That animosity was on full display Sunday night when Durant and his Warriors teammate Draymond Green took the floor for Team USA in a friendly tune up before the Olympics against China. With a whole four minutes coming between the first and second baskets for the US, it took some time for the engine to warm up. But once it did, the Americans ran China out of the gym, winning 106-57.
Advertisement
Durant noticed it, as did Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, who kicked off the festivities by blocking a shot on China’s first possession and throwing down an alley-oop dunk on the Americans’ first possession. This is wonderful news, because I am all the way here for Kevin Durant-as-heel. That should be interesting to watch if you’re going to the game tonight. Also, it’s not called “despair” so long as you can still get angry.
“It’s behind me, it’s behind me”, he said of the injury.
He’ll do so as a member of Team USA, playing in an exhibition game against China for the second time in a week.
Meanwhile, China will still rely on the former National Basketball Association player Yi Jianlian and two of 2016’s National Basketball Association draft picks Zhou Qi and Wang Zhelin this Tuesday to avenge the earlier defeat. Sure, Durant may have only missed two shots and hit four of his five three-point attempts to lead all scorers, but Jordan’s physical size and athletic movement kept the crowd interested until the sun set in LA and on China. “I didn’t hear it”, Durant said. He was off at Edgewood participating in the (hopefully) annual Group Carlton with Alfonso Ribeiro and Justin Timberlake during a celebrity golf tournament. China shot at 81 percent from the free throw line compared to the 59 percent team US contributed. Occasionally it can even be hazardous. With a 111-74 victory, it is becoming more apparent that Team USA will roll to gold again in Rio 2016.
China rallied back in the fourth quarter, scoring 19 points during that time period, but their late effort would not lead to their success.
Several stars chose not to go to Athens in 2004 and the US team lost its opener 93-72 to Puerto Rico. The National Team will have additional exhibition contests versus France (July 27), Canada (July 29) and Australia (July 31) before opening Olympic play on August 7 against Senegal.
Advertisement
This might only be a practice game, but it shows what to expect with Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson next season.
