The Warriors’ forward picked up where he left off at the 2012 Olympics with 25 points, and the Americans routed China 119-62 on Saturday in their opening game.
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There is high pressure on team United States of America to win third consecutive gold medal in Olympics especially because the new squad.
Next, USA basketball will play Venezuela on Monday. The U.S. Team is set to play against Venezuela on August 8.
Durant played on the 2012 US Olympic gold medal squad but this time has a clear starring role on a team with 10 Olympic debutantes, six of them in their first worldwide tournament.
The Americans, seeking a third straight men’s basketball gold medal and 15th in the 18 Olympics in which the US has competed, beat China by 50 and 49 in two preliminary exhibitions.
Worldwide basketball superstars Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, DeAndre Jordan, Harrison Barnes, DeMar DeRozan, Klay Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George and Draymond Green also made it into the USA Basketball final roster.
This was a game that went exactly as it was supposed to go, beginning with the 9-0 run to start the game for the US, and right through the 23-point lead the Americans built just two minutes into the second quarter. They scored a single time on their first six possessions and needed to find a groove that ended up being sought out by Durant. The U.S. possesses a litany of athletic wings who are capable of playing multiple positions. Team USA’s length on the defensive end really bothered the Chinese and they struggled to find quality shots all game, with the Chinese squad only hitting 35.7 percent of their shots and turning the ball over 24 times.
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China shot an abysmal 30 percent in the first matchup and 41 percent in the second game.
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Will Team USA dominate once more or will China surprise the world and score a giant upset against the tournament favorites? The Americans had five players to come up with 2 steals each. As the level of play required to be successful in the National Basketball Association grows exponentially, the competition in leagues outside of the United States fails to keep up. Just because they haven’t been here before, or they might not be MVPs, or ten-time all-stars, but we got some damn good players on this team.
