US Crushes Brazil, Moves To Olympic Basketball Semifinals
A fun and occasionally spectacular game for Team USA
Brazil opened the quarterfinal game against Team USA as an underdog and it didn't take long for that to play out: the US just rolled over Brazil, 122-87.
The US scored 33 in the first quarter and never let up. Brazil did make a credible comeback, cutting the lead to 10, but the Americans finished the first half with a 15-0 blitz and that, as they say, was that.
Devin Booker led the way with 18. Joel Embiid had 14 and Anthony Davis had 17 off the bench.
In a nice note, Kevin Durant became the all-time leading scorer in Olympic basketball history. He had 11.
Brazil had a great run on the offensive boards in France but the US slowed that, matching their South American counterparts with 11. And the defense made Brazil’s life tough too - they jacked up 37 threes, hitting just 12 of those.
Remember when the US used to lose consistently because the other teams would hit threes while the US tried for high percentage shots?
Team USA hit 15-31 threes.
You can’t say they’re unbeatable, but having an aura, a sense of inevitability, is a valuable weapon, and the US seems to be gaining that. Serbia will put that to the test on Thursday after beating the Aussies 95-90 in overtime.
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