But while Team USA finally played a tough game, they still have by far the most talent of any team in the Olympics, and it’s still hard to see any team overcoming the enormous talent gap that includes Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony (who is in top Olympic form) Kyrie Irving, and many more stars – even teams like Australia that have multiple National Basketball Association players.
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Coming off Wednesday’s 98-88 win over Australia, the United States appeared to have learned their lesson as they got off to a fast start against Serbia. The result came down to a final possession for Serbia, and an open potential game-tying 3-pointer from Bogdan Bogdanovic that clanged off the rim.
Both teams came into Friday’s clash having lost their first three round-robin games and knowing that the victor would nearly certainly secure the fourth and final spot in the quarterfinals out of their group.
The U.S. won its 45th straight Olympic game after a sloppy start where the Americans (4-0) had their two lowest scoring quarters in Rio.
The game started according to Team USA’s plans as the National Basketball Association superstars led 27-15 at the end of the first quarter. For almost 10 minutes, the Americans held Canada without a basket and slowly extended their advantage. It was that they hadn’t even been tested, winning nine games by an average of 33 points with a group that was considered a “B Team” in the tournament that many countries consider even more important than the Olympics.
Ana Dabovic scored 23 points, and Serbia beat China 80-72 Friday in a game the Serbians had to win to have a chance at advancing to the medal round. “They challenged us. I know we were expected to win the game and expected to be ideal”.
US will face France on Sunday for their final game in pool play before the single-elimination tournament begins.
Serbia’s Nikola Jovic surprisingly scored 25 points, and he was not even a starter.
Then the defense fall apart, and in the second quarter, the game got chippy as the US was called for two of the game’s three technical fouls.
“We’ve just got to start getting some movement”, George told NBC Sports reporter Ros Gold-Onwude.
United States women crush Canada to clinch Group B: There was no question coming into the Olympics that the USA women’s basketball team could score. That will have to change as Mike Krzyzewski’s team moves into bracket play, where a loss would have far more damaging consequences (no gold medal) than in group play. For a while we were playing their game. And the USA, despite its lack of ball movement, leads the Olympics in offensive efficiency by a wide margin. Coach Geno Auriemma said the team did nothing special during that stretch other than just play hard defensively.
Kyrie Irving’s 15 points led 6 Americans in double figures in a contest that had started out looking like a rout thanks to a swarming US defence.
“We thought we had it going a little bit in the first half”, guard DeMar DeRozan said. “For us, that’s not the case, ever”.
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Defensively, the USA was awful against Australia and Serbia trying to defend their motion offenses filled with back cuts and slip screens.
