Team USA advances to the gold medal final after huge win over Australia.
With tonight’s huge second-half surge, Team USA was able to edge out Australia with two huge runs, a 14–4 run before the half, and a 32–10 run in the 3rd quarter, beating Australia 97–78 punching their ticket to compete for gold. The United States Men’s National Team will play the winner between the Slovenia and France semifinal matchup for the final, with the loser of that game set to play against Australia for bronze.
Team USA faced a handful of NBA players on the Australian National team in today’s matchup. Starting with Team USA’s head coach Gregg Popovich's former player on the Spurs Patty Mills, who led all Australian’s tonight with 15 points. The other NBA players included Joe Ingles, Matisse Thybulle, Aron Baynes, Matthew Dellavedova, and Donte Exum.
Team USA’s captain Kevin Durant showed why he is one of the best players in the world today, putting on a top-class performance, scoring a game-high 23 points in the win. Durant shot 53% from the floor, going 10 for 19, including a game-high of 9 total rebounds.
Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker finished second in scoring for the Men’s National Team tonight, scoring 20 points on 3 of 5 (60%) shooting from deep and 7 of 10 (70%) shooting overall.
Recent NBA champion of the Milwaukee Bucks Jrue Holiday was everywhere on the court in tonight’s victory, finishing with a near triple-double of 11 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists.
Despite shooting a game-low 32% from three, Team USA was still able to come out with a win tonight from having impressive percentages from inside the arc, going 38 for 74 (51%) from the field goal and 29 for 46 (63%) from two.
Team USA will use today’s huge win over Australia as momentum into the gold final against France or Slovenia to compete for their 4th straight gold finish.