Kyrie Irving scored 15 points and the US men’s basketball team survived its second straight strong challenge in the Rio Games, edging Serbia 94-91.
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If the United States men’s basketball team wants to win a gold medal, if it wants to avoid the ignominy of losing for the second time in the past four Olympics with NBA players, it had better prepare to win a lot of fidgety games.
Like so many other teams, China came in to their final Group B contest looking for a first-ever win over the US, having lost all previous six Olympic encounters where they were outscored by an average of 34.7 points.
Kyrie Irving led the United States of America with 15 points and four assists.
Former NBA player Yi Jianlian continued to lead Team Dragon with 20 points, nine rebounds, two assists, and two shot blocks against Australia, but it was still not enough with his teammates not producing much.
The Americans struggled for the second straight game.
The U.S., which will wrap up preliminary-round play against France on Sunday, led 94-87 with 2:11 left on a basket by Anthony.
Serbia’s Miroslav Raduljica came up with 18 big points in the near upset, putting the moves on United States of America big men before fouling out in the fourth quarter. “We allowed them to get confident, they came back. For us, that’s not the case, ever”.
The Americans appeared to be assembling the ideal response to the Australia game when they bolted to a 23-5 lead against Serbia, but they found themselves hanging on frantically at the finish. The Serbs scored 76 points in the final three quarters as they shot 52 percent overall and 10-of-25 from long range.
While the US (4-0) lead Group A with one preliminary game remaining against France on Sunday, they have been plagued by turnovers in their last two contests and been unable to showcase the dominance that has always been their trademark. Well, Durant’s doing the same thing late in these games and it’s hurting Team USA.
Well, Team USA should respect everyone, particularly after struggling through the first quarter against Venezuela and for three quarters against Australia. China just doesn’t have the athleticism or firepower to keep up with some of the better teams in global play. “We played them in the World Cup two years ago for the championship”. The Americans led by 10 points entering the fourth quarter, but couldn’t put the game away early. It wasn’t that we couldn’t score, but we just weren’t scoring at the rate you saw in the first three games. That’s when the US turned up its defense.
He said the team’s members were still getting to know each other and that such challenges will help them tighten up for the medal rounds.
You wonder what would have happened if France had played Parker in this game.
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“We are that kind of a team that we never give up and we showed this today”, said Teodosic, one of Europe’s craftiest guards for the past decade.
