Olympic basketball: U.S. women will play for gold after yet another dominating win

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PARIS — It’s quite possible the 2024 United States women’s basketball team runs the most team-oriented offense in the history of basketball.

Like, anywhere. By anyone. Ever. And it isn’t even close.

National teams. NBA teams. NCAA teams. Men’s teams. Women’s teams. Whomever.

A full statistical analysis of every team to ever play isn’t possible, but consider that the U.S. through five games at these Olympics has scored 174 baskets and recorded 148 assists.

That includes a preposterous 31 assists on 34 baskets Friday in another blowout victory here, this time 85-64 over Australia in the Olympic semifinals.

The U.S. will face the winner of France and Belgium on Sunday.

That is a 0.851 percent assist-to-made-field-goal stat that is so astounding it doesn’t seem possible. Only a couple handful of NBA, WNBA, or men’s and women’s college teams have exceeded 70 percent over the last 25 years.

Even the dominant U.S. women’s team from the 2021 Olympics only managed a .796 assist-to-field-goal percentage, by far the previous high for this juggernaut program.

They need to play this team’s offensive cuts on a loop inside the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

“We talk about it all the time,” guard Diana Taurasi said. “Nothing should be hard for us. We should always make the next pass to the next guy to the next person.”

A field goal without an assist isn’t necessarily a sign of bad basketball. Sometimes there is a steal and an easy lay-up. Sometimes no one guards the person bringing the ball up. Whatever, it’s basketball. As long as you score.

The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors won a record 73 NBA games and only hit 0.680 as a percentage. The current U.S. men’s team is at 0.695. Those are elite numbers by any other standard.

It is a marvel to watch an all-star roster like this American squad completely and fully commit to team basketball like perhaps no one ever has. They just never stop looking for the high-percentage shot.

It’s the most unselfish team imaginable. Every middle school coach who has spent their careers screaming “pass the ball” is smiling somewhere.

“That’s what USA Basketball is all about,” guard Kelsey Plum said. “Next pass. Next pass. We have so many people who create mismatches, especially our post players, so move it, find it and knock down shots.”

The U.S. is so much better than the rest of the world that it could likely play any style it wanted and still cruise in for a gold medal. It’s now won 60 consecutive games and is seeking its eighth consecutive Olympic title.

And yet, that isn’t what this team is about. At the end of the third quarter, the U.S. had assisted on 27 of its 28 baskets, often with six, seven, even 10 passes before shooting.

If there is another one like it in basketball history, we haven’t found it. Last year’s San Antonio Spurs hit 0.712, the best number in the NBA over a quarter of a century. Since 1997, the highest assist-to-made-field-goal percentage in men’s college basketball was the 1997 Princeton team, which reached 0.775.

Last year’s San Antonio Spurs hit 0.712, the best number in the NBA over a quarter of a century.

Notable teams of the past? Bob Knight’s 1976 Indiana Hoosiers popularized the motion offense but only assisted on 60.4 percent of made baskets. The 1985 Showtime Los Angeles Lakers were at 0.652. The 1986 Boston Celtics managed 0.642. The great Geno Auriemma Connecticut teams appear to all top out below 0.700.

There really isn’t a contender other than that 2021 women’s Olympic team and this one is blowing it out of the water.

It’s just pass, pass, pass, score.

Rinse. Repeat.

“All of us know what we can do, but when we share the ball, it’s something special,” center Brittney Griner said. “We’re so selfless on this team and that’s what makes us really good.”

Historically so.