With 17:30 to go, it's Lithuania 50 and the U.S. 49. For me it was a flashback to 1984, Atlanta, Ga., and the NCAA Tournament. UNC versus Indiana where Dean Smith's most talented team, including Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, Kenny Smith, and Brad Daugherty, eventually lost to an Indiana team with far less talent but a set game plan designed to take away the Tar Heels main weapons in hopes that plan B would not develop. That is exactly what Lithuania did to the United States Dream Team last night. They packed their defense inside the lane, established an offensive tempo and played intelligent and aggressive basketball. The United States on the other hand, made no adjustments, showed no passion and eventually won by nine points finishing 85-76 -- the smallest margin in international play by a Dream Team now playing in their fourth major international competition.

Saulius Stombergas and Darius Songaila tie up USA's Antonio McDyess.(AP)

To look at the stat sheet is amazing. The U.S. team shot 35.7 percent making just 25 of 70 shots from the floor. Each possession was a repeat of the previous one, one player with the ball, four watching, very little offensive structure, other than one-on-one basketball. The U.S. team made six of 18 three-point shots, shooting from the short international three-point line The likes of Ray Allen and Allan Houston took only three of those 18 shots. These are two of the premiere shooters in all the world, so not only was the percentage poor, those who are our primary shooters weren't getting the opportunity to shoot

Lithuania at times played a 2-3 zone and it looked as if our team members had never seen one, with Alonzo Mourning consistently finding himself out of position for any offensive rebounding opportunities. The U.S. posted eleven assists and 15 turnovers -- that in itself is amazing -- and created nothing off our vaulted defense ability. There were also 23 personal fouls charged against the U.S. and only 27 against Lithuania. Lithuania actually shot 10 more free throws than the U.S. team. Fortunately they only made 27 of 43 shots or the game would have been closer.

There are games when stats can be deceiving, but not this one. Our team put on a very poor performance. This is a tough job for the coaching staff of Rudy Tomjanovich, Gene Keady, and Tubby Smith. All are outstanding coaches who know a lot more about basketball than I do. They are tough disciplinarians and I have seen first-hand how Tubby and Gene would react if their team put on such a performance. But they are in a very difficult situation trying to orchestrate a team of superstars. The major problem is distribution of playing time, thus taking away one of the primary motivators to the players that if you don't perform intelligently and with passion you will be relegated to the bench. That motivation is not available under the present circumstances since players will play equal time. They will call upon the 12 American superstars to look into the mirror and realize they are playing in the context of history established by the likes of Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson and it is time for that pride to step forward and perform as they are capable.

Take nothing away from Lithuania, a small country that previously shared their talent with the Soviet team. As an example, the 1988 gold-medal team of the Soviet Union included four members of the starting team of Lithuania. This is only the third Olympics for Lithuania. They have received medals in the two pervious opportunities and if they were with the services of Arvydas Sabonis, Zydrunas Illgauskas and Arturas Karnishovas, this would be a very formidable opponent for a silver medal.

The brightest spot from a basketball standpoint for the game was surprisingly the only non-professional player on either team. Of the 22 players, one was an amateur. Darius Songalia is a young man who may be familiar to basketball fans in the U.S. as he is a rising senior at Wake Forest. Songalia played 24 minutes, scored 16 points -- tops for both teams -- and had eight rebounds, which lead his team in rebounding as well. His spirited play and enthusiasm led the way for his team's very fine effort.

New Zealand is next. In some ways an unfortunate circumstance for Team USA as they may be the weakest opponent in this year's games. It will be very important for Dream Team 3 to establish early a new focus and attitude. In all three games in this Olympics, the team has started very slowly as if to have the attitude that their opponents would just roll over. Obviously that has not been the case. The time has come to show the world what great talent is possessed on this team, but it is a talent that is going to have to play with a passion that has not be exhibited thus far.