The Americans built their lead to 56-31 at the end of three quarters, out rebounding Venezuela 54-29.
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Team USA is a flawless 3-0 on its exhibition tour after cruising to wins over Argentina and China (twice) by a combined 136 points.
“Quite frankly, I’m very pleased about tonight because you don’t just want to just hit 17 3s and not work hard”, USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. Predictably, the Americans rolled and Irving co-led Team USA with 13 points in 21 minutes of action.
Irving was the lone USA player in double figures in the first half. “I’m glad that I got to play here for US in front of my hometown crowd”. “I’m just thankful I get to have them on my team”.
Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson led the team’s balanced scoring attack with 13 points apiece.
At least, that’s how it went until DeAndre Jordan’s alley-oop throwdown of a pass from Kevin Durant gave them something to roar about, putting U.S. up 62-37 with 6:47 left.
Including his MVP performance in the 2014 World Championships, Irving will actually play more games for Krzyzewski as a member of Team USA than he did as a Blue Devil.
A flurry of late baskets boosted the Americans’ shooting accuracy above 40 percent in the final minutes of the contest, ending the game with 28 made field goals against 66 attempts, a 42.4 percent success rate.
Venezuela point guard John Cox scored 12 of his team-high 14 points in the first half. Nestor Colmenares pulled down 10 rebounds.
“Their defense is good”, Cox said of the U.S. That’s not typical of this U.S. Olympic basketball team.
Before Butler’s introduction drew the most applause of the night, former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau received a thunderous ovation when he was announced with the US coaching staff. Thibodeau took a year off after he was sacked by the Bulls in May 2015, and then was hired in April as coach and president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves. “It was great. I love the fact that my town gave a guy who gave them his heart and soul for the number of years he’s been here, and acknowledged that”. Even though, due to injury, Irving had only played 11 games for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, Coach K always believed his young point guard was destined for great things.
The star power also extended to the sideline near the US bench, where former Olympians Scottie Pippen and Dwyane Wade watched the action attentively.
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This U.S. team has the talent to win gold in Rio but needs to play better than it did Friday.
