Watch what he did to a hapless Argentinian defender on Friday night during Team USA’s exhibition game in Las Vegas.
Advertisement
There, Durant can expect a much warmer welcome as takes to his new home court for the first time.
It would be nice for George to find his shot in Tuesday’s game in Oakland, but the format makes it hard for him to work through early struggles to do so. Nocioni led his team in points (15) and rebounds (7).
Team USA will have another exhibition game on July 24th against China where we will hopefully get another look at Harrison Barnes before the olympic games and then the upcoming season for the Dallas Mavericks.
Although Team USA failed to return most of its members from 2012, Durant and Anthony were their top scorers, so they seemingly got the most crucial pieces back.
“I think I started LeBron (James) at the point and that was really probably the start of him – I just knew that we needed him in a prominent role”, Krzyzewski said.
Since adding National Basketball Association talent to its squads starting in the 1992 Olympics, US teams have gone 48-1 in Olympic preliminary-round play, the lone defeat to Italy in 2004.
If Argentina is going to be the biggest competition for Team USA, it may be better for the Olympic committee to just give us the gold now and have everyone else battle for silver. “The guys want to play it. It’s a matter of us getting down to understanding our coverages”.
“I really haven’t thought about it, man”, Durant said.
The roster of the 2016 USA Women’s National Team, led by head coach Geno Auriemma, includes Seimone Augustus, Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Tina Charles, Elena Delle Donne, Sylvia Fowles, Brittney Griner, Angel McCoughtry, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi and Lindsay Whalen.
Durant was greeted with a healthy dose of boos during pregame introductions – no doubt some from local fans who felt Durant should have joined the Clippers – before scoring a game-high 19 points. Seven of Cousins’ 15 rebounds in just 16 minutes came on the offensive end of the floor.
“We’ve only been together a week, but it seems like we’ve been teammates for years”, Jordan said. His Golden State Warriors teammate Klay Thompson scored 17 points and went 4-for-8 from three-point range, improving upon a poor shooting performance against Argentina. However, in Friday’s game against Argentina, Coach K ran three starters (Anthony, Irving, Durant) above 20 minutes played with two players not reaching 14 minutes.
Remarkably, Team USA hasn’t lost a game in 10 years.
Advertisement
For the US men’s Olympic team, however, it appears it has put together the necessary reinforcements to secure a third consecutive gold medal.
