In their second preliminary matchup of the 2016 Olympics, Team USA found a way to overcome an extremely slow start, with too many turnovers, en route to a 44-point win.
There were five ties through the game’s first quarter, with an 18-18 tie after one. Venezuela was very successful in slowing the Americans scorching hot pace. Kobe Bryant‘s 35-year-old cousin, John Cox, scored 7 of Venezuela’s first 9 points and helped to establish a halfcourt, foul-and-turnover-filled first 15 minutes. At one point, the Americans had 9 field goals, 8 turnovers and 7 assists.
With his squad up 28-22, Carmelo Anthony stripped Venezuelan big man Gregory Echenique and hit a big three-ball in transition to start to break the game open. Anthony and Kevin Durant took care of the scoring in the first half–11 and 10 points for each of them–while Jimmy Butler and DeAndre Jordan injected some much needed energy into the Americans. They were a major reason the Americans outscored the Venezuelans 30-8 in the second quarter.
“Venezuela is so well-coached,” said USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski, via USAB. “They are tough guys. They try to control tempo and did for a long period of time. They make you play defense, and then we fouled a lot as a result of that, because you have to play it longer. We didn’t get a good offensive rhythm because of their defense, and then in the second quarter, our defense picked up. I thought Jimmy (Butler) was a huge factor in that. He just came in and really gave us a big lift. I thought DeAndre (Jordan), those two guys defensively kind of picked the whole thing up for us. I think we wore them down as the game went along.”
Paul George scored 12 of his 20 points in the second half. He got buckets in bunches and provided the exclamation point with a big dunk in the closing moments of the fourth.
Meet @Yg_Trece at the rim!!! https://t.co/ku67HjyZxf
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) August 8, 2016
Cox led Venezuela in scoring with 19. Team USA finished with 24 assists and 11 turnovers. At the start of the third, they stopped settling for jumpers and began bulldozing their way to the rim. With the lead in the high 30s in the fourth, Coach K experimented with a small lineup of George, Butler, DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry and Harrison Barnes, which could be something to keep an eye on.
George and the Americans are back in action on Wednesday night, at 6 EST, against Australia.
https://youtu.be/Wv1bwIAeU3U
