Team USA Cruises to 3-0 Record in Pool Play, Earns Top Seed in Medal Round
On Saturday, Team USA routed Puerto Rico 104-83 in the final game of Olympics pool play. Puerto Rico led 25-17 after the first eight minutes, but Team USA trimmed the margin to 29-25 by the end of the first quarter and then outscored Puerto Rico 39-16 in the second quarter to take a 64-45 halftime lead. Team USA shot just 9-32 (.281) from three point range and that did not matter at all, because they held Puerto Rico to 10-37 (.270) three point shooting. As is generally the case for Team USA in FIBA play, defending the three point line, getting out in transition, and scoring easy baskets were much more important than making three pointers--despite the incessant chatter about the need to stuff the roster with three point shooters: Stephen Curry, widely considered the greatest three point shooter of all-time, shot .263 from three point range in Team USA's three pool play games, and Team USA still won each game by at least 17 points.
Anthony Edwards scored a game-high 26 points in just 17 minutes off of the bench; as has often been the case for Team USA this year, the reserves picked up the slack after the starters were sluggish. Joel Embiid added 15 points on 6-14 field goal shooting, which qualifies as a breakout game for him considering how poorly he has played up to this point; he looks out of shape, but the undersized Puerto Rico team was just the right medicine for him. Kevin Durant added 11 points in 19 minutes off of the bench, while LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, and Anthony Davis each scored 10 points. James had six rebounds and a game-high eight assists, and Tatum tied Puerto Rico's Ismael Romero for game-high honors with 10 rebounds.
Team USA finished Olympics pool play with a 3-0 record. Team USA previously beat Serbia (110-84) and South Sudan (103-86 after nearly losing to South Sudan in the USA Basketball Showcase)--and has earned the number seed in the medal round based on their overall point differential of +64. Canada and Germany also went 3-0, but they had point differentials of +47 and +20 respectively. In the Olympics, blowing out an inferior opponent is an important tactic for getting a better seed, not bad sportsmanship.
The medal round is single elimination, so the NBA players have to adjust their mindsets from seven game playoff series during which each game lasts 48 minutes to the reality that one bad 40 minute game--or even one bad stretch during a 40 minute game--could be the end of the road. Team USA is the clear favorite to win the gold medal, but the other top FIBA teams are not pushovers. Team USA must continue to defend the perimeter aggressively and then score easy baskets in transition; if the game slows down, the top FIBA teams may pick them apart in the halfcourt. Depth is a major weapon--perhaps the major weapon--for Team USA; it is fascinating to see that even unheralded FIBA teams that lack NBA stars can hang with Team USA's first unit of all-time great players before being overwhelmed after Team USA's second unit enters the fray.
Edwards led Team USA in scoring (16.7 ppg on .633 field goal shooting) during pool play, followed closely by Durant (16.0 ppg on .636 field goal shooting). James is third in scoring (14.3 ppg on .643 field goal shooting), first in assists (7.3 apg), and third in rebounding (6.7 rpg) behind Tatum (7.5 rpg) and Davis (7.0 rpg).
Team USA has been rolling so comfortably that media members have felt compelled to make up drama-filled headlines, shrieking in horror when Tatum did not play versus Serbia and then again when Embiid did not play versus South Sudan. Team USA's Coach Steve Kerr explained those lineup choices as being strictly matchup-related; he does not have a set rotation, but instead shuffles his starting lineup and adjusts playing time based on the strengths/weaknesses of the opponent. If the people covering the 2024 Olympics did their research then they would know that the 1992 Dream Team--the first Team USA squad that had NBA players on the roster--had many different starting lineups; every player on the roster except John Stockton and Christian Laettner started at least one game, with most players starting three or four of the eight games (not surprisingly, Michael Jordan was the only player who started all eight games).
Team USA will face Brazil in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. The winner of that game will play the winner of Australia versus Serbia. In the other bracket, the winner of Germany versus Greece will face the winner of Canada versus France, with the winner of that semifinal matchup advancing to the gold medal game to presumably face Team USA.
Labels: 2024 Olympics, Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Team USA
posted by David Friedman @ 3:54 AM
6 Comments:
It honestly shouldn't matter what style of play Team USA plays, they should win comfortably against every team if they play hard and smart. You're right defense is very important for Team USA, and while it dominated at times vs. Puerto Rico, it was still overall bad vs. a bad Olympic team. But, shooting overall(not necessarily 3-point shooting) is very important, too.
I think it'd be odd for anyone to see if a coach elected to bench a top 5-7 player in the world(Embiid, Tatum) for an entire game in a game that is very important to win. Would Nurse or Mazzulla ever bench Embiid or Tatum in a playoff game? That would obviously never happen. So, it totally makes sense if there's articles written about this. And Embiid and Tatum can't be feel too thrilled with being benched for an entire game. Would James accept this? James is no longer the best player on Team USA either. However, it shouldn't really matter much what Kerr does with his lineups. Obviously he wouldn't put 5 guards in at the same time nor his 5 largest players together at the same time. The 1992 Olympics is much different than the 2024 Olympics. The world's basketball players/teams would lose to a lot of college teams back then. Team USA should still dominate and win the gold medal comfortably for these Olympics, but nowhere near like the 1992 Dream Team. It's definitely ok to have different starting lineups though. But, benching NBA MVP winners/candidates entirely does look odd.
Marcel
Steph been worse than jt and kerr found min for him.
There's no excuse not to play the best American player on the team
It's crazy
Anonymous:
It matters what defense Team USA plays. If Team USA plays poor defense, then there are several FIBA teams that can beat them, and we have seen that happen far too often in the past 20 years.
If Team USA gets stops, then they can score easy baskets in transition. Coach Kerr admitted that Team USA does not really have a set halfcourt offense (which is OK as long as they play great defense and are not forced to rely on their halfcourt offense). Nurse or Mazzulla would not bench Embiid or Tatum because Embiid and Tatum are clearly the best players on their respective teams, with a pretty significant drop off underneath them (with all due respect to Jaylen Brown). I agree that it looks odd for Tatum to not play at all, but would it have been better if he had played five minutes of garbage time? There are only five starting spots per game and there are only 200 minutes per game to distribute (as opposed to 240 minutes in an NBA game).
I would not have benched Tatum, but I don't think that this is as big a story as some media members made it out to be. As for Embiid, I probably would not have picked him for the team and, based on how he is playing, he should be benched. I think that the Team USA brass was terrified that he might play for France, which would have been a p.r. disaster if France then beat Team USA. Essentially, it meant more to keep him off of France's team then it meant to add him to our team.
I am not sure when you think that U.S. college teams could have still won FIBA competitions, but we only got the bronze medal in the 1988 Olympics with an all-college team.
Marcel:
I am not sure who you are calling the best American player on the team. All of the players on Team USA are American.
I agree that keeping Curry in the starting lineup and then benching Tatum looks weird, but we all know that Curry is Kerr's guy. I think that in general Curry is less valuable in FIBA play than he is in the NBA. In the NBA, the rules favor offense, and the Warriors can hide him on defense. In FIBA, the game is more physical, and defense matters more for Team USA than offense. Holiday and White are excellent defenders in both the NBA and FIBA, and they can have an impact without taking or making any shots. If Curry is not making three pointers then his value is greatly diminished, particularly in FIBA play. Also, in a 48 minute NBA game Curry can start 1-7 and then shoot his way out of the slump, but in a 40 minute FIBA game on a team full of star players Curry cannot jack up 20 shots to get himself going.
Yes, anything's possible in a 1-game scenario, but the same could be said if Team USA plays poor offense, too. So far, their defense which has been stifling at times but has been poor overall. They're giving up way too many points to much inferior teams. And this crop off Olympic opponents seems much weaker than some of the previous Olympics. They're still dominating in the Olympics which they should be, which is good.
Embiid/Tatum are the best players on Team USA. Of course it's a big story if neither play. It's not like they're #11/12 on the team. Now, if Embiid is out of shape and playing poorly and not like his regular self, ok, then don't play him much. Or if you're going to bench him for a game, then keep him benched for the rest of the competition. But playing him 4-5 minutes each half would be perfectly fine and not a problem. Why would you wait to play Tatum after 35 minutes of game time? It'd be bizarre not to start Tatum. But, even if he doesn't start, put him in the game after 5 minutes each half. Whatever these perceived matchup-related reasons are, these players are much bigger matchup problems for Team USA's opps.
I'm not sure what you mean by FIBA competitions, whether the entire tournament or a single game. I said games. Maybe not gold in 1992, but college teams back then definitely could've won some games.
Anonymous:
Team USA can survive bad offense, if by bad offense we mean not having very organized half-court sets; Coach Kerr and Kevin Durant have both admitted that the team does not have much of an organized half-court offense. Team USA's best offense is getting a stop and then pushing the ball up the court to score in transition. If Team USA does not do that then they can be beat, and they have been beaten that way many times in the past 20 years.
Embiid is not the best player on Team USA either as an NBA player or--which is more relevant to this conversation--as a FIBA player. A case could be made that Tatum is the best NBA player on Team USA, but he has been inconsistent for Team USA. As I said, I would not have benched Tatum but if the coaching staff has determined that it wants to exploit certain matchups then I understand the theory of not using Tatum. I don't agree with it, but I understand it--and if you buy that premise, then putting him in at the end for garbage time is more insulting than just not playing him at all for that one game.
Where in your comment did you use the word "games"? You wrote, "The world's basketball players/teams would lose to a lot of college teams back then." The point in a FIBA event--particularly for Team USA--is not to win some games. The point is to win the gold medal. Team USA settled for bronze in both the 1988 Olympics and in the 1990 FIBA World Championship, which set the stage for the NBA players to go to the 1992 Olympics.
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