On Wednesday night, Team USA made many mistakes during its first dress rehearsal for the Olympics. But after a comfortable 86-72 win against Team Canada in front of a record-breaking crowd of 20,756 at T-Mobile Arena, Anthony Davis was only focused on Team USA’s defensive potential.
“Unbeatable,” Davis said when asked how the United States will perform if it defends and runs as it did on Wednesday. “To be honest, offensively, we were dreadful. But it was a good horrible in the sense that we were trying to make the correct plays…. [But] if we’re concerned about offensive, I believe we’re in a terrific position.
“Where we hung our hat tonight was defensively.”
Anthony Edwards led Team USA with 13 points off the bench, while Davis added 10 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocks as the Americans overcame a slow start to put the game out of reach early in the second half.
Team USA started the game off poorly, missing six shots and committing eight turnovers in the first quarter. But as the game progressed, the Americans picked up the pace, finally pulling away to win by double digits against one of their main competitors for the gold medal next month, while playing much below their best.
The Americans, who played in front of a loud crowd that included former President Barack Obama, limited Canada to 33.8% shooting, including 7-for-33 from 3-point range. Canada’s star-studded backcourt of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray shot 5-for-18 from the field.
“Good first game for us,” remarked Team USA coach Steve Kerr. “We are just started with four days of practice. You could sense rust on our attacking side early on. We had a lot of mistakes in the first half, but I really liked our defensive tenacity and work on the boards. It was a solid starting step in establishing how we want to play going ahead.”
In addition to developing a style of play, one of the most pressing problems for Team USA is who will fill Kerr’s starting roster of five players.
Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, and LeBron James seem poised to occupy three positions. Jrue Holiday, widely considered to be the top perimeter defender in the world, and Devin Booker, who may have been filling in for Kevin Durant—who has missed the last five days with a calf strain—were the other two players to earn starting spots on Wednesday night. Curry and Holiday appear to be a perfect fit for Team USA’s backcourt.
Meanwhile, the second unit—which Kerr may choose to retain together—consisting of Tyrese Haliburton, Edwards, Bam Adebayo, Jayson Tatum, and Davis—dominated play and seemed to be a formidable team going forward.
Naturally, Kerr, who is well-known for his dislike of discussing lineups, said that there was nothing to read into his lineup selections in Wednesday’s opening.
“You can’t go wrong picking a starting lineup with this group,” according to Kerr. “I want to try something new in the following two games. Before making a decision, we will consider a few alternative combinations. We tried to establish Joel early in the game knowing that Canada lacked size. We planned to play Bam and Anthony Davis in the second group. “We wanted to see what that looked like.”
Embiid was rusty in his debut game in a Team USA shirt, finishing with 5 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 fouls in 13 minutes.
He and Kerr had discussed increasing his fitness and activity levels over the last several days as he healed from a knee injury sustained late in the regular season and played through in his Philadelphia 76ers’ first-round playoff defeat to the New York Knicks. Embiid and Team USA both acknowledged that they still have a long way to go.
“We could have been much better,” Embiid said. “We did not take care of the ball. We did quite well defensively. So that’s where we’re going to hang our hat, and the offense will come.”
It was also the first time Curry and James played together on Team USA, after Curry was a member of two world championship-winning teams in 2010 and 2014, and James won gold medals in the Olympics in 2008 and 2012.
They will have several opportunities in the future. roster USA, which was missing both Durant and Derrick White, who replaced Kawhi Leonard on the roster earlier Wednesday, departs for Abu Dhabi on Thursday, where it will play Australia and Serbia in a pair of exhibition games next week as part of its pre-Olympics global tour.
“It’s pretty amazing that we’re at this point of our careers and we’re able to showcase our talent and do what we love to do and give a little bit back to the fans,” James said of becoming teammates with Curry. “So it’s an absolute treat to play with one of the greatest to ever play this game, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the summer.”
