She doesn't respond well to physical play. She gets thrown off her game if you keep hitting her in the body. At least three or four missed layups. She relies too much on her height and doesn't utilize basic fundamentals as well as she should.
I didn't think the US would miss Sue Bird as much as they did. The offense was really sloppy and sputtered a lot. They got by with their defense in the second half. Seimone Augustus really bailed them out in a way by hitting a series of clutch jump shots when needed the most.
I'm impressed by Maya Moore's play off the ball. Obviously she is a great offensive threat, but the way she chases down loose balls, crashes the boards, gets key steals (leading the team in steals), switches on defense....she is doing all the dirty work that needs to be done for the team to succeed. In college she seemed like a bit of a prima donna, and the book was that if you muscled her, she'd get rattled. No longer, apparently.
Kind of neat that the USA coaching staff has the Lynx head coach on staff (three championships in five years) as well as the best college coach ever. It is probably harder than one would expect to coach a team full of superstars at all 12 roster spots, to get every one of them all to buy in 100% to being role players. Even on the bench they are all actively involved in cheering and supporting their teammates.
