In the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s victory over South Sudan, the foundational pillars of Team USA—LeBron James and Steph Curry, the oldest and most revered players on the team—were showing cracks.
South Sudan, which nearly beat the U.S. in an exhibition two weeks ago, dug into a double-digit lead by forcing Curry, who finished with three points on 1-of-9 shooting and four fouls, to switch onto Carlik Jones. LeBron, another blow-by target, wasn’t particularly sharp on either end, totaling more turnovers (six) than assists (five). Steve Kerr, who had already replaced the struggling Joel Embiid with Anthony Davis in the starting lineup to counter South Sudan’s speed and perimeter threats, was now faced with an even more headline-grabbing dilemma. Would he bench LeBron and Steph in the fourth? In the end, he opted for a half measure, replacing Curry and, puzzlingly, Kevin Durant (who was a team-high plus-26) with Derrick White and Jrue Holiday, while James ran the offense.
Eventually, the U.S. steadied the ship and prevailed, 103-86. After the game, Kerr told reporters that he hopes nobody is spending too much time indulging in soap opera discussions on social media while the U.S. is focused only on bringing home gold. But his rotational decisions have dominated the discourse around Team USA in the lead-up to the medal round. His choices have run counter to a keen awareness of basketball need, opponent considerations, game flow, team hierarchy, and ego management. Kerr even said, a full two days before Team USA’s next game, that Embiid would be back in the starting lineup against Puerto Rico, extinguishing the possibility of a news cycle similar to the 48 hours when everyone fixated on Jayson Tatum being benched against Serbia.
“We have an embarrassment of riches on this roster; that’s the best way to put it,” Kerr said. “I mean, these guys are all champions, All-Stars, Hall of Famers, however you want to put it. So the whole thing is, are we committed to the goal? That’s it. That’s it.”
This is the thankless job of being the head coach of the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team, and while there are plenty of rotational nits to pick, Kerr won’t risk ruffling feathers and bench his biggest stars for the sake of coaching a perfect game until the Americans meet an opponent that forces one out of them. That might not happen in Paris. Wednesday’s victory earned Team USA a quarterfinals berth and gave it the highest point differential (43) in these Games. Precision, when you possess the blunt force of Team USA, isn’t very important, turning traditional story lines (Who played over whom? Who shot how many times?) into woefully anticlimactic discussions. Dramaturgically, watching Team USA has been like watching the Avengers assemble. You’re not watching for the stakes. You’re watching for fan service. This, in essence, was Team USA’s goal after losing in the FIBA World Cup last year: combine the best players in the world so that they don’t have to be their best to win. Still, there was plenty to glean from Wednesday’s game. Here are five observations on Team USA after its victory over South Sudan.
1. Depth and defense, anchored by Bam Adebayo, led the way.
Six players scored in double digits for Team USA. Four of them, including Adebayo, came off the bench. He was the only Team USA player to finish with more than nine shot attempts and 15 points. He bullied South Sudan’s sinewy bigs, turned deep entry passes into easy points, hit two corner 3s, and perfectly executed Kerr’s switching scheme. My favorite sequence came in the third quarter, when Adebayo shadowed Jones on and off the ball for 15 seconds.
On defense, Adebayo was mostly flanked by White, Holiday, Durant, and Anthony Edwards, a lineup that struggled to space the floor but blew up South Sudan’s transition game, thanks to the activity and awareness of White.
The most impressive stretch of the game for Team USA came when Devin Booker subbed in for Holiday, and Edwards started initiating the offense, giving the Americans a perfect blend of penetration, size, defense, and shooting and allowing them to keep up with South Sudan’s torrid 3-point shooting pace.
2. Kevin Durant is an international basketball god.
Durant leads Team USA in points scored at these Olympics by a wide margin. He’s third all-time at the Olympics in 3-pointers made. And in two games so far in Paris, he’s scored 37 points on 14 shots, and Kerr has the unfathomable luxury of bringing him off the bench.
Durant’s first play on Wednesday, a right-handed drive on a defender who was tilting toward the left that earned him two free throws, was exemplary of what makes him so unguardable in all kinds of basketball terrain: fast decision-making and an even faster first step. On a roster studded with star talent, Durant’s ability to score quickly without over-dribbling is especially valuable.
Even though he’s 35, he’s been one of Team USA’s most impactful defenders, fusing size, anticipation, IQ, and effort to erase his teammates’ deficiencies. When Kerr trotted out the starters to begin the fourth quarter against South Sudan, Durant replaced Tatum. He probably should have finished the game, too.
3. Devin Booker has been quietly awesome.
In two games, Booker has led the U.S. in minutes, scored 22 points on 12 shots, and reliably spaced the floor. Against South Sudan, with Holiday coming off the bench, Booker did an above-average job as Jones’s primary defender while goosing the offense and finishing as the only starter with a positive plus/minus. Like his Phoenix Suns teammate Durant, Booker’s shooting and ability to score in a flurry have made him an ideal cog that can exist within the context of the team.
4. What’s up with Jayson Tatum’s jumper?
After logging a DNP-CD against Serbia, Tatum was in the starting lineup against South Sudan, but the negative narrative around him continued. Tatum has now shot 24.1 percent from beyond the arc through the postseason, Team USA exhibition play, and the Olympics. Against South Sudan, his lone triple attempt, a wide-open corner 3, clanked off the side of the backboard. He finished with four points on 2-of-4 shooting in 17 minutes.
There was a lot of hand-wringing over Tatum’s lack of playing time after the Serbia game, but the truth is, he’s looked like the odd man out since exhibition play started. Tatum is elite at a number of different things (perimeter defense, rebounding, rim pressure, switching), but he’s not the best player on the roster at any of them, so it’s understandable that Kerr has had a hard time finding a consistent role for him, especially now that his outside shot has abandoned him.
5. Your moment(s) of basketball zen.
The Team USA experience doesn’t provide much in the way of tension or stakes, but the more this collection of über-talented players builds familiarity, the more opportunities they have to tap into temporary, sublime connections. How often, if ever, will we get to see Edwards find Adebayo for dunks again?
Or witness this explosive sequence, brought to you by Davis hitting the floor?
Victory, for Team USA, feels close to inevitable. The intrigue is in watching how they do it.
