“RIO DE JANEIRO “ Team USA”s narrow victory over Australia on Wednesday was considered a scare, then Friday”s game against Serbia was a full-length Hitchcock feature. Klay Thompson, who came off the bench for the second-straight contest, sank his first shot of the game, a corner three-pointer with 5:00 remaining in the opening frame, increasing the U.S. Men’s National Team’s lead to 17-5. The Serbs scored 76 points in the final three quarters as they shot 52 percent overall and 10-of-25 from long range.
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Sloppy play and fouls slowed the United States in the waning minutes of the first quarter and carried over into the second. However, after their 10-point win over the Aussies earlier this week and now a nail-biter against the Serbs, the rest of the field might be starting to believe the US can be taken.
Serbia fought back within three points late in the fourth quarter, but the United States held them off for a 94-91 win.
Despite the underwhelming performances, the US (4-0) remains the only undefeated opponent in Group A and are certain to advance to the quarterfinal, regardless of what happens in the next game against Tony Parker and France.
“I’m not too concerned”, said Paul George, who had 12 points in the win while Kyrie Irving led the USA with 15.
The Aussies trailed by three points at halftime and by seven entering the fourth quarter against a desperate Belarus team that needed a win in order to advance to the quarterfinals.
Serbia (1-3) will face winless Senegal while China (1-3) to face the unbeaten United States in the last round of the pool play on August 14. I also looked at the fact that Australia had a few National Basketball Association players on the roster.
DeRozan echoed a concern raised after the game by teammates Draymond Green and Paul George, saying that offensive issues hurt Team USA as much as its defensive struggles to cope with a Serbian offense that, in the words of Carmelo Anthony, “ran fluently”.
Head coach Aleksandar Dordevic’s men slowly gathered momentum and went closer and closer as the game moved into crunch time and would have won the ballgame if they did not run out of time. Coach Geno Auriemma said the team did nothing special during that stretch other than just play hard defensively. Milos Teodosic was penetrating, scoring and dishing on his way to 18 points and six assists.
It was the USA that struggled early in this one.
It was a strong reminder that nothing is guaranteed in this tournament, and with Team USA being the heavy favorites, every opponent is going to try to bring even more tenacity to try to unseat such a dominant team. They are halfway to a sixth consecutive gold medal.
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“It took us to another level relationship-wise”, Irving, a good friend of George’s, told me about George’s injury that night of the gold medal game. Australia had beaten the Serbia 95-80 earlier in the tournament.
