Attempting to be objective, I think all of the factors cited in this and other threads about the USA second-half defense (Sue's halftime speech, Tina's renewed determination, Parker not defending Cambage, Asjha's excellent positional defense), while certainly true and significant to some degree, are far less important than one simple fact: Elizabeth Cambage completely ran out of gas. At the beginning of the second half, having just had 15 minutes recovery time, she continued to overpower Tina. But she could not sustain her energy, whereas Tina never wore down. When the USA started to establish an advantage, she was on the bench, recovering again. When she returned, she was often at the high post, avoiding the physical battles that would occur if she went closer to the basket. Even there, she was not gripping the ball (ask Maya) and when she was on defense Tina easily beat her a few times.
If Cambage had been in adequate physical shape for this level of competition, the game would have been entirely different, and the USA would have been lucky to win.
I do agree that Asjha's immovability (by Jackson and Batkovic as well as Cambage) was a very significant factor causing the Aussies' reduced scoring in the second half. Brunson might have done as well, but not Dupree. But I agree with cardfan that the missing resource for Team USA was Nneka. If she were on the team (instead of either Swin or Asjha) and had played maybe 20 minutes against Australia, it might easily have added 10 points to the margin of victory. Cambage would not have found it easier to move her than to move Tina or Syl, and she would have dived for more contested balls than the players in the game.
