The Paris Olympics are underway, and with it, US Men’s basketball has tipped off, already securing their first victory in the group stage. Defeating a threatening Serbian team led by NBA MVP Nikola Jokic. The US took care of business dominating Serbia in a 16-point blowout. With strong performances from Kevin Durant, and LeBron James. The US is set to play an unlikely rival in their next game this Wednesday, July 31th. Playing South Sudan, the underdog team already gave the US a scare in a surprisingly close exhibition game. The US will have to bring their A-game against their unlikely rival.
In the first game versus South Sudan, the US team barely squeaked by winning by 1 with a LeBron James game-winner. In a game no one expected to be close the South Sudan team showed us just how unpredictable modern basketball has become. The main threat to the US came from a barrage of three-point shooting from Marial Shayok, who briefly played for the Philadelphia 76ers back in 2019. The entire South Sudan team showed up to shoot, with the team hitting over 40% of their three-point attempts. This came in stark contrast to a US team that only shot 25% from the three-point line.
The US team finally found their footing in the second half behind LeBron James, who eventually clinched the game with a layup with 8 seconds left in the game. This close call shows just how vulnerable team US can be. Even with some of the best basketball talent on planet Earth, a hot shooting team could strike down the gold-medal favorites.
We’ll see how they fair now that they have had a couple more games together as a group. With a repeat of their first matchup unlikely, this game will probably be unremarkable. Especially considering Kevin Durant returned from injury just in time for the group stage of the tournament.
The tournament has just begun, with the group stage ongoing. As long as the US can remain competitive, and not give a game away, they should be a lock to compete for a medal. The road to the gold is extremely competitive this year, however. Teams like Canada, France, and Germany are all stacked with experienced talent. Gold is far from guaranteed this year, as we expect to see loads of three-point shooting, and fast-paced games.
Canada may be the single most threatening team to the US. Fielding a stacked roster of NBA talent including, Jamal Murray, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Luguentz Dort, and several others. That group is completely capable of knocking off the US and ruining their shot at gold. Unfortunately, we won’t get to see that matchup in the group stage with the US in group C and Canada in group A.
Germany and France also remain legitimate threats, with Germany being the current FIBA world champion. Both rosters have elite upside, with the French team bringing overbearing size to the court with Victor Wembamyama and Rudy Gobert. We’re sure to see some intense games, with the group stage ending Saturday, and the qualifying teams entering the quarter-finals Tuesday the 6th.
Even with elite levels of competition, team US is still by far the best. Anything besides gold will be a disappointment. To put in perspective how stacked this team is, they didn’t even need to play Jason Tatum to blow out Serbia. The best player of the reigning NBA championship team rode the pine, and they beat one of the best teams in the Olympics by 16. Obviously, it only takes 1 loss to toss their entire endeavor into jeopardy. Though, this team looks unstoppable when locked in.
We expect to see them hoisting gold by the end of the tournament.