• Slug: Sports–Team USA. 930 words.
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By Joshua Heron
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – As Diana Taurasi spoke to reporters Saturday outside the Team USA locker room after the WNBA All-Star game, Phoenix Mercury teammate Kahleah Copper walked behind the six-time Olympian, dancing with one hand in the air and a flour taco in the other before using her unoccupied hand to play with Taurasi’s ear.

Taurasi turned, laughed and Copper leaned her head on the 20-year veteran’s shoulder.

Copper, in her first year with the Mercury, has quickly formed chemistry with her first-time teammate, a primary reason why Phoenix sits four games above its win total last year at 13-12 during the Olympic break. However, the Mercury aren’t Copper’s only new team this year, as she was selected for her first Olympic team.

Team USA reconnected during the WNBA All-Star weekend for the first time since training camp in April. Its 117-109 loss to Team WNBA Saturday night at Footprint Center exposed chemistry flaws, but Copper trusts time will heal that wound.

“I think we’re going to get better every single day,” Copper said. “As the time passes, we’re going to spend more time together, play more games together, practice together (and) understand what your role is and that just comes with time.”

The WNBA All-Star weekend was helpful not only for Team USA’s rapport but also in helping new Olympic members like Copper adjust to their roles.

“You just get the chance to navigate through being a hooper,” Copper said about the positives of playing with Team USA. “Whether it’s navigating through when I’m playing with my team, what my role is with my team. Then I get with Team USA, what my role is with the USA. So I’m able to be a chameleon in that, and I think that speaks to who I am.”

Team USA returns seven players from the 2021 Olympic squad. With five new faces, Taurasi recognizes the importance of the “little moments.”

“It’s very direct,” Taurasi said about building chemistry. “It happens on the bus. It happens when we get to practice. It happens during stretching. It’s all these little moments to get to know your teammates a little bit better so when you’re on the court, you have that trust and you understand what we need for each other to win gold.

“And we’ll get there. That’s been a thing that we can say is a weakness, but we are going to use it as a strength.”

Team USA arrived Saturday in London, where it will play Germany Tuesday in an exhibition match. The Americans begin their quest for an eighth straight gold medal next Monday against Japan. Mercury center Brittney Griner understands the team needs to improve defensively to win. Griner pointed to Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogdenbowale who, after scoring zero points in the first half of the WNBA All-Star game for Team WNBA, exploded in the second half with 34 points en route to All-Star game MVP honors.

“When someone takes off like that, we’re going to make those adjustments a little bit better on whoever that person is,” Griner said. “But overall, we did pretty good. But giving up (117 points), we know we can’t do that.”

Copper, however, shined defensively and finished the game with three steals. Griner acknowledged that her teammate’s defensive presence is imperative to Team USA’s Olympic hopes.

“She’s hectic out there. She’s a bully,” Griner said. “Even if she’s doing her amazing defense, they hit a shot, she’s right back (at) them. There’s not a letdown in her. She’s like, ‘OK, I’m about to give even more,’ and that’s what we need, especially on this team right now. We need that spark. We need that chaotic defense (and) pressure.”

Offensively, Griner believes Team USA was consumed with extra passing instead of taking an open look – a selflessness that reflects a lack of experience with one another’s gameplay.

“You never want to make excuses, and we all know what we do on our other teams, and sometimes we’ll pass up something to try and get something better, but we need to take that one right there,” Griner said.

Taurasi said Team USA was “probably playing the second best team in the world,” and after analyzing their play Saturday, remains hopeful that the team will recover during the Olympics.

“In a game like this, it’s kind of hard to string things together, and I think offensively we couldn’t put enough possessions together. Defensively, I think we got a test,” Taurasi said. “We have a lot of things communication-wise to figure out, but we’re all bought in. We’re excited. This (Olympics) is a tough challenge, and we’re all ready for it.”

Taurasi said the weekend provided “a lot of lessons” and was just the “beginning of our journey.”

“You put that USA jersey on, and you think it’s just going to happen automatically, but we are all in this together, and we’ll be fine,” Taurasi said.

Team USA’s eight-point loss Saturday is the same margin of defeat it suffered to Team WNBA in the 2021 All-Star Game before heading to Tokyo, where the Americans won Olympic gold. One may deem an eight-point loss to Team WNBA during an All-Star weekend a prerequisite to a gold medal, but for Taurasi, unity will fulfill their grand expectations.

“Every chance we get together, we get to evolve, we get to know each other a little bit better, we get the chance to really build team chemistry, and we’re just going to understand there’s one goal, and that’s to win gold,” she said.

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