With Team USA and China meeting in the second installment of their back-to-back basketball exhibition game on Tuesday at Oracle Arena in Oakland, questions were raised if the squad can keep up their momentum and sweep the pre-Olympic winning streak.
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So it was left for each side to set a mission and focus on specific details in what turned into a 106-57 rout for Team USA. Every U.S. player got quality time, with Green’s 12 minutes the least played by any American.
The key to the run-away win was Klay Thompson’s stellar performance with 17 points during a 19-minute gameplay.
“We’ve only been together a week, but it seems like we’ve been teammates for years”, he marveled. “But we really have an inside presence on the boards”.
These two teams will meet again in Rio, as U.S. and China are both in the same group for the preliminary round of the Olympic tournament. The team has a former National Basketball Association player in Yi Jianlian and two 2016 National Basketball Association draft picks in Zhou Qi and Wang Zhelin, but that’s not enough when you’re facing a team with Kevin Durant, DeMarcus Cousins and other All-Stars. Kyrie Irving scored 10 points with four assists and Kyle Lowry had five points and five assists.
“They’re two different teams”, he said of Argentina and China.
“Well, coach told me if I didn’t do anything in the first 30 seconds I was coming out”, Jordan said.
“Those two guys are two of the best shooters in the world so our guys want them to get shots”, U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
“If you remember, that game that we played, I think may be the most watched game ever by a number of people”. DeRozan finished with 13 and Jordan had 12.
Even with superstars like Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and LeBron James pulling out of consideration for this Olympic team, Team USA is so much better than the teams they’ll be playing during these warm-up games, it’s hard to assess just where the American team is.
China was led by 18 points from former Milwaukee Bucks lottery pick Yi Jianlian, who last played in the National Basketball Association in 2012 with the Dallas Mavericks. Teammate Zhao Jiwei put in 14 points on 10 shots.
Durant led all scorers with 23 points, including 4-of-9 from three while Sacramento center DeMarcus Cousins notched a double-double in the third quarter, finishing with 14 points and 15 rebounds.
It’s nothing new for a player to say the home fans were great.
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“With that being said, we play our game, but at the same time, if our man is open, we’re willing to make that pass”.
