It took a while, but Team USA finally flexed its muscles in this Olympic men’s basketball tournament..
The Americans which looked uninterested at the start of training camp and shot 36 percent in an unexpected pool round loss to France, finally started to
resemble the team this country hoped in see in Japan, blowing away Iran, 122-66, for their first win in the summer games.
Team USA will likely have to defeat the Czech Republic to advance to the knockout round with a shot for a gold medal.
But at least it was a first step for a team that finally has a full complement of players and Gregg Popovich appears to have found an effective starting lineup with Kevin Durant Dame Lillard, Jrue Holiday, Bam Adebayo and Devin Booker., giving him a faster, more balance team that was more effective in the fast break and in switching defenses.
Holiday and Booker, who arrived in Tokyo Saturday after competing for Milwaukee and Phoenix in the NBA finals, did not start against France. But Holiday gives the Americans a lock down defender who can free Lillard up to concentrate on his offense. And Booker is a dependable wing shooter.
Team USA flourished in what was basically a glorified scrimmage against the undermanned Iranians, who are unlikely to win a game in pool competition
Hopefully, this wasn’t fool’s gold.
But Team USA– and in particular Lillard– looked like it found its shooting touch. Lillard, who mirrored the Americans’ poor [0 for 32 three point shooting when he shot 3 for 10 and wasn’t even on the floor during the fourth quarter against France, had a breakout game against Iran with 21 points on seven threes/
“Being in the hotel, at meals, and on the practice court, we came together,” LIllard said. “It’s time to start looking like Team USA.”
Lillard was one of six Americans who made multiple threes this time as the U.S. shot 19 for 39, mostly off kick outs. Booker, who appeared to have his legs, scored 16 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. Jayson Tatum came off the bench to finish with 14 points and backup forward Zach LaVine added 13.
“Each of these guys scores 20 to 25 points for their teams,” Popovich said. “We can’t play like that and we don’t. Everybody in a sense is a role player. We don’t need heroes.”
They will need Durant, Team USA’s most talented player to be at his best.
And they likely will have to live without playing two big men against the better teams, given the way Draymond Green and Adebayo played against a bigger France team with 7-1 NBA All Star center Rudy Golbert and 7-2 Moustapha Fall, who created problems defensively for the Americans in the half court.
“Playing with two big men clogged it up for us a bit offensively,” said Durant, who finished with 10 points. “Tonight I played the 4 and was able to stretch the floor a little bit and give guys space, and we were able to get some confidence and knock down some shots.”
Team USA has enough players now to play 10, 11 players and the ability to constantly run in players to maintain the pace, overwhelming teams with its depth. But the lack of manpower in Vegas slowed down the American’s development and chemistry and showed up in an exhibition loss to Australia and losses again against France, which has had years to play together. the US looked uncomfortable in Popovich’s system for close to two weeks, with great shooters passing up shots to cater to his constant ball movement theory.
“We were a bit too unselfish early on, and it bit us,” Durant said. “Tonight guy came out super aggressive”
And they played in a free lance style that was so successful in the Mike Krzyzewski gold medal era.
The win was a total team effort. Team USA made 42 shots and had 34 assists. Every member of the the team, with the exception of JaVale McGee, had at least one. The perimeter defense was better too, with the U.S. forcing 23 turnovers.
After the game, Popovich spoke with Iran coach Mehran Sahintab and congratulated him on his team’s fundamentals. Players shook hands. It was nice to see major political adversaries co-exist on the playing field. ‘People in different countries get along better than governments,” Popovich said. “the Olympics are a venue and a time where sports transcends that crap.
