USA shows off star power, depth, hangs on to beat Australia 98-92 in Paris Olympics tune-up

2024 USA Basketball Showcase – USA v Australia

It’s a luxury that coach Steve Kerr could close out a tight game with a lineup of five NBA All-Stars: Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, Jrue Holiday, Devin Booker and Bam Adebayo.

That leaves LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Anthony Davis watching from the bench.

The USA’s high-end, iconic star power draws the headlines, but it has the depth on the American roster has proven too much for opponents through two Paris Olympic tune-up games. Kerr’s closing lineup worked. The USA hung on to beat Australia 98-92 in front of a packed house of 12,217 in Abu Dhabi on Monday. The USA is now 2-0 in its series of exhibition games preparing them for the Olympics, which start on July 26. Those wins have come against Canadian and Australian teams with medal aspirations (the Boomers won bronze in Tokyo, Canada did the same at the FIBA World Cup a year ago).

Both wins have highlighted the USA’s depth — in both games it was the USA’s bench that broke things open. It’s not just the talent, it’s that the USA is bringing defenders like Holiday, Adebayo and Davis in with that second unit — and that bench defense was sharp for most of the game against Australia and was a big part of the USA win.

Davis proved to be the best American on the court in this one, scoring a team-high 17 points with 14 rebounds and two blocked shots — he was a defensive force in the paint. Devin Booker added 16 points for the Americans and Edwards started the game hot with 11 points in the first quarter, finishing with 14.

As he said he would, Kerr changed his starting five from the Canada game. LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Joel Embiid remained in the first five but Jayson Tatum and Anthony Edwards joined them (Booker and Holiday slid back to the second unit).

That starting five opened the night moving the ball well, and because everyone is a threat things happened like LeBron getting ignored and left wide-open for a corner 3.

Edwards’ dynamic athleticism had him taking over early and scoring 11 of USA’s first 19 on 4-of-4 shooting, including a crossover step-back 3 that left Will Magnay spinning.

Australia…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/usa-shows-off-star-power-190501484.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-07-15 19:05:01

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