Team USA priding itself on defense: 'That's our identity'

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It's been gold medal or bust for Team USA at the Olympics ever since the 1992 Games welcomed NBA players for the first time, and with the exception of an ignominious bronze-medal performance in Athens in 2004, they've won gold at each Olympic tournament since then.

This year's iteration, however, is carving out a unique identity with the specific way it's choosing to demoralize its overmatched opponents.

"Their defense is so good," Venezuela guard John Cox told ESPN's Marc Stein. "They can switch at every position," Cox said. "There's not really another team in the Olympics who can do that. Even their bigs can move their feet with our guards. That is why they are special."

That distinction is particularly pleasing to assistant coach and defensive specialist Tom Thibodeau, who was up and bellowing instruction throughout Saturday's preliminary contest against China, even as the U.S. romped to a 57-point win.

"Every night you want the bar set high," Thibodeau told reporters after the game. "So there's a lot of things we did well, but I'm sure there are things that we could do a little bit better. And that's what we want to keep our focus on."

Still, even the notoriously prickly Thibodeau had to admit his team brought it at the defensive end.

"It was good," he said. "It's the willingness to play for each other, on both sides of the ball, that makes this so special."

The U.S. players have glommed onto Thibodeau's defensive ethos and adopted it as their own.

"That's our identity," said DeMarcus Cousins. "That's something that's preached on the daily. That's something we've accepted as a team."

DeMar DeRozan said the players are "kind of challenging (them)selves" to keep putting the screws to their opponent on every possession. "You go all out," DeRozan said, "(because) you know you're not going to play a large amount of minutes to where you get fatigued."

When you're by far the best national team in the world, and most of your games produce laughably slanted scores, it can be hard to maintain motivation and focus for a whole game, let alone a whole tournament. So far, that doesn't appear to be an issue for this year's Team USA.

"I like the fact that we don't play the score," said head coach Mike Krzyzewski. "We just play the play."