Kyrie Irving and Team USA held on to top Andrew Bogut and Australia.
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Irving was born in Australia and has talked at length about about his tight relationship with Dellavedova – his title-winning backcourt teammate with the Cavaliers.
“I believe so”, Anthony said in support of Irving’s proclamation, insisting he finds tremendous satisfaction in his status as the only four-time Olympian in USA men’s basketball history. with a record third gold medal now just six wins away”.
“In terms of the feeling and the accomplishment, in my opinion, for me, they’re nearly the same”, Irving said.
“Just like I should be anxious about him, he should be anxious about me”, Irving said Tuesday before practice.
“There was a statement released earlier that I thought that an National Basketball Association championship and a gold medal was the same thing”.
A team that won its first two games by a combined 101 points could never get a comfortable lead – and for a while couldn’t get one at all. The Aussies, who have five NBA starters and received a huge lift from center Andrew Bogut’s quick recovery from a knee injury, have a chance to show they can stand with the world’s basketball powers.
The USA fought through foul trouble and didn’t crumble against Australia’s disciplined and creative offensive sets.
“This is the real world now, and that was good for us”.
But Krzyzewski said he is concerned most about Australia’s pick-and-roll prowess and the passing ability of Bogut and Dellavedova. Team USA was involved in a dogfight then and until that final minute, but it was good to see Anthony – so unfairly maligned during his first 2004 turn as an Olympian because of the martyrdom-embracing coach of the time in Larry Brown – notch such a special mark. “Australian basketball is terrific. That’ll help us going forward”.
“We know that they feel like they can beat us, and we understand that”.
But on this night, Irving had to take care of his own team.
An interesting sub-plot to this game will be Kyrie Irving playing directly across from his former teammate Dellavedova. “Kyrie’s a dog. He’s an animal”. They repeatedly beat the USA for easy baskets. Having played three seasons together they’ve no doubt gone against each other in practice hundreds of times.
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After the game Green was seen calling Irving his “son” and saying that the point guard’s game-clinching triple was way “too familiar”. “It goes both ways”.
