AITAMA, Japan – The U.S. men’s basketball team lost their first two exhibition games of the summer in Las Vegas, dropped their opening game at those Olympics, and struggled to break free from the Czech Republic in the group game final.
None of this matters now.
The Americans move into the quarter-finals at the Tokyo games – with a chance to be as good as gold again. Jayson Tatum scored 27 points, Kevin Durant added 23 and set two Olympic records in US basketball, and the US beat the Czechs 119-84 on Saturday to secure a spot in the K.
Zach LaVine scored 13 points, Jrue Holiday had 11 and JaVale McGee finished with 10 points for the US. 25 Start of the second half.
The USA (2-1) finished second behind France in Group A but are based along with the French, Australia and the winner of the match between Slovenia and Spain on Sunday as the top 4 seeded for Tuesday’s quarter-finals of FIBA’s tiebreaker system, which includes point differences.
These quarter-finals will be decided by draw on Sunday evening, but the US has now assured itself that they will not have to compete against any of the three group winners at least until the semi-finals.
Blake Schilb scored 17 for the Czech Republic (1: 2), which started with 10 and was 60:54 in the middle of the third quarter.
The Czech hope for a force was over in a flash.
Durant – who overtook Carmelo Anthony as both U.S. Olympic Men’s All-Time Points and All-Time Field Goals Leader during the game – scored a 3-pointer to finish the third quarter and a 22nd point : To crown 6 run that the Americans at 22 goes into the last quarter.
The result was again beyond doubt.
Ondrej Balvin scored 15, Jan Vesely 13 and Tomas Satoransky added 12 points for the Czechs.
The US is on its way to the quarters where time to win or else matters. And in the quarter-finals, everything went wrong for the USA at the last major international competition, the basketball world championship in China two years ago. The Americans lost to France, put down all hopes for a medal and finally finished seventh.
This team – 54-point winners against Iran and 35-point winners on Saturday – didn’t look much like this one, although it took some time to find their best move against the Czechs.
The Czechs led by up to 10 points in the first quarter and shot 65% at the Americans 35% in the first 10 minutes. With a roster with only one current NBA player – Satoransky – they didn’t look the least bit intimidated by the US
Durant gave the US their first lead in the middle of the second quarter with a 3-pointer putting the Americans 34-33 ahead. The lead was finally seven before the USA settled for 47:43 at halftime.
That left some in the crowd – hundreds of people were in the lower bowl of the arena despite no tickets being sold – more than a little bit scared. Including: members of the German team; Their hopes of qualifying as one of the best teams in third place depended on the outcome of that game.
At the beginning of the fourth, the Germans were able to relax. The Americans could do that too.
– Tim Reynolds
