The lead was only four points before Irving released the three-pointer, and the pressure inside the arena was so intense.
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Wednesday night, Irving made that shot again during Team USA’s contest with Australia at the Olympics in Rio.
The Australians, ousted by the Americans in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic quarter-finals, have four players who won National Basketball Association titles and had talked of pulling off an upset.
Of Note: Paul George started in place of Klay Thompson, who was just 1-of-11 from the field in the first two games.
San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills helped keep Australia in the preliminary-round game with 30 points.
Matthew Delladova scored 11 points and 11 assists, including six rebounds.
The first American male basketball player to appear in four Olympics, Anthony passed LeBron James on the career scoring list during the first quarter of Wednesday’s game. “It definitely got real”. “We have a different feeling now and we want to keep that going”.
Australia scored just 34 points in the second half, and the United States of America shot 56.3% and made 5-for-9 three-pointers in the fourth quarter.
Miroslav Raduljica scored 16 points for Serbia (1-2), which fell into a 20-4 hole in front of top-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic, who watched his home country after he was eliminated in singles earlier in the Olympics.
It was the second straight game the Americans were tied after one quarter. They quickly blew away Venezuela after it was 18-all, but the only second-quarter surge in this one was made by Australians. As this group moves toward a third consecutive Olympic gold, it needs to figure out how to get stops late in games, how to execute offensively and who – beyond Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant – it can rely on with the game undecided in the final minutes.
Irving once considered playing for Australia, where he was born while his father was playing there professionally.
The Aussies hit hard and the Americans hit back, with George getting a technical foul for a shot at Dellavedova.
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It was a welcome test for the Americans, who have been so dominant under Krzyzewski that it sometimes seems the US players are the only ones who don’t make a gold medal sound assured.
