Team USA gets a taste of redemption against Greece

By Chris Sheridan
ESPN.com

BEIJING -- Here is what this night of redemption looked like:

• Cold stares deep into the eyes of their opponents, even during warm-ups when the Greeks were running their layup line.

• A hustling Dwyane Wade lunging to save the ball from going out of bounds, then flinging it toward the rim, where Kobe Bryant came flying through the air to flush it through.

• A brand of defense that was all about smarts, quick hands, minimal risk-taking and emphatic shot-blocking.

• Athleticism triumphing over size and physicality, especially on the offensive boards, where the Americans' determination to get their fingers 12 feet up in the air allowed them to keep possessions alive.

This is what it sounded like afterward, coming from the mouth of one of the players who participated in that Greek tragedy two summers ago in Japan and had been waiting over 23 long, long months to exact some revenge:

"It meant a lot to us. We wanted to keep the pressure on them, kind of redeem ourselves," Chris Bosh said. "This was a payback game for us, and we knew people were wondering how we were going to respond."

Team USA gets a taste of redemption against Greece....