Green: ‘We didn’t do enough’
Warriors star talks of Team USA’s meltdown in loss to France that illustrates team’s problems
Draymond Green did not sound panicky after Team USA lost an Olympic basketball game for the first time in 17 years.
The Warriors center was matter-of-fact in his summation of the United States’ 83-76 defeat to France — a game that turned on a fourth-quarter collapse.
“We haven’t been together long but we’ve been together long enough to be consistent,” Green said in a news conference.
“We have to defend better down the stretch. We have to close the games out.”
The Americans did none of that in an inauspicious start to the Tokyo Games at Saitama Super Arena.
France became the third team this month to defeat Team USA. The other two were meaningless exhibition defeats to Nigeria and Australia in Las Vegas.
But those games highlighted the United States’ poor shooting and lax defense that carried over to the Group A opener Sunday.
“We showed for stretches of
“We have to defend better down the stretch. We have to close the games out.”
– USA’s Draymond Green on the loss to France.
the game that we can move the ball and get good shots,” Green said. “And we showed we can put stops together.”
But he echoed coach Gregg Popovich’s message that the best teams must play consistently over a 40-minute game.
“We didn’t do enough of it,” Green said. “It is just staying consistent throughout the and not having those spikes where they come back, we push the lead up, they come back. Obviously, basketball is a game of runs but some of that we could have negated.”
The United States had won 25 consecutive Olympic games before Sunday’s defeat. Argentina defeated the U.S. 89-81 in the semifinals of the Athens Games where the Americans won a bronze medal. The United States also fell in the group stage opener in Athens just like it did Sunday.
Green made his only shot in 21 minutes of play andalsohadtworebounds against a tall and savvy French side.
The Boston Celtics Evan Fournier led France with 28 points while Rudy Gobert scored 14 and Nando de Colo had 13. The United States was led by Jrue Holiday (18 points), Bam Adebayo (12), Oakland’s Damian Lillard (11) and Kevin Durant (10).
The U.S. squandered a seven-point lead with 3:30 left when France went on a 16-2 run to close out the game. The Americans missed all nine of their shots during the stretch.
“We gave up threes; that’s the difference,” Green said of the finish.
The result Sunday should not have been a complete surprise. France defeated the U.S. 89-79 two years ago in the quarterfinals of the Basketball World Cup in China.
The U.S. held off a fourth-quarter rally to defeat France 100-97 in group play at the Rio Games in 2016.
The Americans play Iran on Wednesday and end Group A play against the Czech Republic on Saturday. If they regroup they will advance to the quarterfinals and contend for their fourth consecutive gold medal.
But Popovich warned nothing will come easy.
“I think that’s a little bit of hubris if you think the Americans are supposed to just roll out the balls and win,” Popovich said. “We’ve got to work for it just like everybody else.”