Obviously picked for being able to defend 4 positions and an unselfish PG who can score
But with 3 C's, it's odd Brown is not there
Is KP playing? 4 C's heading to France
Obviously picked for being able to defend 4 positions and an unselfish PG who can score
But with 3 C's, it's odd Brown is not there
Is KP playing? 4 C's heading to France
The biggest takeaways from the exhibition win over Canada.
Ahead of its quest for a fifth straight Olympic gold medal, Team USA's men's basketball team began its exhibition schedule Wednesday night with an 86-72 win over Canada in Las Vegas.On the day guard Derrick White replaced forward Kawhi Leonard on the 12-man roster, Team USA hit the court against a talented Canada team projected to medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Following a slow start -- including missing its first six shots -- the Americans clicked in the second quarter as the Canadians went cold from the field. Team USA outscored Canada 16-2 in the paint in the second and carried a 41-33 lead into half.
Despite a run from Canada out of halftime, the U.S. extended its lead throughout the end of the third quarter and the fourth. Four Americans finished in double-digit scoring with Anthony Edwards leading the way with 13 points. Anthony Davis recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. RJ Barrett led Team Canada with 12 points.
Team USA will now turn its attention to Australia on Monday when the teams meet in an exhibition in Abu Dhabi.
Nikola Jokic finishes with 20 points and 12 rebounds as Serbia beats France 79-67. He fouled out with a few minutes left in the 4th but Serbia held on.
Kevin Durant again sits out Team USA practice; Kerr unconcerned.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- Team USA has relocated halfway across the world but is still in a holding pattern with star Kevin Durant, who missed practice again Saturday with a calf strain and likely won't play when the Americans face Australia in a friendly set for Monday.Coach Steve Kerr has been publicly downplaying any concern about the injury but pushed back his timeline before leading the team through practice.
"I know there's still a couple of weeks before we have to make a decision roster-wise," Kerr said. "So we're just taking it day by day."
For weeks, Team USA had a contingency plan in place if Kawhi Leonard wasn't able to play in the Olympics as he recovered from a knee injury, lining up Derrick White as the probable replacement in early June. The Americans made that move Wednesday, releasing Leonard and putting White on the roster as they broke training camp in Las Vegas.
If the team has a backup plan for Durant, it is keeping it under wraps.
"It's not something we've even discussed at this point because we feel good that [Durant] is going to be OK," Kerr said.
Durant said earlier this week he was hopeful to have recovered enough from the calf injury he suffered two weeks ago to play during the warmup games in the Middle East. It includes a game Wednesday against Serbia, the team the U.S. will open Olympic play against in France later this month.
White was scheduled to fly to Abu Dhabi on Saturday and is expected to practice for the first time Sunday.
Before practice Saturday, Team USA was addressed and welcomed by its host in the UAE, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chairman of global soccer power Manchester City and an avid NBA fan. Al Mubarak is the managing director and CEO of Mubadala, the emirate's $300 billion sovereign wealth fund that is involved in an expansive multiyear deal with the NBA and USA Basketball that is bringing high-profile games to the region.
A huge Los Angeles Lakers fan who watches many of their games, Al Mubarak begrudgingly congratulated rival Boston Celtics players Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday on their NBA championship.
Good
Despite exhibition win over Aussies, flaws remain for Team USA.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- For all the popularity of the 3-pointer, competitiveness in international basketball often comes down to the trenches. And in recent competitions, Team USA has lost this battle too frequently.Fixing that issue was paramount when assembling Team USA as it tries in Paris to win a fifth consecutive Olympic gold. Early in the process, challenges remain on this front.
Team USA beat Australia 98-92 in an exhibition Monday in Abu Dhabi in front of a record crowd of 12,217 fans at Etihad Arena. It's a second straight win over a medal contender for the U.S., but there were a few things to pay attention to that the Aussies, always a very good test in run-ups to big events, showed.
Perhaps most importantly, Anthony Davis displayed why he's such a vital player to the American effort. His presence on the inside made a difference, as he had 17 points and 14 rebounds in just 18 minutes while playing some strong interior defense.
But the Australians, who beat the U.S. in exhibitions in both 2019 and 2021 in moments that exposed weaknesses in those squads, attacked the Americans in the middle and found the softness that remains a significant concern.
Using aggressive drives, interior passes and misdirections, the Aussies racked up an astounding 68 points in the paint. That would be a concerning number in a 48-minute NBA game; in a 40-minute FIBA-style game, it's a flashing red light.
They were within five points with five minutes left and twice cut it to four points in the final minute. Team USA held them off, thanks to two clutch 3-pointers from Tyrese Haliburton and four free throws from Devin Booker.
Team USA did look better overall on offense than in its win over Canada last week in Las Vegas. It made 12 3-pointers, and the team's ball movement and organization were improved. But the Americans still turned the ball over 18 times -- way above an acceptable number.
Booker had 15 points and Anthony Edwards had 14 to lead the Team USA offense.
Australia was led by 20 points from Jock Landale, most of them on baskets in the paint.
Team USA improves to 3-0 with impressive win over Serbia.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- Stephen Curry had a sizzling 18 points in his first 11 minutes, one of those hot streaks that raises goose bumps throughout arenas as those high-arcing 3-pointers splash repeatedly through the net.Then the buzzer sounded and there was a sub coming to get him, something coach Steve Kerr probably never imagined himself doing in the middle of the second quarter.
This is the way Team USA is supposed to go. Merciless firepower and relentless talent deployment.
Now two weeks into the journey toward the Paris Olympics, the Americans aren't perfect but this potentially historic group is starting to show its teeth. The team improved to 3-0 in its warmup tour with an impressive 105-79 victory over medal contender Serbia on Wednesday at Etihad Arena.
Even by Team USA standards this group is outrageously deep. The Americans have seven MVP Awards represented in their starting lineup -- not including Kevin Durant, who remains out with a calf injury -- but they might be scarier when Kerr goes to his bench.
During this tour Kerr has been using hockey-style substitutions, subbing in five players at a time. When the public announcer tells the crowd the line changes and says the names "Anthony Edwards, Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Haliburton and Devin Booker" all at once as the "second" unit, it's a little sobering.
That group, though it's sometimes included Jayson Tatum and Wednesday saw Derrick White get his first minutes with the team, has crushed the competition in the exhibitions. And it shows just how hard it could be to beat the Americans in Paris.
After Curry exited on that hot streak in the second quarter, for example, Team USA finished the half on a 19-5 run with the "backups." The starters then came back for the third quarter and ripped off a 11-0 run and that was that.
When the second unit left for the final time midway through the fourth quarter, and the U.S. ahead by 26 points, the crowd gave an ovation when the starters came back. Then Curry, who finished with 24 points, made two more 3s just for fun.
Only then did LeBron James, who had 11 points, start flexing after a few power drives. It was that kind of night.
Adebayo had 17 points, drilling three 3-pointers of his own to help the U.S. make 16 3s in total. Edwards, who is proving to be the U.S.'s most consistent scorer, had 16.
Serbia is potentially the USA's strongest contender for the gold medal. It has size, it has experience and it has Nikola Jokic, who might be the best player in the world. And they might get three chances to see the Americans to hone their game plan including once next weekend to open Olympic play and possibly once more for a medal.
It must be said they were playing on the second night of a back-to-back and two of their best players, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Nikola Milutinov, didn't play. But they were serious about this test. Coach Svetislav Pesic got a technical foul for arguing 39 seconds into the game and Jokic played all but 44 seconds of the first three quarters.
Using Joel Embiid, who is slowly starting to get his legs underneath him, as primary defender and using a variety of defensive looks, the U.S. passed the first Jokic test better than could've been expected. He didn't have many comfortable looks and was an uncharacteristic 6-of-19 shooting to finish with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Holding opposing star big men to that sort of line is a dream for the U.S. and also included another strong defensive effort from Davis, who continues to look like the team's best defensive player.
Embiid missed several layups and was just 2-of-8 shooting with eight rebounds, showing he's still not back to himself after a postseason layoff to allow his knee to heal.
Team USA now travels to London for two more exhibitions starting Saturday against South Sudan.
Kevin Durant practices with Team USA, questionable for South Sudan.
LONDON -- Kevin Durant was able to practice with Team USA for the first time Friday as he recovers from a right calf injury with coach Steve Kerr hoping he can get into one of the team's last two tune-up games before the Paris Olympics.Durant is questionable for Saturday night's game at O2 Arena against South Sudan as team officials want to monitor how he recovers. But practicing was an important sign of progress in getting Team USA's all-time leading Olympic scorer back after he'd missed all activities over the past two weeks.
I would love for him to play in a game, but we have to take it day by day," Kerr said. "We'll see where he is tomorrow."
Durant suffered the injury in workouts in mid-June. The team stayed away from a timeline but it lingered longer than Durant had hoped. He admitted he was getting worried that the recovery might threaten his availability for the Olympics.
"You always had those concerns, but I see progress every day," said Durant, who has averaged 19.8 points per game over the past three Olympics.
"It's one of those things you just got to monitor every day and I see how I feel after I do certain movements and certain exercises. But my thing is just keep working and see what happens."
Durant said a previous left calf injury from 2019, which happened just before he tore his Achilles tendon in the same leg in that year's NBA Finals, did not factor into his thinking about recovering from this injury.
Durant and LeBron James were in London with Team USA for the first time since the 2012 Olympics, where they were key members of the gold medal winning squad.
But James has been spending his evenings on this trip watching summer league games, where his son Bronny James has put together several good performances for their Los Angeles Lakers. Bronny had 12 points and a clutch 3-pointer against the Atlanta Hawks and then had 13 points, five rebounds and three assists in a comeback win against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday.
"I mean he's 19 years old so he has so much room to grow, he has so much more to learn," LeBron said. "But the best thing, he just keeps his head down and just stays focused. The work will pay off. As a family obviously we're just proud of the fact that he's even at this point."
