Australia has proven themselves a worthy foe who is not intimidated by the star power of Team USA. He said, ‘You could be the starting point guard on the U.S. Olympic team’. At about 8.4 seconds to the end of the first quarter, US took a lead over Venezuela with 18 – 16 points. They’ve won two gold medals and 19 Olympic games in a row after the culture of the program was changed by USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo in the wake of the Olympic debacle of 2004 and the loss in the 2006 World Championships.
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Banged about and taken out of their game, the USA had to rally in the fourth quarter to salvage a 98-88 win that was even closer than the score indicated.
Team USA is by no means invulnerable, as Australia showed when they nearly defeated Team USA before the latter escaped with a victory. “It’s good that they had it early”. Team USA has shown us not only how basketball will be played, but also who will rule it. Australia has five [NBA] pros. They played hard and they played physical, refusing to give any possession away.
“First of all, you get frustrated”, Krzyzewski said.
Prediction: This is going to be a close call for the Americans, but my money are on them.
Taurasi added: “We lost a game like that in Brazil 10 years ago where we didn’t overcome that stuff and Russian Federation beat us, and we got third place in the World Championship”. Theirs happened in pool play.
On the other side of the floor, neither Bogut nor Baynes has the type of offensive game that can really punish a smaller defender for guarding them.
The Americans, who had barely broken a sweat in Brazil, trailed early in the fourth quarter before Anthony hit a flurry of 3-pointers to put the Americans on top. The team is made up of talented basketball players like; Jimmy Butler, Carmelo Anthony, DeMarcus Cousins, Harrison Barnes, Kevin Durant, DeMar DeRozan, Draymond Green, Paul George, DeAndre Jordan, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Kyle Lowry.
It was the first Olympic game between the nations, and a rematch of the 2014 Basketball World Cup championship won by the USA 129-92. “There was no thought of defeat”. Let’s just move on to the next thing and see if we can handle that going forward, because we need you’. We’re not going to back down to anyone. Serbia shot 52 percent and was led by the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, who played his best game of the tournament by far. But Serbian center Miroslav Raduljica has played in the league, and guard Bogdan Bogdanovic’s rights were recently acquired by the Sacramento Kings in a draft-day trade with Phoenix. At the end of the game, United States of America won Venezuela with 113 – 69 points.
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As for the 2016 edition, it may not be the bringer of on-court starvation and destruction that it could’ve been, but it’s a fine and good team- wait, is that Harrison Barnes? – built on the principles of versatility and skill.
