USA men’s basketball team: The Americans looked weak, but they are clearly the talented Olympic team

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In the middle of the NBA Finals, no one expected the story to become the US men’s basketball team losing two consecutive exhibition games in the run-up to this summer’s Tokyo Olympics. But here we are. On Saturday, it was Nigeria, the US team that topped 83 points at the 2012 London Olympics, to defeat the Americans. On Monday, it was Australia.

On Tuesday night, the Americans dominated Argentina, and if they somehow lose that match, we might have a real problem to talk about. But for now, let’s keep this in perspective.

Yes, the United States has lost only four exhibition games over the past 29 years with NBA players, and two of them have occurred over the course of 48 hours. Yes, Greg Popovich, who is now only 9-5 as a US coach, has a better win percentage with the San Antonio Spurs (.667) than he does with the national team (.642). Yes, the Americans have, unbelievably, lost four of their last five internationals with NBA players dating back to the 2019 Basketball World Cup, where the United States lost to France and Serbia en route to seventh place.

But we’re still talking about a huge disparity of talent between Americans and the rest of the world. I know this makes the obvious, but amid all the hype about these losses, it needs to be mentioned nonetheless. Popovich attributed the declines in the second half of the two losses to a lack of conditioning. Seems like an excuse. Maybe it is. This does not mean that it is not true. A lot of these players haven’t played a real game in a long time. In fact, other than Kevin Durant, every player currently fitting in in Vegas either didn’t make the playoffs or lost in the first round in early June.

Speaking of Durant, he won’t continue shooting at 38 percent, as he did in his first two games (10 vs 26). Bradley Bell won’t score two points, as he did against Nigeria, very often. If there are concerns, Damien Lillard is the man who can be targeted defensively. Additionally, the Americans, who would be playing on a small scale and using a lot of Draymond Green in the five, could have trouble on the glass, as they were beaten in those first two losses.

This could be a particular problem in the Olympic opener against France (Rudy Gobert). The paint job hasn’t gone the Americans’ way yet. On Monday, the Australians outperformed the United States 44-24 in the paint. That gap needs to be bridged, but Team USA – with the likes of Lillard, Durant, Bell, Zach Lavigne and Jason Tatum – is going to be a strong jump shooting team with too many bowlers to feel cold at the same time.

On that note, reinforcements will arrive. Junior Holiday, who will provide outstanding defensive support to Lillard on point of attack, and Chris Middleton and Devin Booker will join the US team after the NBA Finals. This is embarrassing about shooting and making fortunes.

Now, for the idea that the US didn’t take those two games against Nigeria and Australia seriously, let’s scratch that now. They did. They were energetic and aggressive defensively, they switched and pressed the ball. Against Australia in particular, they moved the ball well and played half-court offensively. Collectively, they didn’t make as many shots we should assume they’d score, and to Popovic’s view, they eroded of lag.

Give Nigeria, the team that hit 20 three-pointers and fought every second defensively, and Australia, the team that boasts legitimate NBA threats (Joe Engels, Patty Mills, Matis Thiebol, Aaron Baines, Dante Exum), the credit. Slovenia has Luka Doncic, who could have a potential match against the American on his own. Spain has Marc and Pau Gasol. Ricky Rubio, European star and former basketball player Rudy Fernandez, Willie Hernangomez and Alex Abrins. France has Joubert, Nick Patom, Timothée Loew Caparrot, Yvan Fournier and Frank Ntelikina.

There is no doubt that the gap between the United States which has won the last three Olympic gold medals, and the rest of the world has narrowed. But a huge gap still exists. Americans have to prove they can do convergent games, because they won’t blow everyone up. But for now, they are benefiting from the suspicion that they will find out. They lost both fair and square matches. They didn’t take it for granted or didn’t care or didn’t try. But they also did not play for a gold medal. So let’s stop overreacting.

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