Team USA wins big against the Czech Republic in the final game of the play-ins.
In the final game of the Group A play-in games, the United States Men’s National Team put up a huge scoring night for the second straight game, beating the Czech Republic 119–84, securing a spot in the single-elimination knockout round. With tonight’s win over the Czech Republic, Team USA finished second in the Group A games with a 2–1 record behind France, who finished undefeated at 3–0.
Coming into today’s game, Team USA’s Kevin Durant was 6 points shy of passing Carmelo Anthony on the all-time scorer’s list in the Olympics. Durant’s huge feat came in the 2nd quarter of tonight’s game with a huge three that gave Team USA their first lead of the game, cementing himself in the Olympic record books, passing Carmelo, and becoming the all-time scorers in the history of the Olympics. On Durant’s huge record night, he finished second in scoring with 23 points, including a game-high 8 rebounds. Durant spoke on his record night saying:
“You just think about all the players that have played in this program, it’s pretty cool to be amongst names like that. Carmelo is a guy that I played on two Olympic teams with, and I’ve seen his approach to these games and I’ve tried to steal some of his techniques.”
“It’s still pretty weird for me to do stuff like this because I play a team sport, and I try my hardest to make it about the group. But it is special to do something like that. Scoring is something I’ve worked on my whole career and expanded my whole career. To consistently do it is pretty cool.”
Boston Celtics young star Jayson Tatum finished with a high 27 points off the bench in tonight’s huge win for the Men’s National Team. Tatum’s huge night came in the second half of today’s win, scoring 21 of his total 27 points in the 2nd half, finishing over 50% from the field, going 10–16 (62.5%) from the field and 5 for 10 (50%) from downtown.
Team USA had three other players finish in double-figures in tonight’s victory, with Zach LaVine finishing third with 13 points, Jrue Holiday right behind him at 11 points, and big man JaVale McGee with 10 points, all finishing over 50% from the field goal for Team USA.
It is looking that Team USA will enter the quarterfinals in Pot D with the three group winners. Heading into the quarterfinals, Team USA head coach Gregg Popovich says the team has come a long way in a short amount of time after its two exhibition losses in the lead-up to the summer games and the upset loss to France on Sunday.
“We were behind the eight ball in the beginning, and we’re making some fast progress. We still have a lot of improvement that we must and can make,” he said. “I think the losses, in the beginning, put a laser focus on how you have to play with these rules, in this environment against these talented teams who execute wonderfully. If you don’t have respect for your opponents, you’re going to be in big trouble. We learned that the hard way.”
“I think our guys have done a good job gaining ground day by day, practice by practice, and hopefully we’ll continue that as we move forward. And we have to if we want to be successful.”