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.
