Despite scoring 14 points, Kevin Durant nearly cost Team USA a win, going 4-of-16 from the field.
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Carmelo Anthony came to Team USA’s rescue with a record-breaking effort on Wednesday as the defending Olympic basketball champions beat Australia 98-88 in a thrilling encounter to extend their overall winning streak to 20 games. He scored 14 points in the first quarter of their game against Australia on Wednesday and became the all-time leading scorer for the U.S. with a total of 293 points. On the other end, Bogut showed why he was Australia’s first No 1 draft pick ever as the center was an extremely good two way player. Grabbing four boards and dishing out two assists, including a nice behind-the-back pass out of a trap to find an open Anthony, didn’t hurt, either. They were almost taken to the cleaners by Matthew Dellavedova, Patty Mills, Andrew Bogut, Joe Ingles and Aron Baynes.
“I like to adjust to the situation”, he said. “He’s special and we don’t get this without him”.
The Americans improved to 3-0 at Rio and 83-1 under coach Mike Krzyzewski since a 2006 loss to Greece at the World Championships in Japan.
The 54-49 halftime deficit Team USA was its first in the Olympics since the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, when Argentina led at intermission in the semis enroute to a stunning upset.
“Having said that, I don’t want to get baited into saying we’re almost there because it’s a very different thing playing against 12 all-stars out of the National Basketball Association”.
“We’re a bit disappointed”. Their first Olympic game against China started with a total score 0 – 4 and was later equalized at 4 – 4. That’s an attitude change. They really tested the Americans, who had not lost in 12 years.
“Melo initiated it to put this game away”, George said.
“We’re probably going to see them again and we’ve got to do a better job of matching them”, he said. “We knew what kind of situation we were coming in to”.
Anthony was a matchup nightmare all night for the Aussies and his back-to-back three-pointers gave the US a 78-72 lead with 7 minutes, 11 seconds left.
“For us, it was a heck of a win because we beat an outstanding team”, Coach K said.
Carmelo Anthony, who led the team with his 31 points, will become the first 3-time basketball Olympic gold medalist if the US can secure its historic 15th gold. Sheer talent – and some timely 3’s from Carmelo Anthony – saved the Americans, but the Boomers from Down Under exposed some weaknesses even if they were not able to get the final job done.
George’s teammate Klay Thompson said the toughness of the battle was a good primer for the challenges ahead in the tournament. A few things we won’t tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING.
The Aussies stayed hot on the US NBA stars’ heels but came no closer than four points after that, thanks in large part to Anthony. “His commitment to USA Basketball and worldwide basketball, he’s one of the best players in the world, but over this last decade he has proved to be one of the best global players”. Andrew Bogut tallied 15 points, and Matthew Dellavedova turned in a double-double with 11 points and 11 boards.
Ingles said they’re different because they’ve known each other for so long.
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They jumped out to an eight-point lead mid-way through the first quarter, and went into the break level at 29-29.
