Team USA falls to Australia for second straight pre-Olympic basketball exhibition loss
The loss to Nigeria was supposed to be a wakeup call for the Americans. But apparently they hit the snooze button.
The mighty Team USA basketball team dropped its second consecutive Olympic warmup game Monday night, 91-83, falling to Australia because Kevin Durant and the offense sputtered down the stretch.
The good news is Gregg Popovich’s squad still has about two weeks before the Olympics begin. The bad news is it looks in danger of disaster.
The Americans managed just one point in the final 4 ? minutes Monday, with Durant missing three shots. Jayson Tatum’s airball in the final seconds symbolized a brutal shooting performance from the Celtics All-Star. On the other side, Australia’s Patty Mills turned dominant, finishing with 21 points in 31 minutes while performing pirouettes around USA’s defense.
Before last week, the Americans lost two men’s basketball exhibitions in 29 years. Now they’ve lost two in three days.
Still, they remain favorites to win the gold in Tokyo. Individually, they’re undoubtedly the most talented of the field, but also hardly the Dream Team versions of the previous Olympics. LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Jimmy Butler, James Harden, Donovan Mitchell and Chris Paul all declined invitations.
The current roster only has two of the 15 All-NBA selections in 2021 – Dame Lillard (22 points Monday) and Bradley Beal (12). The U.S. has captured gold at three consecutive Olympics but bombed in the 2019 World Cup, where Popovich, coaching the senior squad for the first time after Mike Krzyzewski’s successful run, finished seventh.
Durant, 32, was the unexpected and most accomplished Team USA participant, having just navigated an injury-riddled campaign with the Brooklyn Nets at 32 years old and about two years removed from Achilles surgery. He finished Monday with 17 points in 29 minutes but faltered down the stretch, unable to break America’s game-sealing drought.
USA had control early but lost it, courtesy of Australia’s 19-6 run to end the third quarter. The Americans entered the fourth trailing by 5 and only briefly regained the lead before the offense went belly-up.
Australia is an Olympic contender with a lineup of NBA players, most notably Patty
Mills and Joe Ingles. The embattled Ben Simmons was eligible for Australia but withdrew from the Olympics amid rumors of discord with the national team and Ingles, in particular.
Officially, Simmons, whose future with the Sixers is also up in the air, listed the desire for training and improvement as the reasons for skipping Tokyo.
“I have spoken with Ben, and whilst we wanted him to be a part of our team, we understand and support his decision, and he has made it clear that this is something he wants to be a part of in the future,” Australia coach Brian Goorjian said. “It is a pretty rough time for him right now, and I know it is something that he wanted to do, but the timing just hasn’t worked.”
The defeat to Nigeria two days prior, while still embarrassing, was somewhat softened by Monday’s other result. The Nigerians pummeled Argentina, 94-71, giving them the air of a medal contender for Tokyo.
The Americans face Argentina in another exhibition Tuesday in Vegas, then finish their pre-Olympic tuneups against Australia and Spain on July 16 and 18, respectively. They open the Olympics against Frank Ntilikina and France on July 25.