Two nights after routing the Argentinian National Team in an opening knockout round quarterfinal game, USA Basketball’s Men’s National Team faced off against the Spanish National Team in the semifinals with the winner to advance to the gold medal game.
Head coach Mike Kryzyzewski started with the same starters as against Argentina: Golden State Warriors teammates Klay Thompson at shooting guard and Kevin Durant at small forward, to go along with Kyrie Irving at point guard, Carmelo Anthony at power forward and DeAndre Jordan at center.
Spain’s head coach Sergio Scariolo started point guard Ricky Rubio, shooting guard Sergio Llull, small forward Rudy Fernandez, power forward Nikola Mirotic, and center Pau Gasol, who overcame a calf injury. Serge Ibaka did not join Spain for this Olympics, and the team opted for Mirotic with its one naturalized citizen roster spot.
1st Quarter – Late Push By Second Unit
Durant, often the first to get USA on the board this Olympics, turned the ball over on the opening possession, but quickly got a three over Fernandez, then after Mirotic got blocked by Jordan, drove down the court for a missed layup, but got his own rebound, put it back, and got fouled in the process.
However, uncharacteristically, “KD” missed the “and-one” free throw.
Thompson got a steal, but turned the ball over right back with an errant lob pass to Jordan. However, Klay came back with a nice backdoor cut to shed Llull, with Jordan delivering the assist.
Later, Rubio got past Thompson down the left side for a bucket, Irving turned the ball over leading to a Fernandez breakaway dunk, and after Fernandez toilet-bowl-missed a three-point attempt, Klay got the ball on the left wing, upfaked the defender for a “fly-by”, and side-stepped for a triple to give USA a 14-7 lead with 5:09 remaining.
But Gasol answered with a nice inside, leaning move, matched by Durant dribbling and popping for a jumper from a right-wing pick set by DeMarcus Cousins, which sent Fernandez reeling.
Still, Spain hung tough, USA had some stagnant offensive sequences like this one…
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…and not long after, Rodriguez got by Durant rather easily down the left side:
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After a late-shotclock three-point miss by Thompson, Klay sat down and Gasol drew a foul on Cousins, hitting both free throws to give him nine of Spain’s thirteen points, but Paul George came back with a nice Euro-step reverse layup to give the United States a 19-13 lead with 2:42 to play.
Gasol hit a three from the top, Durant went left baseline with a spin, missed the jumper, but Cousins put the ball back in on the run towards the hoop.
Then after free throws by Felipe Reyes drawing a phantom push by KD in the post, Kyle Lowry hit an in-rhythm triple from the top and USA took a 26-17 lead into the second stanza.
2nd Quarter – Spain Uses 7-0 Run To Claw Back
Spain opened the second quarter with a nice cut by Guillermo Hernangomez, leading to a dunk, then USA got multiple opportunities with misses and offensive rebounds, but George shanked a triple.
Jimmy Butler made a nice steal from behind, only to have the sequence end with George picking up a technical for arguing a call.
Hernangomez drew another foul and hit more free throws as KD and Klay came back in, Spain drawing to a 26-20 deficit.
Thompson then made a nice dribble drive and a short lob to Jordan for the alley-oop.
Rodriguez made a bad pass, and Klay hit a right corner three that was changed to a long two, assisted by George.
That put Team USA up, 30-20, and Scariolo took a timeout.
Out of the timeout, USA left Rodriguez open on the left arc and he buried it after measuring the shot up.
Thompson tried to answer with a three, but the ball toilet-bowled out.
After a Reyes miss, Spain went with a zone defense and Durant made them pay with a dish to Klay from the right corner for three more.
That gave the United States a 33-23 lead with 5:33 to go.
Spain went on a 7-0 run with Juan-Carlos Navarro getting a left side runner, going past Thompson on a screen and missing, but Hernangomez got the putback dunk, followed by Rodriguez feeding Victor Claver for a right baseline jumper.
To make matters worse, Thompson took an early, ill-advised three that bricked, and late in the shotclock with no flow going and no high screens being set, KD took a desperation three from the left hashmark, got hit on the shot, airballed with no call, argued for a whistle and not only to get a technical, but also in the process collected his third personal foul, sending him to the bench.
Spain clawed back to a 33-30 deficit with 3:40 left as Coach K called a timeout to regroup.
Draymond Green checked in for the first time, but shot a three-pointer short for an airball, although Anthony got the rebound, was fouled, and Mirotic compounded it picking up a technical.
Klay hit the one-shot tech, then made a dribble-stop-spin-fade move to put USA up, 36-30, with 2:46 remaining.
Fernandez hit a three but ‘Melo answered back with a triple of his own, then Llull went lefty past Thompson and over the helping Cousins for a layup.
But Mirotic was called for touching the ball after it went through the hoop, and Klay hit another one-shot technical, giving Team USA a 42-37 lead with 1:00 to play.
With 19 seconds to go, Anthony drove hard, didn’t get the call, but Butler got the offensive board and dished out to Thompson for three more, giving him 17 points in the half.
Claver couldn’t fire before the buzzer from the left corner, and USA held a 45-39 lead heading into halftime.
3rd Quarter – Jordan Block Party
Thompson opened up the second half with a jumper, while Gasol hit back with a lefty hook, then a tip-in over Jordan on a Rubio missed layup, but Anthony stayed cold, missing a fadeaway from the top, with Jordan getting the rebound, getting fouled, and missing both free throws.
With 5:29 remaining, Llull hit a three from the right arc to pull Spain back to 53-48.
Irving answered back by scissoring through Spain’s defense and hitting a runner over Gasol, then Jordan got a steal under Spain’s hoop, outlet for the break, and Durant finished with a nice, strong finger roll at the rim.
Later, Klay tipped a Rubio reverse attempt, Irving found Thompson open in the corner, and on the miss, Jordan threw down the putback with a monstrous one-hand jam to put Team USA up by double-digits again, 51-40, with 3:44 to go as Scariolo called timeout.
Out of the timeout, Jordan didn’t bite on Gasol’s pump fakes and blocked his fade-away in the paint, but Klay gave the ball back as he got called for lifting his pivot foot on the catch in transition from the deep right wing, trying to attack the rim. Pau made him pay with a three that swished through from the top.
Once again, Spain got the game back to within single-digits.
George then lost the ball trying to go one-on-four in the paint, getting hacked by the waist with no call, and Rodriguez punished the play with a three-pointer to bring Spain back to within two possessions, 61-55.
Durant and Rodriguez traded missed threes, then Rodriguez tried to draw a foul on Jordan setting an off-ball pick at the top for KD unsuccessfully.
With Rodriguez stuck on Jordan, thereby leaving Durant open, Irving lobbed a pass to the seven-foot Durant for a catch-and-shoot triple, putting USA back up by nine with 1:39 left.
Jordan was brilliant on defense, not just from a blocking standpoint, but also tapping the ball out on big man dribbles inside.
He picked Gasol, but when Irving tossed the ball back for an uncontested breakaway, the ref whistled Jordan for steps on the transition, a call that would have surely been ignored in the more entertainment-focused NBA.
After a blocking foul, Klay got burned by Rodriguez, who missed, but Spain got an easy putback and, with 30 seconds remaining, Team USA was up just 64-57.
Cousins ended up fouling out, but Rodriguez lost the ball to Kyrie, and Thompson used a dribble drive to go right-to-left into the paint, lifting another short lob to none other than Jordan for the emphatic two-hand smash just before the buzzer.
With that, USA took a 66-57 lead into the final frame, with Klay leading the way with 19 points and Durant with 12.
4th Quarter – Klay And KD Close Out
Lowry started the fourth quarter with Mirotic switched on him and, with Nikola saddled with four personal fouls, Lowry kept the ball, went left baseline past the hoop, circled around from the right wing, and attacked for a layup.
Thompson disrupted Navarro’s layup, then later Jordan tallied his second blocked shot, Butler made a late shotclock attack, and missed his fifth shot of the game inside the paint.
But George kept at it and got the rebound putback to give USA a 70-57 lead as Scariolo called another timeout to stop the bleeding.
Out of the timeout, Navarro got blocked again by Jordan, but eventually got past Klay for a runner.
Later, Thompson got the catch inside on the baseline inbound on Jordan’s misdirection, but Klay missed inside, Navarro went the other way only to be Jordan’s fourth blocked shot victim.
Lowry came back with a high-risk lob to Jordan, who couldn’t corral it and the ball went careening off the board, the sequence ending with a Navarro triple from the right wing.
Klay, however, answered back with a three-point swish on a catch assisted by Lowry and aided by an off-ball screen from Jordan, putting the United States back up by thirteen, 75-62, with 5:41 to play.
Llull retaliated with a rattling right-wing trey, but after Thompson tried to punch back with a one-on-one baseline post-up fade that airballed over Llull, Gasol missed a wide-open three, although Mirotic was fouled on the offensive rebound.
After a timeout, Irving and Rodriguez traded buckets, then after a rushed pull-up three by Kyrie with no one rebounding, Mirotic cut to the hole and got a dunk. With 3:10 to go, Spain was back within double-digits, 78-69.
But Rodriguez couldn’t pull Spain closer as he missed a three after Irving missed one.
Anthony tried to take over and post up, but was whistled for too much physicality down low, turning the ball over.
However, Spain couldn’t capitalize as Rodriguez got himself to the rim, only to get called for warding off Jordan with the off-arm to the face.
George missed a floater, got his own rebound, missed again, but grabbed another board, and the ball eventually went back up top to KD.
Durant lowered his shoulder and drove left-handed past Fernandez for a high-arcing floater, and with just 1:42 left, put the game out of reach for Spain, giving USA an 80-69 lead:
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Llull tried to dupe KD into his fifth foul, hooking and holding Durant’s arm, instead got caught by the ref for the sneaky play.
At the other end, Klay found George for a dunk from the left baseline.
The game had been decided, although KD didn’t end the game on a high note, getting picked at halfcourt trying to blow past Claver, and getting a left-side runner swatted with just 17.7 seconds remaining.
Durant, however, did show some good defense, standing his ground, not trying to pickup his fifth disqualifying foul, as Mirotic tried to upfake twice, unsuccessfully.
Still, Rodriguez blew past KD with 1.1 seconds to play to give a final score of 82-76:
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Thompson tallied 22 points on 8-for-16 field, 4-for-8 downtown, while Durant racked up 14 points on 6-for-13 shooting, to go along with 8 rebounds. Green only played one minute and 48 seconds, tallying just that airballed three-pointer and no other stats.
In the gold medal game in two days, USA faces Serbia in a rematch of Group A’s earlier three-point pool play game.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @logozhou)
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