), Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic), Jason Kidd (Dallas Mavericks), LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers), Chris Paul (New Orleans Hornets), Tayshaun Prince (Detroit Pistons), Michael Redd (Milwaukee Bucks), Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat), Deron Williams (Utah Jazz)