South Sudan has been one of the feel-good stories of these Paris Olympics.
The African country’s men’s basketball team– which is being totally funded by former NBA player Luol Deng– came within a point of stunning heavily favored USA during a 101-100 tune up loss in London and then picked up a win over Puerto Rico in the Group C competition at Lille, France.
But the powerhouse Americans broke their bubble yesterday, beating South Sudan, 103-86, to go 2-0 in group play and advance to the quarterfinals.
Team USA will conclude Group play Aug. 3 against Puerto Rico. South Sudan, which still has a chance to advance to the knockout round, will take on Serbia.
Bam Adebayo, had 18 points on 8 of 10 shooting and 7 rebounds off the bench to lead the Americans, who never surrendered their double digit lead after the first quarter. Kevin Durant had 14 points, Anthony Edwards 13) LeBron James 13 and Derrik White 10. Nuni Omor led South Sudan with 24 points.
Jayson Tatum, who had been a surprising DNP in the opening win over Serbia after being a staple in the rotation in five exhibition games, started in place of point guard Jrue Holiday and scored four points. Coach Steve Kerr, who had been criticized for his rotation patterns, also started Anthony Davis at center, in place of out of shape Joel Embiid and used James and Devin Booker to split the point guard duties.
This team has an embarrassment of riches. Anyone could be a star for the night. And the bench was devastating against South Sudan, scoring 66 points in the blowout. the Americans who were tied at 10-10 six minutes in, blew the game wide open with a 23-4 run when lineup of Adebayo, Durant, White, Holiday and Adebayo entered the game.
South Sudan didn’t have enough depth to compete.
”Each game’s different and we’re going to need everybody,” Kerr said. “And, so, matchups will determine at times who we play, but we need everybody ready to roll and whatever it takes to win a game, that’s what we need to do.”
The Americans seem to be at their best when Kerr limits his rotation to 10 players and plays two units.
Embiid was the only player not to play against South Sudan.
This can’t be the Olympics Embiid anticipated when he chose to play for Team USA over France, where he was a naturalized citizen. When Embiid entered the game against Serbia, he was lustily booed by French fans. Embiid has not played his best basketball in his U.S. men’s national team debut this summer.
Surrounded by future Hall of Famers who are moving the ball quickly and finding the open man, Embiid’s post up game has bogged down the offense. On defense more mobile bigs like Davis and Adebayo have provided much more impactful minutes.
“This is a different setting,” Embiid said. “In the NBA, I’m used to being the man. Now, you got to give it up so I’m used to being the guy. Now, you got to give it up, so I’m loving it.”
Embiid averaged 104 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 16.6 minutes during Team USA’s exhibition tour. He only had four points, two rebounds and one block in 11 minutes against Serbia.
