The team defeated Argentina by a commanding score of 111-74 in an exhibition game played in Las Vegas on Friday night.
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The Americans were in control nearly immediately and built a 55-29 lead by halftime, shooting just 48.8 percent – hardly the stuff of blowouts – but overwhelming their opponents with a constant flurry of attempts.
U.S. and China are right back at it again on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET at Oracle Arena, as Durant makes his first appearance on his new home court in Oakland.
The USA Men’s National Team displayed their diverse talents during an exhibition game against China’s national team.
After that, he’ll get more of a taste of what his new National Basketball Association journey will bring when he visits Chicago’s United Center and Houston’s Toyota Center before Team USA officially begins its quest for Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro. They’re slated to play on August 6, the first day of action, as the Americans look to defend their title as the world’s basketball superpower. We’ll see. I don’t know what to expect.
These teams will meet again Tuesday evening. There are only a few teams in the world that can come even close to supplying the talent to keep up with the USA, and China is not of them.
Charles, along with several other players in the league, protested the recent violence by wearing all-black warm-up shirts ahead of some of their games this month and got fined by the league for uniform violations. China did force one more turnover (13) than Argentina was able to force on Friday, so it worked a little bit.
“We’ve only been together a week, but it seems like we’ve been teammates for years”, Jordan said.
“No, I didn’t hear it”, Durant said when told he had been booed during pregame introductions.
Argentina forward Luis Scola (4) is defended by U.S. guard Kevin Durant (5) during a basketball exhibition game at T-Mobile Arena.
Strictly statistically speaking, Jordan finished with 12 points, five rebounds, three blocks, two assists and two steals in 17 active minutes.
The teams will also play in the Olympic opener on Saturday, Aug. 6.
One team that’ll be playing in the Olympics that has shot well lately is Serbia, which in four Olympic qualifying games earlier in July, shot 54.6 percent from the floor and 42.4 percent from three-point range.
“When you’re out there right now, you don’t even think about the fact that we are teammates”, Green said.
So it was left for each side to set a mission and focus on specific details in what turned into a 106-57 rout for Team USA.
For Gong, who coached China at the 1996 Olympics, it was a 20-year-old replay with different names in the US scoring column.
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“We can be a lot better and that’ll come”. He was joined in the starting lineup Sunday by two other players with Southern California ties.
