After the exhibition against Serbia this past week, Team USA Men’s basketball appeared to be gaining chemistry and moving in the right direction.
But then came Saturday’s game against South Sudan.
Against Serbia, Team USA was in a hard-fought battle for the first two quarters, but then they made a run to take a 14-point lead and never looked back.
In that game, Steph Curry, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Edwards and Lebron James combined for 68 of the 105 Team USA’s points in a dominant 105-79 win.
Many felt it was the dominant win the team needed after barely beating Australia two days earlier by only 6 points. The close win gave fans great pause especially as Team USA was favored by more than 20 points. So how could a squad as talented as Team USA emerge with a single-digit victory over an opponent like Australia, who’s not even expected to be able to medal at this year’s Olympics in Paris?
The doubts were assumed to be erased after the dominant win over Serbia.
But after the last-second win over South Sudan, those doubts quickly resurfaced and increased.
If not for LeBron (25 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds), Joel Embiid (14 points, 7 rebounds) and Anthony Davis (25 points, 11 rebounds off the bench), Team USA would have been laughed off the court on Saturday evening.
South Sudan led by 16 at one point before the U.S. closed the gap. The game came down to the final few seconds as LeBron hit a layup that put Team USA up 101-100 with 8 seconds remaining.
But the team still needed a last-second block by Anthony Davis to escape with the win.
“I’m going to be honest: I like those better than the blowouts,” said James as he walked off the court. “At least we get tested.”
A test for the team but a near-heart attack for everyone else.
And when you look at some of the statistics this game becomes even more embarrassing for the U.S.
According to NBA.com:
“The U.S. roster has 12 players, all of them All-Stars or NBA champions or both, with a total of 189,038 points in their regular-season careers, with 7,832 combined starts. South Sudan has four players who have appeared in an NBA game. They’ve scored a combined 1,228 points and started 19 games.”
The U.S. shot 25% from 3-point distance (7-25) while South Sudan shot 42% (14-33). Team USA let Marial Shayok lead all scorers with 25 points and gave up a triple-double to Carlick Jones (15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists).
“A good reminder that when we play against teams, it’s the biggest game of their lives,” said U.S. coach Steve Kerr. “We have to expect everyone to play like that.”
True but it still doesn’t mean that the U.S. should not be blowing them out, especially a team that BetMGM Sportsbook had ranked as a 43.5-point underdog.
While these games are warmups for the Olympics, it’s still extremely concerning that the team couldn’t repeat its dominance against a team that doesn’t even have a current NBA player on its roster.
Fans had questioned the roster rotations even before the game against South Sudan. In every game so far, the only mainstays in the starting lineup were James, Embiid and Curry. James and Curry (except for Saturday evening) have played very well in these exhibitions while Embiid has not, leading many to wonder why Anthony Davis or Bam Adebayo haven’t replaced him.
Despite Team USA not losing any of their exhibition games, defense has been a glaring weakness for the team, a fact that South Sudan exploited on Saturday. Australia scored 68 points in the paint and South Sudan outshot them (47.5% to 46.76%) and tied them in offensive rebounds with 14.
That’s alarming.
The team finishes up their exhibition schedule against Germany in London on Monday before heading to Paris to compete in Group C in the Olympics.
At this point, the team needs to go undefeated and win its fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal to silence the critics. Anything less, especially after its performance against South Sudan, would be considered a massive failure.
