After Sunday’s game, Nicolas Batum was eager to point out that part of the U.S.’s problems is the improvement that’s taken place with other national teams – even though the US won by more than 30 points per game as recently as the 2014 World Cup. To push the U.S. as close as they did without the services of Tony Parker, who was rested because of a sore toe, suggests they have good things ahead.
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This time he didn’t play at all because of a toe injury.
Team USA easily won their first two games versus China (119-62) and Venezuela (113-69). Kevin Durant added 17 points. “We’ve been in those games down 15 and have to find a way to come back”.
MORE: Should Team USA be anxious?
George thinks it’ll be more of the same.
Team Argentina beat Team USA in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and the loss catalyzed a massive shift in USA basketball to where they now stand.
The USA has to be happy that they escaped group play with a 5-0 record and a No. 1 seed, they’ve never needed it more.
“The luxury (their opponents) have is that they’ve been together for so long”, George said. The team will have until Wednesday to do what they can to fix some of their shortcomings before their quarterfinal match. “They beat us two years ago, we beat them last year, and now we face them again in a critical game”, said Pau Gasol, a two-time National Basketball Association champion big man who leads Spain with 19.4 points and 8.8 rebounds a game. The first unit was led by Kevin Durant, while other starters got off to slow starts.
This isn’t the men’s team we’re talking about, but the women’s team who so far are the most dominant force at the Olympics. The second unit moved without the ball often, which helped keep France’s defense off-balance. The U.S. has had a tough time containing the opposition’s best playmakers for three consecutive games now, and letting them feast on the halfhearted defense of Melo, Irving, and Boogie Cousins is playing with fire.
Carmelo Anthony noticeably struggled in the first half.
The Americans have admitted their newly-assembled team is still getting acclimated to the global game. Anthony scored only 10 points and did so on 11 shots and was 2-for-7 from the 3-point line. Klay Thompson found his rhythm in the third quarter, hitting back-to-back shots at one point and raising his point total to 25. “This is very open, that tournament is pretty open”, Batum said. Klay Thompson scored six of those points for his fourth and fifth three pointers of the period.
Thompson is already perilously close to the sideline when he’s fading away to catch the ball, but manages to stay in bounds to shoot a contested fadeaway with zero wasted motion. Behind Thompson, Team USA was able to distance themselves on the scoreboard a bit. From this point, Team USA goes on a 13-6 run to extend the lead to fifteen, 80-65. “They haven’t been dominating, but they haven’t lost, either”.
After two slim victories, the us played France. Suddenly, a game that once seemed in control was turning into a nail-biter.
“The kid Heurtel, he played a great game”, coach Mike Krzyzewski said. The problem is, it isn’t getting any better. He makes all three free throws to cut the lead down to eight 67-59. The difference was the efficiency from three-point range. France tried to mount a comeback, but it would be too little, too late. But for the third straight game, the US team struggled to contain its opponent.
Again, Scola and Nocioni step to the forefront here, as Scola is third in rebounding at 8.0 per game, and he and Nocioni are second and third respectively in defensive rebounding.
“Everyone we see now is going to be explosive”, Thompson said.
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“That was the best team I’ve ever seen play”, said Schmidt, one of the Olympic flag bearers in the opening ceremony.
