Ball bounces as fully anticipated
U.S. routing China in an exhibition is a given, so focus is on mission
The result was a foregone conclusion before the U.S. men’s national team and its counterpart from China took to the court before an enthused sellout crowd at Staples Center for a pre-Olympic exhibition Sunday. The challenge for both was that they knew there would be no challenge on the court, not with a star-studded lineup of NBA standouts facing a young, largely inexperienced team from China that has two players who were secondround picks in this year’s draft but no one currently in the NBA.
So it was left for each side to set a mission and focus on specific details in what turned into a 106-57 rout for Team USA. By those standards, at least, each could and did claim success.
China, which will face the U.S. in another exhibition Tuesday in Oakland and in both teams’ Rio de Janeiro tournament opener on Aug. 6, got the experience it
sought against a vastly more talented and athletic opponent. The U.S. got a second straight balanced and unselfish performance that featured 19 points by Golden State’s Kevin Durant, 29 assists on 41 field goals, and no one getting hurt.
“Before the game started, we kind of knew the result. The result for us was not important. More important is the process,” China Coach Gong Luming said through an interpreter.
U.S. Coach Mike Krzyzewski said much the same, in English.
“We should have won,” he said, “but the way we won was excellent.”
Krzyzewski’s team, still adjusting to the slightly smaller basketball used in international play and to an array of different rules, overcame a slow shooting start and an early 7-7 tie to lead by 25 points halfway through the second quarter. Krzyzewski is still tinkering with lineups and his rotation, and in deference to Clippers center DeAndre Jordan playing at home, he had put Jordan in the starting lineup. Jordan responded with an early block and an alley-oop bucket, meeting yet another goal the team had set out.
“Coach told me that if I didn’t do anything in the first 30 seconds, I was coming out,” said Jordan, who finished with 12 points, five rebounds and three blocks in 17 minutes 13 seconds of playing time.
Krzyzewski said he didn’t mind the early sluggish offense but he didn’t allow it to fester. His decision to bring in Durant, who had led the team in scoring against Argentina in an exhibition Friday, and Golden State’s Klay Thompson quickly and irreversibly changed the tone.
“We didn’t score right away but we played really good defense,” Krzyzewski said. “But KD and Klay come in and boom, boom, boom, it’s there.”
It never again disappeared. Thompson finished with 17 points, DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors had 13 points, Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins had 12 points and seven rebounds, and Durant and Toronto’s Kyle Lowry each had five assists.
For Gong, who coached China at the 1996 Olympics, it was a 20-year-old replay with different names in the U.S. scoring column.
“One thing doesn’t change,” he said. “America is still very strong in the world in basketball.”
Krzyzewski’s team is intent on becoming stronger and more cohesive in the three exhibitions before its Rio opener. He said the minutes eventually won’t be distributed as evenly as they were in the first two games but he’s waiting to see how well different combinations mesh. So far, he said, he’s happy with the growth he has seen in practices and the two exhibitions. Players believe there’s more growth possible.
“A lot of us are coming off different points in the season, finishing the season at different places, so these are definitely hard games for us,” said guard Kyrie Irving, whose season ended with a championship and a parade in Cleveland. “We’re getting used to new rules, a new basketball, getting ourselves acclimated.
“We still have a chance to get better. It’s a matter of us just coming together as a team and players coming from our individual organizations just trying to play together as soon as we can.”
They might not be pushed by an opponent until they’re deep into the Rio tournament. In the meantime, it’s all about meeting the goals they create.
“I hope we’re never challenged,” Krzyzewski said. “There have been challenging points in each game and a huge thing is for us just to get to know one another but also how the game is called, the rules, the ball. It’s a challenge just to adapt to the game. It’s been good.”
And bound to get better.