BASKETBALL Brown pushing right buttons

The 3-point shot is not being emphasized by the American team's coach.
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Coach Larry Brown has settled on a starting lineup, but plans to pare down his rotation of reserves. Asked where his team stands from a preparation standpoint, he really couldn't say.
"I don't know where we are," Brown conceded Wednesday as the U.S. basketball team spent an extra day on the road to get in one last hard practice before traveling to Athens today and opening the Olympics on Saturday against Puerto Rico.
"We have good moments and bad, but I have a pretty good understanding of who needs to play," he said. "Now the job is to get an understanding of how we have to play."
Pulpit Larry
Since the team opened training camp less than three weeks ago, Brown has been preaching about the need to "play the right way." That means plenty of ball movement, rebounding and defense, and not much of an emphasis on the 3-point shot.
With his team not having any great shooters, that latter point needs to be heeded.
Brown believes a rushed 3-point shot can too easily turn into a long rebound and a fast-break opportunity for an opponent, though he won't frown on the long-distance shot if one of his players is open from that range within the flow of the offense.
Brown has settled on a rotation of Tim Duncan, Lamar Odom, Richard Jefferson, Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury as the starters, with Carlos Boozer, Carmelo Anthony, Shawn Marion, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade as the key substitutes.
Amare Stoudemire and Emeka Okafor do not figure to play much, and Brown said Wednesday he'll need to shorten his rotation even further. Either James or Anthony will likely be the odd man out when that happens.
Making progress
"We're getting there, slowly but surely," Jefferson said. "Easily, we're the most talented team in the world, but it's a matter of have we had enough time to come together as a team, to know each other's tendencies and to understand what Coach Brown wants."
The U.S. team's weaknesses have at times been glaring -- especially on the first stop of their European tour when they were steamrolled by Italy and needed a last-second 3-pointer by Iverson to defeat Germany.
"The talks we had after that game [against Italy], the humility we felt, we really needed it," Odom said. "The key is to be confident and not cocky."