U.S. Basketball stars prepare to avoid letdown

By Associated Press Monday, July 21, 2008 - Added 5m ago LAS VEGAS - Three weeks wasn’t enough time to prepare for the last Olympics. So now the United States is trying three years. The Americans open training camp today, but they’re much closer to the end of their Olympic preparations than the beginning. With the same coaching staff and many of the same players back for their third straight summer, much of the work has already been done. There isn’t the same rush to cram everything in as there was four years ago, when the Americans were together for only 20 days before their first game in Athens - a 92-73 blowout loss against Puerto Rico that was their worst defeat ever in the Olympics. They lost twice more and left with a bronze medal, citing a lack of preparation as one of their biggest problems. Carmelo Anthony was on... [read full story]