Tokyo Olympics: Who’s to Blame for Team USA’s Basketball Woes

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Are the United States team in serious trouble after losing their Olympics opener to France? Who is to blame and why. We break it down in Tuesday’s Locked On NBA podcast.

TOKYO, Japan What’s up with Team USA’s men’s basketball? After two surprising losses before Toyko, the team lost their opener in Tokyo on Sunday to France, ending a 25-game winning streak at the Olympics for the US team since 2004.

While there are a lot of things wrong for the U.S. team, on Tuesday’s Locked On NBA podcast, host Wes Goldberg said some of the blame definitely falls on the USA’s coach. American team Gregg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs.

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At the 2019 FIBA ​​World Cup, Popovich’s first official domestic games as a coach, the men finished in seventh place with a 6-2 record. Now in Popovich’s first Olympics, Team USA lost their opener 83-76 while Evan Fournier of the Boston Celtics led all scorers with 28 points for France.

“Gregg Popovich, his record, you know, as an NBA coach is indisputable, one of the greatest coaches we’ve ever seen in the NBA, but internationally, at the World Cup and at the Olympics now it’s very bad. ” Goldberg said on Tuesday in the Locked On NBA podcast. “And that’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. He doesn’t win internationally and hasn’t won yet. Now I’m not saying he can’t win internationally, that Team USA is doomed under Gregg Popovich. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that so far, during his short tenure as leader of this team for USA Basketball, he hasn’t been very good. “

While international basketball has certainly evolved in many ways for many countries over the past decade, even Fournier acknowledged after France’s victory that Team USA is obviously the best basketball team in terms of staff, who is on the pitch, but not the best team.

They are completely different when they play for their country, US team point guard Damian Lillard said of international NBA players after the loss to France.

Locked On NBA co-host David Ramil said Popovich deserves criticism for not having the American team players playing with the same pride or advantage as other countries.

“I will say that if there is one criticism of Popovich it is probably much more deserved, it is the fact that Dame Lillard after this performance for Fournier pointed out that he did not realize that the players are playing so much. better at this level when they play for their country, ”said Ramil. “And that’s the kind of unpreparedness that falls on Popovich, that you have to understand they’re playing for more than just victory.”

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“(The American team players) all said that they wanted to be a part of that, that they wanted to represent our country that it was a dream for them to do that. But I think there is this mismatch between saying it and actually feeling it to the degree that these other countries are out there, “Rami said.” I think the United States team doesn’t represent that, that they’re just not aware of the current dangerousness for them. So they need to be able to make that connection much faster than expected. “

Goldberg said watching Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic score 48 points for Slovenia in their first win over Argentina made him rack his brains even more over how the USA team played.

Jrue Holiday led all Team United States scorers on Sunday with 18 points. Kevin Durant had just 10 points on 12 shots.

“There’s no reason that Damian Lillard, Kevin Durant, neither of those guys could go out and hang 40 in one of these teams, it just doesn’t make sense to me,” said Goldberg. “Maybe it’s a” Hey, like, we’re all in the same boat. “Maybe they’re overcompensating? Let’s be a team. Right? So you’ve only got Kevin Durant shooting 12 shots in 21 minutes while you have Luka Doncic scoring 48 points in 30 minutes or whatever. Play like there’s always a hierarchy here, right? You’ve got a list of stars. “

Follow the full conversation on Team USA’s men’s basketball struggles so far at the Olympics on today’s Locked On NBA podcast.

The USA team must now likely defeat Iran and the Czech Republic in the Olympic group stage to qualify for the group stage.

The United States faces Iran on Wednesday in Tokyo at 12:40 a.m. Eastern Time / 9:40 p.m. Pacific Time.

The next two US men’s basketball games will not be broadcast live on cable in the United States. but they will air exclusively on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service.

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