Patty Mills scored 30 points for Australia, which at one point was shooting 70 percent from the field to the Americans’ 28 percent. The Boomers finished the game with 16 giveaways to America’s nine. The U.S. made a few runs, but were never able to effectively pull away until late in the fourth quarter. It went into the locker room shooting just 37 percent overall, including Kevin Durant going 2-of-10.
Advertisement
Anthony scored America’s first nine points and when the Boomers took a 72 – 70 lead early in the fourth he put the USA on his back, levelling the score with a layup before pouring in four triples.
“I was waiting for a wake-up call and getting hit by this tough Australian team is what I needed”.
While Krzyzewski did not follow that strategy, he was forced to make decisions primarily due to foul trouble for DeAndre Jordan and DeMarcus Cousins.
It was an effective strategy for Team USA.
USA’s leading scorer Carmelo Anthony scored 27 of his game-high 31 points from behind the 3-point line.
The problem for Australia wasn’t that its offense stopped making shots, but the defense that was so disruptive early eventually wore down against the bigger and more physical United States team.
Anthony and Irving were the heroes for the United States over the final 10 minutes, as the duo combined to score the first 26 points for the team in the quarter. He saved the Americans from a shocking upset, as they downed Australia 98-88 to improve to 3-0 at the Olympics. He’s the leader on this team and we have a leader like that that’s going to leave it all on the floor, no matter what possession is going on throughout the game.
Advertisement
After two relatively-easy wins against China and Venezuela in opening-round play at the Rio Olympics, Team USA got their first real challenge against an Australian team that stunned Spain earlier in the week and got a gritty victory over Brazil after that. But the USA clamped down enough defensively in the second half to get the win. The red, white, and blue will have another tough contest Friday when they face off against Serbia.
