Team USA should still win this one, but with their struggles, it’s hard to call it a certainty.
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Almost two years ago, inside a joyous arena in Madrid where the American revelry went deep into the night, Kyrie Irving and the rest of the Team USA walked out with FIBA World Cup gold medals that had been earned with surprising ease.It wasn’t just that they were the FIBA World Cup men’s basketball champs. I’m not concerned, we’re not concerned with things we could do a little bit better, but we’re okay.
That near-miss should’ve gotten the US team’s attention.
Great. Dominant. Those are the standards the Americans have set.
U.S. seems to struggle against crisp ball movement and prolific big men in this Olympics.
Throwing smothering pressure at opponents, they came into the France game leading the field with an average 18.8 turnovers forced per game and 24.8 points off those thefts. He said, “I think our offense is hurting our defense as well”. “So it’s going to be big matchup Sunday”.
The Americans (4-0) had been scoring at a record pace, topping 100 points in each of their first three contests – the first time a team’s done that at the Olympics.
The Americans could never put away the French in this one, even with Thompson finally having his first good performance in Rio de Janeiro.
The Americans supposedly left third-place finishes behind long ago. It had better get used to surviving, like it did Friday night in a 94-91 victory over Serbia that wasn’t certain until Bogdan Bogdanovic missed a 3-point attempt in the final second. For us, it’s just figuring out how we’re going to win. We know that coming in, but at the same time, we can’t crumble the way we’ve done the past two games. “Hopefully these will be the ones that help prepare us later on for the style of this tournament”. It seemed like a blowout was in the works, like the Americans were about to show that the Australia game was an aberration.
Team USA is now at the top of Rio 2016 Olympics men’s basketball standings, with an impressive winning streak of 4-0. Instead of bringing experienced Olympians to Rio de Janeiro, they have 10 rookies, players who look more like lost tourists when it comes to the ways of global basketball.
“I’m not too concerned”, said Paul George, who had 12 points in the win while Kyrie Irving led the United States with 15.
The Americans have all been asked to assume roles that are different than the ones they play on their National Basketball Association teams and the adjustment has been far from seamless. “So that may be sometimes”.
“The U.S.is the U.S.”, France star Tony Parker said. He spun off a defender in transition and finished the play with an emphatic dunk, as Team USA started the game on a 9-0 run. Sure, American college players managed to win every gold medal until a bronze in 1988 – except for 1972 when the Soviets were inexplicably given two do-overs in the final to steal it from them – but those days are as dead and gone as the Soviet Union itself. After a close call against Australia and Serbia, the rest of the field might be starting to believe the Americans can be taken.
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Coach Mike Krzyzewski, though, insists there is more global balance in hoops.
