The United States played on cruise control Wednesday, running an uninspired – often static – one-pass-at-best offense and a lazy defensive scheme that the Australians had no problem carving up with backdoor cuts.
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After brushing aside China and Venezuela, the Americans encountered an unbeaten and very confident Australia team that led 54-49 at half-time with Pat Mills and Andrew Bogut scoring 14 points.
Notably, the wide disparity that the U.S. usually has with their bench was not present against Australia.
The USA can get away with that stuff against China and Nigeria – but not Australia.
In my last article I said that Australia would provide Team USA with their toughest competition in pool play, but I did not think that Australia would push the US until the final minutes.
Mills scored 15 points in the first half as the Aussies shot 68 per cent in the first half, sinking 19-of-28 shots from the floor, while the Americans made only 37 per cent (17-of-46).
U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski was full of praise for the Australians, describing them as genuine gold medal contenders.
Carmelo Anthony had a game-high 31 points for the U.S., with Melbourne-born Kyrie Irving scoring 19 points.
In the second quarter, the Aussies were even better. Both players were often matched up against each other throughout the night.
Anthony’s Olympic odyssey began with a disappointing performance in Athens, where the Americans staggered to a bronze medal and worldwide embarrassment.
Australian teams are 0-19 against the USA, but the full-game test they posed may fuel belief among other teams that the U.S. squad can be threatened and perhaps denied a third consecutive gold medal. Anthony opened the game by making three 3-pointers and then moved past James, his close friend, with another 3 from the left wing with 1:08 left in the first quarter. Stephen Curry, a talented basketball player, withdrew from the team on 6th June 2016 as a result of ankle and knee injuries he sustained.
Shooting just 39% from the field, Team USA struggled to get to their spots, forcing the offense with several broken plays, relying on their dominance on the offensive glass to keep themselves in the game. They played three really tough opponents, us being the third one – they just played lights out basketball.
He also called the Australians, who start five NBA players and feature two former NBA players on their bench, “role players”: “These guys are role players in the NBA”.
Per ESPN, Anthony, who has played for Team USA in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, surpassed the record of LeBron James on Wednesday as the all-time top scorer in the history of US men’s national basketball team. Carmelo Anthony led Team USA with 31.
Next up for the Americans is Friday’s matchup against Serbia at 5 p.m. EST on NBC.
Still, the US shouldn’t take comfort in the fact that they won by double digits Wednesday.
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Maybe more surprising than anything was the fact that Australia didn’t respect them one bit.
