The game finally ended with team U.S. maintaining their win over China with 119 – 62 points.
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Finally tested, Carmelo Anthony and Kyrie Irving had the answers. The Americans had no problems dominating their pre-Olympics exhibition schedule, then opened in Rio with lopsided victories over China and Venezuela.
Earlier on Wednesday, San Antonio Spurs National Basketball Association (NBA) star Tony Parker hit the game-winning shot with 31 seconds remaining to lift France to a thrilling 76-75 win over Serbia.
Carmelo Anthony was big at the start and the finish.
Kyrie Irving, who Australians like to claim as their own as he was born in Melbourne, was the second-best player for the USA with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting, including a dagger from three down the stretch, similar to Game 7 against the Golden State Warriors.
The Americans, who had barely broken a sweat in Brazil, trailed early in the fourth quarter before Anthony hit a flurry of 3-pointers to put the US on top.
Anthony, a three-time Olympic medallist is considered as one of the most prolific global players in the Olympics. Although their key player is not in the game, the team won all the three games they have played.
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. The Australian Boomers led the scoreboards 54-49 after the first half. Would he represent Australia, the country where he was born or would he represent the United States, where he has spent the majority of his life.
Cameron Bairstow played his best game of the tournament, scoring six points on 2-of-4 shooting and collected five valuable rebounds, showing some of the play that had him on the Chicago Bulls roster for two years.
Anthony’s 31-point eruption against Australia was both fitting and necessary.
Andrew Bogut had warned his teammates before the game not to fall into the trap of paying too much respect to the Americans. While they won by 10 points, with less then a minute to go the US only led by five.
The U.S. are now 3-0 in preliminary action at the 2016 Olympics.
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Colangelo was watching courtside as the team he built on the theory that chemistry is just as important as talent struggled to contain Australia defensively and was taken out of its offensive flow by the aggressive play of the Australians.
