The game finally ended with team United States of America maintaining their win over China with 119 – 62 points.
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Carmelo Anthony took the U.S. to a close victory.
On Wednesday 10th August 2016, US played their third game against Australia. The Americans had no problems dominating their pre-Olympics exhibition schedule, then opened in Rio with lopsided victories over China and Venezuela.
With Anthony leading the way for the stars and stripes and Irving coming alive late, here’s a few thoughts on the US on Wednesday and what’s ahead for them with two games left in pool play before the knockout stage begins next week.
Anthony finished the game with 31 points.
Carmelo, who scored a game-high 31 points and became USA’s all-time leading scorer in Olympics, later admitted that they were prepared for an assault from the Aussies. The one two punch of Carmelo Anthony and Kyrie Irving carried the U.S.in crunch time, scoring every point in the fourth quarter. He’s the leader on this team and we have a leader like that that’s going to leave it all on the floor, no matter what possession is going on throughout the game.
Kevin Durant capped off the scoring with two free throws, making him the only player other than Irving or Anthony to score in the final period. However, Irving was much better in the second half, and hit several big shots – including a huge three after Australia cut the lead to four – in the final minutes. The team shot just 39 percent overall, but settled in on the defensive end and hit enough from beyond the arc to hang on.
While the USA had easily routed Senegal and Spain in its first two games, winning by an average of 52.5 points, it had a harder time against the hot-shooting Balkan nation. The USA eventually beat Australia with a total of 98-88 points.
Patty Mills had 30 points and Matt Dellavedova had 11 points, six rebounds and 11 assists as the Aussies didn’t take a backwards step against the USA team. Matthew Dellavedova had a double-double with 11 points, 11 assists and six rebounds in 32 minutes. You would recall that the U.S. had over the past weeks, won their two exhibition games against China with a total score of 106 – 57 and 107 – 57 respectively. They’re used to crushing opponents and just had a tough time against a team led by National Basketball Association reserves. No male has ever won three in the sport of basketball.
The U.S. are now 3-0 in preliminary action at the 2016 Olympics.
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Australia has defeated Serbia and France in these Olympics.
