The men’s basketball team scored the first nine points of the game and led for the entire game, but Serbia made a late run before finally falling 94-91 win against the Serbians.
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No. 50 is no given, and suddenly, a gold medal that seemed a formality just a few days ago is anything but certain.
Despite legendary college basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and a cast of All-World talent, Team USA has not been blowing teams out per usual.
The 2008 and 2012 powerhouses were filled with players who had competed previously in the Olympics or FIBA competitions, and understood the nuances even better than some of their opponents. The Americans led by 10 points entering the fourth quarter, but couldn’t put the game away early.
Serbia missed a game-tying three-pointer as their best three point shooter Bogdan Bogdanovic was left wide open with 5.2 seconds remaining in the game.
DeAndre Jordan scored 13 and Carmelo Anthony 12 for the US, which will close pool play on Sunday against France.
“I’m really proud of how we played in the last 35 minutes, but still we are missing two minutes on Australia and five minutes against U.S. so I hope that we’re going to get better and understand that we have to start playing for 40 minutes”, – Serbia coach Aleksandar Djordjevic on Friday’s close call against USA.
“As good as we are, if we continue to keep playing like this, these games are going to get even tougher,” George said.
“I think it’s great that we’re getting challenged”. Punctuated by drive and kicks, the USA racked up easy look after easy look, which led to them scoring 27 points on 50% shooting. We should have held the lead and we just got sidetracked by stupid stuff, from the calls to the physicality, the extra plays.
“At times we get lazy because we”re so athletic and we got so many guys that can do multiple things that we don”t talk the way we”re supposed to,” guard Jimmy Butler said. “That’s the way it’s going to be out here”.
Reality has set in for the US players. “Defensively”, says forward Paul George, of the Indiana Pacers, “is where we have to man up”.
USA women 81, Canada 51: With the offense struggling at points Friday for the first time, the Americans turned up their defensive effort to dispatch Canada.
Team USA is now 4-0 in group play while Serbia fell to 2-2. [They] play a game like this and [they’re] going to be celebrated win or lose.
After the game, both USA coach Mike Krzyzewski and George gushed about Serbia’s ball movement.
Australia had Andrew Bogut and Aron Baynes; Serbia had Nikola Jokic (who looks like he’s going to be a really good National Basketball Association player) and Miroslav Raduljica, all of whom outplayed their American counterparts. The three-time gold medalist and partner April Ross advanced to the quarterfinals of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament in a midnight match, dispatching Italy 21-10, 21-16 in just 35 minutes. The Brazilian basketball legend has played in five summer Olympics and was the top scorer in three of them. “But with a team like Serbia, they weren’t going to lay down”.
A look at the last two offensive possessions showed that the U.S.is lacking chemistry in half-court offense.
“The U.S.is the U.S.”, France star Tony Parker said.
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Men’s boxing: Nico Hernandez had a gnarly gash over his left eye that left him bloodied, with blurred vision and in need of stitches. But the USA found a determined team.
