OT: USA Men's Basketball beats Australia 97=78, moves on to gold medal game
Summary via myself:
After losing the previous 2 games team USA played the Aussies, this game gave me some pause. Australia had looked like gold medal contenders for a while now and they continued to do so early in this game. Australia dominated the first quarter and a half against a lethargic US side. Defensively the Americans were having trouble switching onto Australia's dangerous shooters and they gave up some good looks from deep. Offensively the ball flowed from one side to the other for the Australians leading to some open looks from deep. At one point the Americans were 0 for 9 from 3 while the Aussies were 6 for 11. A big reason for that discrepancy: the Americans were comfortable handing the ball to Kevin Durant and standing around while he did all the work. Durant did his best to keep the team in the game, scoring 15 first half points on some really nifty fadeaway midrange jumpers. Unfortunately Kevin Durant is just one man and while he was able to keep it close for a while, eventually the Australians had a 45-30 lead midway through the 2nd quarter.
Suddenly the rest of the team woke up. Team USA were no longer content to stand around and watch Durant do all the work offensively. Jrue Holiday got into the mix with some nice kick-out passes, tallying 8 assists in the game. Devin Booker, who had been underwhelming offensively to say the least throughout these games, finished with 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting. Durant lead all scorers with 23 points. Jrue Holiday chipped in 11 of his own. Khris Middleton, Jayson Tatum, and Zach LaVine all played quality minutes off the bench, finishing with 11, 9, and 9 points respectively. Bam Adebayo had his usual workman-like performance down low finishing with 8 rebounds, half of them being of the timely offensive sort. Defensively, USA locked down Australia as they would not score another point until mid-way through the 3rd quarter after being up by 15.
Team USA now faces the winner of Slovenia v. France on Friday at 10:50 ET in the gold medal game. France have looked like the best team in the tournament so far, undefeated and beating USA in their first game quite soundly. However, while France have the better team, Slovenia have the best player by far in Luka Doncic. He has carried his team from the play-in games to an undefeated showing in these Olympics, posting multiple triple doubles and a few other near triple doubles. My money is on France in this one but I wouldn't be surprised if Luka carries his team to victory.
One thing is for sure, USA is now guaranteed a men's basketball medal in these Olympics. If they can put together a full game of good basketball on Friday, that medal will be golden.
Gah! A typo in my title! I am ashamed.
have/has too
August 5th, 2021 at 11:19 AM ^
I'm sure there's some reasoning that could equate 97 and 78. (Ask my rarely used checkbook.)
Ask a staee grad, no doubt they could explain it.
Great breakdown — much appreciated for those like me who couldn't catch the game. Hope we nab gold!
This was an awesome breakdown. Thank you
tokyo resident here. going to wake up early to the team hotel to watch the team bus send off for the gold medal match. any good sign/poster ideas?
WIN THE GAME!
Nope, 97<>78.
Math trumps NotADuck.
Thanks for the recap.
Excellent recap. Thank you.
August 5th, 2021 at 10:08 AM ^
USA has done a complete 180 from the beginning when everyone was ready to throw Popovich under the bus. I guess all they needed was a scrimmage with Iran to get back into form.
August 5th, 2021 at 12:02 PM ^
Good for these guys. It's kind of a thankless task for them. If they win, well, of course. But if they lose they'll take a ton of abuse. It's hard to get up for this competition after coming out of the NBA playoffs. Still, if they do win that's a gold medal nobody can ever take away.
August 5th, 2021 at 10:10 AM ^
France won. Doncic apparently had a wrist injury. Basically just wouldn't shoot at the end of the game and his stat line was bad. Too bad because they were only down 1 with like 1 minute left.
August 5th, 2021 at 11:30 AM ^
He did have 18 assists to just 1 turnover though. Also led his team in rebounds. Crazy high assist number especially considering these are 10 minute quarters.
That's nuts. Yeah I should have been more precise with "stat line".
August 5th, 2021 at 10:20 AM ^
I'll admit I didn't think this team would be able to fix their issues coming into the tournament but credit to them for doing so.
August 5th, 2021 at 10:44 AM ^
Thanks for the recap! Should be a good game against France and you can probably say they have been the best team so far. They didn't beat the US soundly though. US was up with a minute left
August 5th, 2021 at 10:52 AM ^
Maybe this time the US will prevent those cheese eating surrender monkeys from France from going on a 16-2 run (or whatever it was) to close out the game for the come-from-behind win like they did the other week.
The US just really needs to figure out something with Gobert. He is playing wild defense (as expected) and basically shuts down everyone near him with his immense size and skill. This is why I was hoping the US would take someone like Jaren Jackson Jr. who, despite not being a rebound machine, actually matches up alright with Gobert on both ends of the court and gives the US a young 7 footer.
Outside of the issues there, I’m amazed at how bad Booker has been since game 2 of the finals. However, for as bad as he’s been, Jrue has been a god-send for this team. Just solid defense, smart traditional point guard guard play, and great shots.
I think the US wins vs France, but wouldn’t put it past France winning it all.
Finally, I strongly advise that everyone should learn more about the French team and Google image search Evan Fournier. Google might not recognize him at first, so just search his last name.
August 5th, 2021 at 11:12 AM ^
FYI for anybody at work, "Fournier" is basically gangrene/dead flesh, except it affects your genitals (mostly occurs with men)
August 5th, 2021 at 12:11 PM ^
Booooo buzzkill!
August 5th, 2021 at 11:29 AM ^
A gold medal and NBA Championship.....Drue Holliday will hopefully no longer be a regular feature on the most under-rated lists.
Booker was disappointing in the Finals, but he played really well in this game against Australia. He’s still lost off the ball defensively, but he was very good on ball (which was a surprise) and shot well.
The book on Gobert has been obvious in the past two play-offs: play a stretchy big and he’ll be shooting wide open all day. The dude doesn’t have to be a unicorn, just someone big enough to play average post defense and shoot threes. Marcus Morris (and Utahs awful perimeter defense) killed him this post season, since Gobert isn’t especially skilled in the post. Unfortunately, none of the team US “bigs” fit that mold. Bam and Draymond can’t shoot and KD isn’t a good post defender. Jackson would have been a good fit for that role.
I’m a bit disappointed in Middletons play. He had at least two turnovers where Patty Mills just swatted the ball out of his hand plus an missed lay up and a hilariously bad blown dunk (blocked by the front of the rim). Looks like a hang over from the Finals, which is understandable but Holliday and Booker look much better.