France’s Villeneuve-d’Ascq The United States is the top seed heading into the medal round at the Paris Olympics, halfway to its gold medal goal.
The real games are about to begin.
Six American players finished in double digits, led by Anthony Edwards’ 26 points, and the Americans easily defeated Puerto Rico 104-83 on Saturday to secure first place after group play. The United States, which is attempting to win an Olympic medal for the twentieth time in its twenty-origin games, made a decisive run in the second quarter.
U.S. coach Steve Kerr stated, “I think we accomplished what we wanted to do, winning all three games and securing the top seed.” We are aware that our play needs to improve. This is a tournament where the difficulty increases as you progress. All we want to do is strive to improve with every game.
Tuesday’s win-or-go-home quarterfinal match between the Americans—3-0 in these Olympics and 8-0 thus far this summer—and Brazil will take place in Paris.
The American forward LeBron James declared, “We better be ready to go.”
For the US, Joel Embiid scored 15 points. With 11 points for the United States, Kevin Durant moved within five points of Lisa Leslie’s record for the most points scored in Olympic competition; Leslie concluded her career with 488 points.
In 18 minutes, James finished with 10 points, 8 assists, and 6 rebounds. After rolling his ankle during the Americans’ victory over South Sudan on Wednesday, Jrue Holiday was out for precautionary reasons. Jayson Tatum finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Anthony Davis scored 10 points for the United States. Tuesday’s quarterfinals will feature Holiday, according to Kerr.
Jose Alvarado scored 18 points to lead Puerto Rico (0-3). Aleem Ford finished with ten, and Ismael Romero scored twelve.
It was the first Olympic game between the two countries since the 2004 Athens Games, when James made his tournament debut and Puerto Rico humiliated the United States 92-73 after running away in the second quarter.
This time, the tale is a little different.
Puerto Rico won the second quarter 28–7 that day in Athens. The United States won the second quarter 39–16 this time. Give Puerto Rico credit; despite knowing they were out of the running going into the game, their squad managed to take an eight-point lead late in the first quarter and maintained it with 5:45 remaining in the half.
The remaining half: 28 U.S., 8 Puerto Rico. The sprint was swift and unambiguous.
“We started wearing them down in the second quarter, I think our talent took over,” Kerr remarked. “We played a fantastic quarter and our defence really clicked, which opened up the game.”
During that spurt, James had all six of his first-half assists, and the Americans led 64–45 at the half. In the closing seconds, he put an end to the frenzy with a dunk that was assisted by his 2004 Athens teammate Dwyane Wade, who was sitting courtside and commentating for NBC at the time. He grinned broadly and yelled something as he finished, and the countdown to securing the No. 1 seed began.
Basically, as would be expected.
The Americans have won their first three games in France with ease: they defeated Serbia 26 points to start the match, defeated South Sudan 17 points to secure the top spot in Group C, and then defeated Puerto Rico one-sidedly from the start.
And at least in terms of goals scored, a new player has taken the lead in each of the French games played thus far. Durant had 23 and James had 21 against Serbia. 18 points came from Bam Adebayo vs South Sudan. It was Edwards turning 26 on Saturday.
That’s intentional.
U.S. guard Stephen Curry remarked, “It’s crazy because Ant goes off tonight, Bam went off the other night, KD the night before that, and Bron’s been consistent the whole time.” “Everyone else, locate yourself in relation to the source of the shots. It’s not as though someone is assuming ownership of every item. It’s only an issue of being confined. In a quarter, you might touch the ball once or twice, but you need to be prepared
to capitalise on those opportunities.
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