USA basketball team barely eked out a win over Serbia in their Group A contest in the 2016 Rio Olympics. USA held on to win 94-91, making this the second consecutive close game they faced in the Olympics after defeating Australia 98-88.
Serbia missed a game-tying three-pointer as their best three point shooter Bogdan Bogdanovic was left wide open with 5.2 seconds remaining in the game. His shot came off the rim and USA breathed a sigh of relief at escaping the tenacious Serbian squad.
Serbia was playing without Boban Marjanovic and Nemanja Bjelica. Marjanovic was not included in the team because he missed training camp as he had to go and sign his NBA contract, and Bjelica was out with an injury. Team USA were also missing some key names in LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook.
Initially, USA raced out to a 27-9 lead and looked ready to run away with it. But Serbia fought back to bring the score to 27-15 at the end of the first quarter. Serbia neutralized every one of USA's runs and kept the game close at half-time, cutting the lead to 50-41.
It was clear that Team USA were bothered by the calls not going their way. DeAndre Jordan picked up a technical foul for protesting against a perceived foul by Raduljica, when the latter pushed Jordan out of the way of an ally-oop.
USA shot 49% from the field overall, compared to 52% shooting by Serbia. USA’s scoring was led by Kyrie Irving who had 15 points on 5 of 8 shooting from the field and a perfect 4 of 4 from the line. He also added 5 assists. DeAndre Jordan was very efficient for USA as he had 14 points on a perfect 4 of 4 from the field and 5 of 8 from the line.
Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and Paul George added 12 points each as well, while DeMar DeRozan added 11 points. Paul George later said, “As good as we are, if we continue to keep playing like this, these games are going to be even tougher,”
Serbia were led by their center Nikola Jokic, who also plays for the Denver Nuggets. He had a game-high 25 points and shot 11 of 15 from the field while adding 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
Mirolsav Raduljica added 18 points while shooting 6 of 8 from the field and the free throw line. Milos Teodosic shot 4 of 9 from the field and scored 18 points. The only other player in double figures for Serbia was Stefan Markovic, who scored 12 points while shooting 4 of 6 from the field.
Teodosic had one of the best passes of the Olympics late in the fourth quarter, but the pass wasn't converted into a bucket.
He was then fouled on a three-point attempt, and converted all three to reduce the lead to 94-91, but Serbia would not come any closer.
Draymond Green blamed the offense for the lacklustre defense. He said, “I think our offense is hurting our defense as well. When we were moving the basketball early on, everything was flowing, the defense was great. When we stop moving the basketball, everything is stagnant. It transferred over to the defensive end.”
Usually, players can always count on defense even when the offense is not working, as defense is all about effort. But Green's deflection makes for a conflicting philosophy.
USA seems to struggle against crisp ball movement and prolific big men in this Olympics. Although they have won all four of their games in the Olympics thus far, the margin of victory has been getting smaller.
In Group A, USA is at the top of the table with 8 points. Australia and France occupy 2nd and 3rd spot with 7 points each. Serbia holds the fourth spot with 5 points. In Group B, Lithuania is at the top with 6 points. Argentina and Croatia occupy the 2nd and 3rd spots with 5 points each and Brazil is in fourth place with 4 points.
USA's next match is against France on 14th August at 10:45 PM IST.
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