NBA-Led Team Gets Tested Early

The Dream Team had a fitful and frightening afternoon in a game that should have been a snooze.

After watching the U.S. 22-and-under basketball team strut off the court at halftime with a 17-point lead, the U.S. Olympians woke up in the second half for a 96-90 victory Saturday at Auburn Hills, Mich., in the first stop of their five-game exhibition tour.

The 22-and-under team led for all but one of the first 32 minutes and held a 59-42 halftime lead.

But in the second half, Hakeem Olajuwon and Scottie Pippen scored 27 of the Olympic team’s first 29 points to cut the deficit to two, and a 17-7 run ensured that the team would not lose for the first time.

“That was the best kind of game we could have had to open the exhibition season,” guard John Stockton said. “They showed us we’re going to have to play. Hopefully, it was a good wakeup call.”

As it was, though, it was the first time any of the three NBA-led teams had fallen behind by more than 10 points. And it will go down in the memory of Shea Seals, Austin Croshere and Tim Duncan as the day they beat the Olympians--at least for a half.

Pippen led the Olympic team with 17 points, and Olajuwon had 16, Karl Malone 13, David Robinson 12 and Charles Barkley 11.

Seals, a guard from Tulsa, had 20 points on eight-of-11 shooting for the Select Team. Croshere, a 6-foot-9 forward from Providence, scored 10 and had a moment to remember in the third minute of the game, when he rejected a shot by Shaquille O’Neal.

“We caught them off guard and I’m sure they took us too lightly,” Croshere said.

The Select Team made eight of their first 10 shots, hit six three-point baskets and shot 63% in gaining its halftime lead.

Most of the three-point shots were uncontested because the Dream Team did not seem interested in playing aggressive defense.