USA Basketball Team vs Argentina, Quick Score: Kevin Durant, USA returns with a dominant win

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Team USA recovered dramatically on Tuesday night in a much-needed 108-80 win over Argentina after back-to-back losses to Nigeria and Australia earlier in the week. After getting off to a hot start, Team USA was able to cement their lead in the third quarter to end any hopes Argentina had of making things interesting in the long run.

Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, Pam Adebayo and Damien Lillard have been fantastic for the US, with all-star performances up to the level fans are used to seeing over the course of their careers. It will be essential for Team USA that these four players continue to produce at a high level if the USA is to achieve its goal of bringing gold home.

With this win, Team USA moves to 1-2 in the Olympic setting games with a second game against Australia on tap Friday night at 6 p.m. ET on NBC Sports. For now, here are the three biggest points from Team USA’s win.

1. You haven’t come out of the woods yet

It would be tempting to assume that Team USA had completely overhauled the ship with this impressive victory. There is even some hair in the discount. Argentina is the team that cost Team USA the gold medal in 2004. It seems fitting that the opponent is helping them get back on track now. It’s a nice story, but it’s not necessarily a fair story.

Remember, the same Nigerian team that beat Team USA on Saturday also beat Argentina 94-71. This is not the same team that caused a lot of trouble for Team USA in 2004. Manu Ginobili is retired. Andres Nocioni is retired. Fabricio Uberto is retired. Carlos Delfino is retired. Luis Scola is the last remaining major character from that group, at 41 years old.

Team USA leapfrogged by 28-12 over Argentina, beating them for their supremacy in athletics and striking manufacturing. From that moment on, the two teams played fairly evenly until the fourth quarter with Team USA leading 19 teams after three. Americans started 7 for 10 out of 3…and then went 6 out of 19 after that. All of Team USA’s five-plus-21 or better starters were in the plus-minus column. The reserves were somewhat mixed. Darius Garland, Kevin Love and Keldon Johnson all tested negative.

The point is, although this result appears lopsided, it hardly represents the overall dominance that Team USA had hoped to achieve. Argentina are not a particularly difficult opponent, and after a tough start, they settled and played reasonably competitive for most of the match. The Americans made a move on Tuesday. They still have ways to go.

2. How do you defend Team USA pick-and-roll?

Damian Lillard is used for opponents who throw every defensive resource at their disposal. He is routinely turned away from screens in a desperate attempt to get the ball out of his hands. Opponents cannot do this on the international stage. His teammates are very good. Often times, they were subject to screens against him in a game of pick-and-roll.

This is the worst way to defend Lillard. He made eight 3-point attempts in 26 minutes, mostly easy pull-ups. He nailed three of them. This would be par for the course in the Olympics because there is no viable alternative. Blitz Lillard? You give an All-Star 4-on-3 team. screen switch? He’s a one-on-one against a big guy like no other probably not as good as the NBA. There are probably half a dozen big men on Earth who would feel comfortable defending Lillard in the ocean. Two of them, Draymond Green and Pam Adebayo, play for Team USA.

Perhaps your best bet is to chase Lillard over the screens. Very few guards are strong enough to get past him and fast enough to catch up. Most of these guards are Americans. You could replace Lillard in this scenario with Bradley Beal, Zach Lavigne or Devin Booker, who has yet to arrive because he is still playing in the NBA Finals. This is the fundamental problem that any team hoping to defend Team USA has to solve: their guards have such a great shooting range and they are so grossly athletic that there is no good way to defend them. You just have to choose a method and hope you miss the shots.

3. Team USA’s defensive weaknesses

Scola is 41 years old. He’s still a valuable player on the international stage, but at this point in his career, he really shouldn’t cause problems for a talented team like this American roster. Yet he scored 16 points in less than 19 minutes. He did this in part by exploiting a mismatch that he got for free. Team USA has three real men on the roster now. Kevin Love is a defensive minus. Green and Adabeyo are best used in conversion systems, so Americans convert a little.

This allowed Argentina to chase down defenders smaller than Team USA for Scola to exploit. Australia had similar success in an exhibition match with Team USA. There is no big man protecting traditional edges on this list. Team USA will probably get away with some degree of low coverage with Adebayo, but it’s not playing on its strengths. This is a list-building flaw that opponents will benefit from.

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