Rio 2016: Anthony carries United States of America past Australia

They’ve played three really tough opponents and they just play lights-out basketball. With a roster consisting of primarily bench players by National Basketball Association standards, the Aussies still managed an impressive showing, building 8 and 7 point leads in the first and second quarter respectively. “From playing with Australia the past few years, knowing the type of team they are and knowing the type of players they have, we knew it would come down to the end, where we would have to bunker down and make plays down the stretch”.

The American Men basketball team is in the group A in the preliminary round of the tournament.

You have to imagine a game like this caught the Americans’ attention a bit. Their first Olympic game against China started with a total score 0 – 4 and was later equalized at 4 – 4.

“DeAndre (Jordan) and DeMarcus (Cousins) were great on the boards”. After a timeout, China scored two more points to bring the scores to 13 – 6.

Tina Charles, who finished with 15 points, got going in the second quarter to help the US extend the advantage to 22 at the half. The game finally ended with team US maintaining their win over China with 119 – 62 points. Team Venezuela tends to be tough and controlled tempo. However, the reality of this last game against Australia is that, even though Team USA did eventually get the win, this was the first time in the competition that they were truly tested. The Australians, with big bodies inside, quality point guards to counter the American pressure, and a wealth of National Basketball Association championship experience, stood toe to toe with the team that had blown them out of the last two Olympics in the quarterfinals. At the end of the game, US won Venezuela with 113 – 69 points.

Australia has proven themselves a worthy foe who is not intimidated by the star power of Team USA. They upped their game in the third quarter, foiled a few attacks and hit on the fast-break to take a 70-67 lead at the end of the quarter.

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On Wednesday 10th August 2016, United States of America played their third game against Australia. He also made a record for having the most three-points field goals made in a single game in Olympic history after scoring 10 three-points in that game. He took a charge with 38.4 seconds remaining and Venezuela holding a one-point lead. United States of America beat Australia 98-88.