There was a lot for the U.S. Olympic team to like on Monday. And a lot not to like.
Anthony Davis scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, Tyrese Haliburton made two late 3-pointers that helped stop the Americans’ nosedive, and the U.S. beat Australia 98-92 on Monday to improve to 2-0 in their five-game exhibitions leading up to the Paris Olympics.
Devin Booker scored 16 for the USA, Anthony Edwards scored 14 and three players – LeBron James, Bam Adebayo and Joel Embiid – finished with 10 for the Americans, who will host two exhibitions in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, this week. . They will play Serbia there on Wednesday.
Jock Landale scored 20 for Australia, who got 17 from Josh Giddey and 14 from Dyson Daniels.
The U.S. led by 24 points midway through the third quarter but saw the lead cut to six with 5:05 left after Australia went on a 39-21 run. But Haliburton had the next six points on his 3s, pushing the lead to 92-80.
Australia pulled one back to four on two separate occasions, but Booker went 4 for 4 from the line in the final 8 seconds to ensure the USA would escape.
“In the third quarter, we started turning the ball over,” USA coach Steve Kerr said. “We lost a lot of points at the basket. Back cuts, offensive boards and just like that, the game changed. It’s a good lesson for us. Better to learn this lesson now than later. And this will be a good tape for us to watch. But I give Australia a lot of credit. They were great. They fought. They were really physical. Brought it to us in the last quarter and a half and really turned it into a game.”
Just like in the Canada game, the so-called second unit – Haliburton, Jrue Holiday, Adebayo, Davis and Booker – changed the game.
That was the group on the field when the Americans took a game that was tied 19-19 with 3:15 left in the first and turned it into a 39-23 lead — a 20-4 run in the space of just a few seconds. more than 5 minutes.
Kerr used that group as a starting five to open the second half. But it’s already become a clear trend: When the U.S. goes to its bench and can replace All-Stars with other All-Stars, it will be a huge problem for opponents who don’t have anywhere near the same level of depth.
“The strength of our team is our depth and we have to utilize that,” Kerr said.
It was something that Americans used to their advantage in the past. Dwyane Wade led the 2008 gold medalist United States Olympic team in points, although he was sixth in minutes on that team and came off the bench in all eight games.
Here’s the big sign of trouble right now for the US: turnover.
FIBA games are shorter than NBA games, 40 minutes instead of 48 minutes. This means there are fewer possessions and makes it even more imperative not to lose the ball.
What the Americans did. Quite.
After committing 15 turnovers in last week’s exhibition win over Canada, the USA had 18 giveaways on Monday and Australia used them to fuel the comeback effort – getting 25 points off turnovers in the second half alone.
“Our turnover is all about focus and execution,” Davis said.
Kevin Durant missed his second game in a row with a calf strain, and with just one practice between games, it doesn’t seem likely that he will play on Wednesday against Serbia either.
Derrick White, who arrived in Abu Dhabi over the weekend and had his first training session with the team on Sunday, also did not play. White replaced Kawhi Leonard — who has been dealing with knee issues — on the U.S. roster after the Americans determined last week that it was not in Leonard’s best interest to play this summer.
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