Leslie talks Phelps, hoops, in first-person diary

EDITOR'S NOTE: Lisa Leslie periodically will take a behind-the-cenes look at the U.S. women's Olympic team in a first-person diary.

By LISA LESLIE=

%pickup(For The Associated Press%)

BEIJING (AP) Welcome back to the Lisa Leslie Olympic diary. I'm here at the Olympics at a park in Beijing. I just finished an interview with NBC for the "Today" show, it might air Wednesday morning - check it out. Of course, you also can check out my AP video diary and see what I have been doing.

We have just completed pool play. The USA team is 5-0. We're really excited, because we hung our hats basically on our defense and our pressure. We rattled some teams, got some steals, beat a few teams by 40.

It got a little rough though.

If you saw the game against Spain, Diana (Taurasi) got into it with one of the players and had to slap her. OK, well she got slapped and then pushed her back and there was a technical. Then as you saw the last game against New Zealand, I got hit and kind of slapped a girl. I got a technical. We've been trying to avoid getting technicals or into the physicality of the teams, but it's just a much more physical game playing at the Olympics. It's a lot different than in the WNBA.

But as we get ready to go into the real part of the Olympics - the quarterfinals, then semifinals and then the finals - the games are probably going to get more physical. We play Korea, which is a very good team, because they can shoot the ball beyond NBA range. They are very smart. We are going to have to be on our defensive game and do a lot of switching, because they are basically all the same size. Off the court we've been having a lot of fun.

The team has been hanging out, going to all the men's games. LeBron (James) has been off the chain. You see that play when he caught that one shot off the glass. It's been amazing watching him and Kobe (Bryant), Dwyane Wade has been playing really well. Overall, the guard play has been excellent. Their pressure defense has been looking pretty much like ours. In the post, Chris Bosh has been my favorite - he's really stood out for me. I think he and I have been doing that thing in the post. Dwight Howard is going to have step his game up like he did against Germany to help the USA in these medal rounds. I'm just keeping it real.

(Carlos) Boozer doesn't get in the game a lot, but I like him, he's cool. I just met his wife yesterday, you know we're all staying at the same hotel. She had to use my hot curlers because hers blew because she didn't have the right adapter. So I let her use mine, she brought them back and mine were blown. But I'm not going to tell anybody - though she does owe me another set of hot curlers. Just kidding.

We had a dinner with Johnson & Johnson, they're a great sponsor of USA Basketball, and my daughter needs Johnson & Johnson. So I dressed her up so maybe she can get her first contract.

And we're all still talking about Michael Phelps. This cat won his eighth gold medal. I guess since the Olympics were 8-08 he decided to take eight gold medals home. He is inspiring. He got all of us talking about what other Olympic sport we could do if we didn't play basketball. I could probably medal in volleyball, indoor, not beach. It would take me about three months to be able to jump in beach volleyball. Diana's claim to fame was badminton or table tennis. DeLisha (Milton-Jones) said she could run the 800 and Katie Smith could do the shotput and probably get a gold medal.

There are a lot of sights to see in Beijing and every other day, my husband Michael, my sister Tiffany, my stepdaughters Gabriel and Mikaela have been on the go. They went to the Great Wall. But I haven't been out yet. On my off days I stay home with Lauren, because I'm here for one reason: to win my fourth gold medal.

That's what I came for. Well, that's it for now. The next time I talk to you I hope to be wearing my fourth gold medal. Say bye-bye Lauren, blow kisses.