Team USA Wins Women's World Championships, Wolves Camp Update, Cavs Open NBA Preseason

Hello, everyone. Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. Happy Monday. These are the musings.

Ladies Win Gold

Team USA defeated Spain yesterday, 77-64, and received Gold Medal honors at the FIBA Women's World Cup Championships in Turkey.

The Americans rushed out to an early lead and Spain never really had a chance in this one. For a moment during the 1st quarter Team USA led 18-5, and brought a 48-29 into the locker room at halftime. After matched point-totals in the 3rd, the deficit was too much for the Spaniards to overcome.

Diana Taurasi, after successfully getting her teammates involved early in the game, finished with six-assists while Lindsay Whalen added 12 points. She connected on five-of-six attempts from the field. Simon Augustus grabbed six-rebounds and scored 10 points and Maya Moore, the '14 WNBA MVP, finished ahead of all-scorers at 18 points- she was 7 of 12 from the field.

The ladies finished this tournament undefeated (6-0). Team USA has not lost a Gold Medal Game at the World Championships since 1983.

Wolves Camp Stuff

On Tuesday, the Minnesota Timberwolves open their preseason schedule against the Indiana Pacers. There, the Wolves will be without the services of Kevin Martin, who is suffering from an adductor strain. Flip Saunders told media Martin will resume basketball activities on Thursday. The rest is likely only precautionary.

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Mo Williams called Flip a player's coach. What's that mean?: "He's a player‘s coach, being that he’s a coach of the players." Clears that up

— Jerry Zgoda (@JerryZgoda) October 5, 2014

Since Saunders appointed himself the Wolves' head coach some have expressed concern in regards to his coaching philosophy. Last week, Jerry Zgoda's tweet revealed Saunders would prefer Anthony Bennett shoot long-two's, as opposed to 3's. This ignited a discussion between a Wolves-minds on the Twitterverse but, until the season, all speculation is considerably trivial and nobody really knows what tactics Saunders will deploy this season.

For those who believe Saunders hasn't adopted any modern trends used by successful teams in the NBA, an excerpt from Zgoda's column may surprise you.

Saunders' "multi-action" offensive sets displayed in Mankato place Pekovic or Dieng underneath the basket and spread the other four players out near the three-point line.

Saunders goes on to imply the Wolves, compared to last season, will deploy looks that offer more floor-spacing than what Rick Adelman's corner offense bestowed last season. Still, the Timberwolves must be able to hit the shots, and Saunders has expressed three point shooting is a concern with this roster.

Preseason Stuff

The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated Tel Aviv Maccabi Electra, yesterday, 107-80. Every Cavs starter finished with double-digit point totals. All except Kevin Love, who finished with eight-points, 11 rebounds and four-assists. In his first game since re-joining the Cavaliers this summer, LeBron James scored 12 points while tallying four-rebounds as well as four-assists. It was David Blatt's first time coaching a preseason game in the NBA.

As for some positive notes from the Maccabi side, Sylven Landesberg, who connected on three-of-four 3's and shot six-of-six from the free throw line, and Jeremy Pargo scored 41 of the team's 80 points in the losing effort. Maccabi head coach Guy Goodes, a longtime assistant coach under Blatt, said it felt as though he was playing himself, only his other self had LeBron and Kyrie Irving.

Completely unnecessary update: Kevin Love can still throw outlet passes.

Music:

Here's what I'm going to do. It's Metal Monday. Not everyone likes Metal Monday. I'm going to leave a song for those who do like Metal Monday, as well as an alternative option for those who don't. Fair?

Metal

Not Metal