STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CA — USA Basketball‘s Men’s National Team faced their second exhibition game, this time against China, two nights after blowing out Argentina.
Head coach Mike Kryzyzewski started a different lineup including Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony and DeAndre Jordan, meaning all three Golden State Warriors (Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green came off the bench).
1st Quarter – Klay And KD Energize USA
USA got off to a slow start, and with 4:52 remaining, a timeout was called with the score just 4-2, in favor of the United States.
Coach K inserted Thompson and Durant. Thompson immediately hit a catch-and-shoot triple assisted by George and sandwiched into rather impressive buckets by China’s point guard, Zhao Ji-Wei.
The second bucket by Jiwei was a crossover fade past Durant, but Durant came back and fed DeMarcus Cousins for an and-one post-up deep in the paint.
Durant added a three on the feed from Kyrie Irving…
Kevin Durant pulls up from way beyond the arc at the top of the key for the #USABMNT 3 on @NBATV! #RapidReplay https://t.co/Em12ihKeEb
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 25, 2016
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…but Klay missed a long-range catch on the break from Jimmy Butler.
Cousins got fouled on the offensive rebound and, on the ensuing baseline inbound, Durant swished beyond the left arc.
Later, “KD” fed Butler for a triple in the right corner to make it 21-10, USA, with 58 seconds remaining.
With 4.2 seconds to play, Zhou Qi ran into Durant on a three-point attempt from the right corner and KD sank all three throws, then Coach K inserted Green after the ball went out of bounds and China was to inbound from the side before the buzzer.
Green smothered Yi, who had hit two treys earlier in the quarter, and after the badly missed buzzer-beater attempt, Team USA took a 26-13 lead into the second stanza.
2nd Quarter – USA Big Men Blaze The Path
The three Warriors started the second period and Thompson hit a three on a catch from Lowry to open the quarter.
After getting whistled for a reach-in on Zhou Peng’s left-handed attack, Klay got another triple as Lowry dribbled towards him on the right wing and fed Thompson with a short bounce pass.
Durant missed a three from the top, and Green dove for the ball on defense, although China retained possession.
Klay missed a three on a dribble-and-pop fed by Jordan, but Jordan ended the sequence with a fastbreak feed to Lowry with the harm.
Draymond left a lefty layup too soft off the glass, but drew a charge on guard Wang Zhelin on the other end.
Harrison Barnes got an offensive rebound tip to Jordan for a monster slam:
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After a timeout with USA leading, 40-14, all three Warriors subbed out.
Point guard Guo Ailun got this crossover of Anthony for three…
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…but Jordan had a short burst, getting a spinning lay-in and an emphatic swat of Yi, although he was all over Yi’s back for a foul.
Later, Durant missed a triple, but the ball bounced his way and he fed Cousins for an easy wide-open layup to give USA a 46-19 lead with 3:14 to play.
But KD got “hesi”’ed by Zhao Jiwei on the left baseline for a scoop, showing perhaps a vulnerability against small shifty ballhandlers.
Durant finally got revenge with 1:31 left, as he drained a triple from Cousins. With 11 seconds remaining…
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…and Cousins made this nice spin:
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Thompson got beat by the taller NBA draft pick Qi down low, and Kryzyzewski called timeout to setup a fullcourt inbound play.
The inbound went to Irving, who used a Green pick to force a switch, and Kyrie setup China’s big man for a crossover and a lefty finger roll off the glass at the buzzer.
The United States took a 55-29 lead at halftime. Durant led the way with 14 points on 3-for-5 shooting, 5-for-5 from the line, and 4 assists. Klay had 9 points on 3-for-5, all from downtown, and Green had no points and no rebounds, having played just 5 minutes.
3rd Quarter – Draymond Gets The Start
Green started the second half alongside Lowry, Butler, Barnes, and Jordan, and got involved quickly with this alley-oop to Jordan:
DeAndre Jordan slams down the alley-oop from Draymond Green on @NBATV! #USABMNT #NBARapidReplay https://t.co/kpXzMwwYZw
— NBA (@NBA) July 25, 2016
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But Green later missed a three from the left wing and the long carom led to a fast break dunk by Ding Yanyuhang.
Barnes then missed a right baseline jumper, but Draymond tipped the rebound to Butler underneath, who reset the ball to Lowry up top, who drilled a triple.
After Jiwei traveled, Green tried a nice-looking cross-court bounce pass from the right corner into Jordan, but one of China’s big men intercepted, although he stepped on the line in the process. The resulting baseline out of bounds ended with Lowry lobbing to Jordan for another slam dunk, giving USA a 64-36 lead.
Draymond ended his stint with two turnovers, however, getting called for an offensive foul, his third personal, then losing a behind-the-back dribble after a defensive rebound, trying to start a break.
With 4:32 to play, Durant and Thompson returned, alongside Irving, Anthony, and Cousins, and after a three by “Melo”, Klay drilled a left-corner triple on a catch off a bounce pass from KD driving in from the other side.
Thompson added swish, this time a two-pointer, as Cousins took a touchdown pass attempt and drew hard contact, but missed badly, the ball ending up in the wide-open Klay’s hands.
After yet another miss by China, Thompson drove to the cup after catching on the left wing, with Durant in the left corner as an option. But China’s defense was still frozen and Klay easily made the lefty scoop to make it 74-36, USA, with 1:22 left.
Durant ended the quarter with a hockey assist to Anthony who fed Irving for a jumper, Thompson added a defensive rebound on an airball from Yi, and Kyrie got another buzzer-beater from an inbound with just seconds to play.
The United States took a 78-38 lead heading into the final frame.
4th Quarter – Jam!
Jiwei made another nice move to start the fourth quarter, but Durant once again stole the show as he slammed it home with two hands after touchdown pass from Anthony off a made bucket:
KD with the slam ?? pic.twitter.com/INQlDdXZMm
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) July 25, 2016
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With 7:09 to go, Green checked back in and collected a defensive rebound in three more minutes of play. With 32.8 seconds to play, Draymond missed a layup to end with no points on three attempts.
With 5:45 left, DeMar DeRozan made this pretty reverse up-and-under layup…
DeMar DeRozan drives, scoops and scores. pic.twitter.com/q1AxtwKVJS
— ⓂarcusD (@_MarcusD_) July 25, 2016
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…and Durant celebrated on the bench very Leandro Barbosa-like, feigning an exaggerated juggling of the ball, while Irving gave a more accurate mime rendition of the play.
Later, Thompson made a beautiful lob to Jordan for a dunk, but got fouled and the alley-oop didn’t count. With China in the penalty, Klay went to the line and missed the first, made the second, ending the night with 17 points on 6-for-10 field, 4-for-8 from beyond the arc.
Incidentally, Barnes finished the night with two dunks, one of them an “and-one”:
Kyle Lowry steal, ends with a Barnes dunk. pic.twitter.com/Dhfak020is
— ⓂarcusD (@_MarcusD_) July 25, 2016
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Durant exited with seven minutes to play, tallying 19 a game-high points on an efficient 5-for-7 shooting, 4-for-5 from downtown, to go along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
USA will face China again in an exhibition up north at Oracle Arena, home of the Warriors, in Oakland in two nights.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account)
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