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The US team that is here is most made up of players from the sidelines of NBA league or those who played in Europe. They are not the team that trashed the opponents but rather a team Van Gundy chose based on physical potential. Both he and Popovich and all the players say the defense is the key for this team. Offensive-wise, they cannot be very good as they met only a month ago. The US won the only preparation game 97-73 against the Dominican Republic. Their opponents got 30 of their points from the free point line. Guard Hearn said they are happy with the defensive aggressiveness and that they will try and win this through defense. Panama are very limited offense-wise. They scored 52 points last year at Centrobasket against Mexico and only 48 points against the Dominican Republic. A year earlier at the qualifiers for the Olympics, they scored 66 against the Dominican Republic, 68 against Mexico, 57 against Argentina, 66 against Canada, 62 against Venezuela, 71 against Puerto Rico. They went over this margin only against Brazil (89 points) and Uruguay (78). They dominated through offensive rebounding in both games and that is how they won points. That will not happen today against the superior US team. This margin might have made sense if the US were that dream team in which they would go at 120 points and Panama would then have a chance of going over the margin. But the US won't look for fast pace here. They will rely on defense and that is something Panama won't be able to stand up to. They will barely reach 60 points.