Five nights after finishing up their exhibition schedule with a win over the Nigerian National Team, USA Basketball’s Men’s National Team opened up their Olympic pool play at Barra Carioca Arena 1 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, against the Chinese National Team.
Head coach Mike Kryzyzewski opened the game with a starting lineup featuring two players from the Golden State Warriors: 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 DeMarcus Cousins at center.
1st Quarter – Klay With The Defense, KD With The Offense
Thompson opened the game on the defensive end with a steal, but pulled up from the three-point line in transition with a miss. Klay followed that up with another great play on defense, blocking a fast break layup attempt by Ding Yanyuhang, which then led to free throws by Anthony.
Thompson added yet another steal shortly after that, but the sequence ended with him missing another pull-up, this time a two-pointer.
The game had a sluggish start, and Team USA didn’t get going until a Durant jumper made it 4-2, matched by a jumpshot by Yi Jianlian, countered by a Cousins dunk off a slip from an on-ball screen for Durant. Not long after that, Durant swished a stepback inside the arc, and Team China’s coach called the first timeout of the game.
After the timeout, Durant bullied his way for this post-up from the right block to make it 17-6 with 3:40 remaining:
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Right after that, Durant rebounded a miss by China and went coast-to-coast for this layup to give USA a 19-6 lead:
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To close things out in the opening period, as part of an 11-4 burst to end the opening quarter, Durant stole an entry pass in the post and outlet to Jimmy Butler, who had subbed in for Klay, for a fast break layup.
USA held a 30-10 lead after Q1.
2nd Quarter – KD Flurry
Draymond Green got the start at center to start the second stanza, with Kyle Lowry at point guard, DeMar DeRozan at shooting guard, Jimmy Butler at small forward, and Paul George at power forward.
DeRozan got this spectacular alley-oop dunk fed by George and facilitated by Green’s pick…
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…which sparked another USA run which included a Draymond layup to give Team USA a 40-15 lead, and a Thompson layup finish in traffic from a cut on Cousins’ post-up.
Yi finally made a couple free throws to end China’s drought, making it 42-20.
Both Klay and “KD” made a few mistakes along the way, however. Durant made a pretty “in-and-out” dribble, but ended the drive with a lefty miss off the board. He also executed a nice Euro-step that Warriors fans will surely become more accustomed to, but threw the ball away after gaining the advantage, which then led to a China fast break layup to make it 42-22.
Thompson followed that up with right-corner three miss on a fade-away, Cousins disrupted a Yi layup, but Klay missed the resultant layup at the other end in transition, then after Durant boarded the next miss from China, Thompson tried to go with a lefty behind-the-back pass to Anthony on the break, only to have the ball carom off his back foot. Anthony managed to recover the ball, however, and got fouled.
With 4:38 to play, Anthony’s free throws gave USA a 46-22 lead.
That’s when Durant caught fire.
Li Gen turned the ball over to the U.S., and KD gave a between-the-legs dribble way up top, and pulled up for an unfair swish:
@LetsGoWarriors @bballbreakdown pic.twitter.com/F0IvGe7F7Q
— clutch (@gswjunkie) August 6, 2016
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Durant followed that up with a right-wing triple assisted by Anthony, then got another one from the same right wing on a hand-off play from Irving:
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The flurry could very well have hit four straight threes, but Durant missed a triple from the deep left wing on a dump-back bounce pass from Irving between Kyrie’s own legs and the “heat-check” fell short.
Yi did what he could to keep China from disappearing, squeezing a couple free throws and a nice layup during KD’s onslaught, but by the time Durant lost his shoe after chasing missed DeAndre Jordan free throws, with the ball going out of bounds, USA had built a 28-point lead, 55-27.
Meanwhile, Thompson got a cut on his right knee, had it bandaged by the trainer, and put a Neoprene sleeve over it for the remainder of the game. Klay did not look affected at all by the injury.
Closing out the half, Harrison Barnes got a dunk off a touchdown pass, then drew a foul on a bad screen with 39.1 seconds to go, but KD missed on a “two-for-one” attempt from distance.
However, on the next miss by China, Ding missed, Anthony outlet the ball to DeRozan, who found Durant, who lofted an alley-oop to Jordan with under ten seconds left.
That gave Team USA a 59-30 lead at halftime.
Durant led all scorers with 17 points on 7-for-9 field, 3-for-4 from beyond the arc, and in just 15 minutes of play:
One of those rare times when we happen to catch a livestream at the right moment! #kd #Warriors #LetsGoWarriorsLive pic.twitter.com/OZemeNfVQ3
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) August 6, 2016
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3rd Quarter – Kyrie’s Turn For A Flurry
“Coach K” went with his defensive unit to start the third quarter, with Lowry, DeRozan, Butler, George and Jordan.
With under seven minutes remaining, Kryzyzewski inserted Green, who promptly got fouled and bricked his first free throw. His second went through and USA had a 68-40 lead with 6:19 to play.
After Draymond got a nice offensive rebound tip to Jordan, Team USA battled through a bout of sloppiness, with Green missing a lefty layup.
Thompson returned with his leg sleeve with 4:52 to go, as did Durant, and after a three-point miss by KD, Irving hit a jumper, then Klay got another steal and outlet to Durant, who found Irving, who dished to Green, who got it back to Durant for a splash from the top of the arc.
China called timeout as USA went up, 78-40.
The next to catch the flurry bug was Irving, who hit a three, then got another one as Draymond stole the ball, fed KD, who found Irving for the second of three splashes in a row, and celebrated:
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Irving’s third triple came off a pull-up after a Green high pick and gave USA an 87-43 lead.
Later, Durant added a baseline inbound finger-roll off the catch to give the United States a 91-47 lead, with under ten seconds to go in the quarter.
4th Quarter – Mopping Up
USA mopped up with some more dominance in the final frame. Durant added his sixth assist by finding Cousins inside for an “and-one”, then notched his 23rd, 24th, and 25th points on the night as Cousins found him beyond the arc after receiving an entry pass from Irving.
Team USA nearly doubled China’s score, 101-52, and KD finally subbed out at the 7:20 mark with Thompson still in.
Soon thereafter, Klay pulled up from about thirty feet from the right hashmark after dribbling up past halfcourt, but missed the cannonball shot. Coach K didn’t look very pleased from the bench, but then again he maintained a stern look all game long.
Thompson finished up an active night, albeit not from a shooting aspect, by rebounding a long three-point miss by Zhao Jiwei and finding Cousins for a layup to give USA a 105-55 lead with 5:54 left.
With 4:30 remaining, Klay subbed and, with Draymond still in, Barnes played give-and-go and Green fed him on the cut for a two-handed smash down the lane, giving USA a 109-61 lead with 4:00 to play.
Draymond added a nice defensive lunge out on a Yi fade-away, forcing the taller Yi — who led China with 25 points on 8-for-19 floor and 6 rebounds — into an airball, and USA closed things out with a 119-62 final score.
KD was 5-for-8 from downtown and 10-for-14 overall with his 25 points and 6 assists, to go along with 4 rebounds. Here was his shot chart:
Kevin Durant shotchart tonight via FIBA website (10-for-14 field, 5-for-8 on 3s)… #LetsGoWarriorsLive #Warriors pic.twitter.com/hk5rGSLIfN
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) August 7, 2016
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Klay scored just 2 points, missing all three of his trey attempts and also picked up three personal fouls, the third of which he seemed pretty exasperated about, even though the game was all but fully decided late.
Draymond chipped in with 3 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists.
USA next faces Venezuela, whom they beat in their second-to-last exhibition, two nights from now.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @usabasketball)
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