It was the first time the Americans had trailed in an Olympic game in 12 years.
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A solid defensive effort throughout the game will be quite necessary against a flawless 2-0 Australia, which features five National Basketball Association players, including center Andrew Bogut (formerly teammates with Team USA’s Klay Thompson and Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors), and guards Matthew Dellevedova and Patty Mills.
If Australia hadn’t shown up to win, if it hadn’t fought like insane, if it hadn’t legitimately put a scare into Team USA and maybe even deserved to win Wednesday, whatever remaining Olympic basketball drama there was in Rio would have evaporated.
“(Carmelo’s) our rock”, Irving, who finished with 19 points, told NBC after the game.
“He was wanting that moment”, teammate Paul George said after the Americans escaped an upset.
Anthony knocked down nine 3-pointers – one shy of his USA record – and finished 11 of 21 from the field. Irving had 17, with 10 coming in a tense fourth quarter, this after Team USA had reportedly been installed as 27-point favorites.
In its third game of the Olympics, Team USA founds itself in a dogfight against Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills and the Australians.
Unbeaten since the bronze medal game of the 2004 Athens Summer Games, the United States was on the brink of a rare loss until a fourth quarter rally.
A team that won its first two games by a combined 101 points could never get a comfortable lead – and for a while couldn’t get one at all.
“That’s the first real global game we had…”
The point guard who plays professionally for the San Antonio Spurs scored 30.
The French led by 16 in the first quarter, then had to climb back from a 75-70 deficit by scoring the final six points of the game. If good opponents such as Australia are going to stagnate Team USA’s offense and force defense to be the key, there’s little reason for Coach K to persist with conventional bigs.
Tina Charles, who finished with 15 points, got going in the second quarter to help the USA extend the advantage to 22 at the half.
Anthony moved past LeBron James as the US career leader in Olympic scoring and did it quickly, using a hot start to make up the 11-point advantage James had entering the game.
The Aussies hit hard and the Americans hit back, with George getting a technical foul for a shot at Dellavedova. This will be America’s toughest test to date.
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And yet they had come so close. They grew up with rugby or Australian-rules football, and so they bring a real physicality to everything they do on the court.
