He uttered that sentiment after the U.S.’s first real test of the Olympics, back on Wednesday of this week.
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Despite the strong offensive start, the French still found themselves behind six, with the USA shooting 75 percent from inside the arc in the frame, and the French defense without an answer for Kevin Durant (nine points in a very aggressive six-minute stretch to start the game), and DeMar DeRozan (seven free-throw attempts).
These guys are the best team in this tournament. “You can’t let up against an explosive team like France”.
With all the talk of raised anxiety regarding Team USA basketball in these Olympics, it’d be easy to come to the conclusion that they’re severely underachieving.
US escaped group play unbeaten on Sunday with a 100-97 victory over France.
Durant: 17 points on 6-of-6 shooting, six rebounds and four assists. That starts with their point guard, Irving, and their two biggest stars, Durant and Carmelo Anthony. But our team was great.
In the first half, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson carried the US.
Krzyzewski suggested that the problem in guarding Heurtel was “let-up”. The matchup between the two countries was expected to be a close one, but the US might have received a gift after morning reports indicated that France’s Tony Parker would miss the contest after suffering a toe injury over the weekend. Irving is not close to carrying his weight defensively. Krzyzewski seemed committed to getting him on track in this one and it worked. There was clearly chemistry between Team USA’s second unit, as the ball moved frequently for the first time in almost two games.
“Personally I felt we were going to dominate these games that they were going to come easy”, said U.S. guard Paul George. But in the past three games, the Americans are hardly responding: They’ve allowed opponents to shoot 52.8% overall, and 61.9% from two-point range. Gold is still the expectation and they should still be the favorite to win it. We’ve been in those games down 15 and have to find a way to come back. “We had a chance”. The Americans arrived in Rio untested after a tame exhibition schedule that included China and Venezuela, the two teams they crushed to open the Olympics.
“I talked to a team about that”. “While you’re approaching that winning the whole thing, you’re asked a whole bunch of other things. If we get the gold medal, that’s all that really matters”, said Klay, who finished 9-for-16 from the field. If Lithuania wins over Croatia, there could be a three-way tie between Spain, Croatia and Brazil and the host country gets eliminated.
“We gave them too many good looks around the basket and got complacent on defense”, Thompson said Sunday after the game. But no, they’re not invincible. Throughout the tournament, Thompson has struggled to shoot with the same success that he has had in Golden State. “This is the best tournament it’s been for a while. They’re still unbeaten, so we can’t say that they’re struggling”.
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Teams with guards that don’t melt under pressure defense have given the U.S. trouble. “We didn’t”, Diaw said.
