Two nights after defeating the Venezuelan National Team, USA Basketball’s Men’s National Team (2-0, Group B) faced an up-and-coming Australian National Team (2-0, Group B) in a battle of undefeated teams, both with plenty of NBA experience.
USA head coach Mike Kryzyzewski decided to have Golden State Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson come off the bench and start Paul George instead. Warriors small forward Kevin Durant started again to go along with Kyrie Irving at point guard, Carmelo Anthony at power forward, and DeMarcus Cousins at center.
1st Quarter – Melo On Fire
Anthony came out hot, hitting his four of his first five three-pointers. Meanwhile, Durant couldn’t hit from beyond the arc or inside. Meanwhile, Andrew Bogut was very effective, catching alley-oops from a controlled offense led by Matthew Dellavedova, and even hitting inside lefty baby hooks.
Here was an alley-oop which gave the Australians a 9-7 lead early on:
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Irving hit a three, but then got blocked by Bogut, and in an epitome of the first half, Patty Mills pulled up from beyond the arc, over Durant no less, and swished a triple to go ahead, 18-15, with 5:50 remaining.
Anthony finally missed a heat-check and Bogut made a great pass to a cutting Aron Baynes, but George managed to block it. Still, Bogut came back with a lefty hook from the baseline, assisted by Dellavedova.
Irving missed, got his own rebound, but made a bad pass to DeAndre Jordan who fouled from behind to stop the break, only to get called for an international unsportsmanlike foul, which meant two free throws and possession for Australia. George had also picked up a technical earlier on while posting up Dellavedova and then confronting him after a foul. That also lost a possession for USA, not to mention gave George a personal foul per FIBA rules.
Bogut added a free throw plus another block on a Kyle Lowry jumper before Thompson finally checked in and hit his first trey of the tournament, after seven straight misses through two games, to cut USA’s deficit to 25-20 with 3:08 to play.
But Klay missed the next attempt from downtown, although a Jordan got the putback and also got fouled.
After nice pressure by Jimmy Butler against Australia’s second unit, and with Bogut out, Lowry went the length of the court for a nice lefty drive finished with the right hand, trimming the Aussie’s lead to 27-26 with 1:25 to go.
Anthony added his fourth three to momentarily take a 29-27 lead, but small forward David Andersen was stroking it, and hit a jumper after Draymond Green left a three-pointer short, and the game was tied, 29-29 heading into the second stanza.
2nd Quarter – Hello? Warriors?
Durant finally hit a bucket as Klay missed a driving, pivoting shot, but got his own rebound and fed the ball back out to Anthony, who swung it over to “KD”. In attendance was Matthew McConaughey, who his trademark “alright” nod of approval:
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But Mills scored again as Cousins failed to help on the backdoor screen on Thompson:
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Cousins got a two-hand jam of a putback of Irving’s miss, but then committed his third person foul. Green had to come over to him on the bench to calm him down a little bit.
Bogut struck again, finishing another alley-oop, then getting another lefty flip shot to go in as Jordan gave him plenty of space to operate, retreating to the rim, thinking Bogut wouldn’t be aggressive.
Anthony surprisingly passed up an open three to drive, but the shotclock buzzer sounded as he lost control of the ball, and Andersen posted up the smaller Irving for a spinning and-one bucket.
Mills then front-rimmed a three, but the ball bounced through…
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…and with a 10-0 run, the Aussies took a 41-36 lead. Lowry got mangled by Baynes outside the arc and stopped the drought with three made free throws.
But Andersen hit a long jumper and added a free throw after Anthony frustratingly fouled him upon missing another jumper, Lowry got blocked again, and Cameron Bairstow hit a righty jump hook to give Australia an eye-popping 46-39 lead.
Chris Goulding got swatted by Durant…
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…but KD drove in in transition and got pegged for a charge. Green and Dellavedova got into it, but the altercation was minor as “Coach K” called a timeout.
Anthony got a steal and fed George for a reverse fast break layup, Andersen answered with yet another J, and Durant turned the ball over on a bad dribble, with Draymond inadvertently tripping Mills in transition. Mills drilled one of the two free throws and the Aussies led 49-43.
Green halved the deficit as George drove in and found him on a kick out to the left corner, but Mills hit another trey from the top.
“Melo” hit a three in response, Coach K inserted Thompson again, but Anthony and Green failed to communicate, and Bogut got a feed from Dellavedova at the rim.
Durant forced up a baseline jumper with the defense shrouded on him, missed, but at the other end, Draymond picked Dellavedova on a spin and, at the buzzer, missed a heave from halfcourt.
The “Boomers” took a 54-49 lead into halftime.. It might have been a wider gap if it weren’t for Australia’s 12 turnovers.
3rd Quarter – Flex?
The United States jumped out to a 9-0 run as Cousins started the quarter with a steal, then missed a dunk on a feed from Durant, but stuck with it and put the ball back in the hoop.
KD then hit a left wing triple on the pivot, on a pass from Irving up top, to tie the game at 54-54.
Dellavedova lost the ball to Cousins and, on the break, Irving went with a behind-the-back pass to Cousins for the layup.
Bogut missed a banker on a lead pass from “Delly”, then Kyrie hit a double-pump bank shot from the left side and the Australians took a timeout as USA went ahead, 58-54.
Later, Durant got blocked by Bogut…
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…but after Bogut hockey-checked Irving in transition (not an unsportsmanlike, per the officials), KD added a long two-pointer on the catch.
Cousins picked up his fourth personal versus Bogut, but Klay was reinserted and promptly hit a three over Bogut. However, that was matched by Mills yet again, firing another triple:
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Klay ended up boxing out Bogut for a nice defensive rebound and, at the next sequence, Durant went into the paint and drew a hard foul by Bogut, but Bogut made a play on the ball so the call wasn’t close to being unsportsmanlike, although Durant ended up on the floor.
The Aussies finagled another backdoor layup…
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…but Lowry took an outlet from Klay and used his body to shield Bogut at the rim, then Green took Bairstow off the dribble from the short left elbow, initiated contact, and got the whistle anyways as the shot dropped.
With that and-one with 32.2 seconds to play, Team USA took a 70-67 lead into the fourth quarter.
4th Quarter – Just Melo’in
Klay started the fourth quarter, but a left side fade-away fell short, then Andersen drilled another three over him to tie the game.
Thompson had the ball on the right wing and Andersen collided into him, Klay threw the ball up thinking it was an obvious foul, but the airball — which came within, oh, five yards of the rim, ended up a two points the other way in transition.
Anthony put on his cape and got an “and-one”, but missed the free throw.
USA forced two straight Dellavedova airballs at the shotclock buzzer, and Melo made them pay with a swish on the catch from the deep left wing.
After a Bairstow runner in response, Anthony got a dribble-and-pop to drop, forcing the Aussies to call timeout to cool him down, USA taking a 78-74 lead as Melo reached 25 points on 7-for-12 field.
Mills shot a rare airball on a fade-away, but after Durant missed an open jumper, Irving cleaned up the succession of empty possessions with a dribble-and-pop off a pick-and-roll with Jordan.
“Delly” answered with a runner, but Anthony splashed another catch-and-shoot from Kyrie to help the United States go up, 83-76, with 5:20 remaining.
But Australia stayed close as Mills shed Thompson after a pass to Bogut and Patty cutting off of Bogut with the ball and even with Irving helping. Bogut bounced a perfect lead pass to Mills for the banker, right-handed from the left side.
Kyrie went high-board down the right lane over Bogut impressively, then Mills responded equally impressively, going reverse for a layup past the USA’s high-wire defense.
Coach K called timeout, then Melo struck again and drilled another three to start the stretch run. USA led 88-80 approaching two minutes to go, with Anthony now at 31 points.
Delly made a pretty move for two points, but Irving went with the effective dribble-and-pop again via Jordan, maintaining the cushion at 90-82 with 2:25 left.
Mills drew a foul on the dribble from Thompson, exasperated at the call, and two free throws cut the USA lead to two possessions, when Kyrie threw up his trademark clutch three…
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…which ironically for Warriors fans looked eerily reminiscent of the championship-winner over Stephen Curry in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
That gave Team USA a 93-86 lead and the Aussies were running out of time, even as Irving made an errant pass to Melo, who couldn’t control the ball on the dribble as the shotclock wound down past two seconds remaining. As the ball rolled to the backcourt, deflected, the shotclock buzzer went off and Australia was down by five with 36.3 ticks to play.
But Joe Ingles missed a jumper, Irving hit free throws on the automatic necessary foul to stop the clock, and Mills missed a desperation three from the corner badly, only hitting the side of the board. George dove for the rebound and crashed through the baseline ad boards, unharmed.
George, Irving, and Durant closed out with free throws while the Aussies couldn’t hit any shots and the game ended with the final score of 98-88, the game obviously much closer than the score at the buzzer indicated.
The three Warriors had subpar offensive showings and a couple breakdowns on defense while getting used to Australia’s system. KD shot just 4-for-16, Klay 2-for-9, and Draymond 2-for-5 from the field. But each player still had their brief moments in the game and, for example, Thompson finished with a +12 on the plus-minus.
USA will face Serbia in two nights in the fourth of five group play round-robin games.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @alex_ortiz764)
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