Kevin Durant fired up on all fours to guide the USA to their 16th Olympic gold medal game as they beat Australia in a blowout. It wasn’t just Kevin Durant, Devin booker was hot on the offense. Zach Lavine played great defense while Jrue Holiday got the offense going by throwing dimes in the game. After a very bad first quarter, they eliminated a 15 point deficit in the second half. This was an absolutely beautiful comeback. After trailing in the first half they win 97 to 78. It was a phenomenal game by team USA. Now they are waiting for the results of the Slovenia vs France game. Kevin Durant had 23 points while Devin Booker added 20. Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton added 11 each.
Australia fails to capitalize after a great first half
Australia played amazing in the first two quarters and had the USA on a wild goose chase. However, as soon as they took their foot off the pedal USA answered back with a dazzling comeback. This silenced the haters to a great extend. Now they are all set to face Luka Doncic’s Slovenia or France in the finals. Patty Mills was the top scorer for Australia. he put 15 points on the sheet and grabbed 3 boards. The USA made 38 of their 74 field goals, that’s a good 51% from the field while Australia shot a mediocre 41%. Australia shot 11 out of 26 from beyond the arc, while the USA only drained 9 out of their 28 taken triples.
ONE WIN AWAY FROM GOLD 🥇
USA men's basketball takes down Australia to advance to the Olympic final! pic.twitter.com/kqSrPDn2k5
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 5, 2021
Like Sir Alex Ferguson quoted “attack wins games, defense wins you titles”, the USA defense really came through in this game. They had 14 offensive rebounds and 30 defensive rebounds compared to 9 and 20 of Australia. They registered 6 blocks to Australia’s none. The USA shot 12 out of 14 from the charity stripe and scored 17 second-chance points. Australia struggled in the paint with only 24 points, while the opponents played around with the Australian defense and scored 38 points up close.
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Defense won the game for team USA
At one point Australia led by 15 and after a 20-0 run by KD and co this was turned around. The biggest lead in the game for the USA was 23 points and that almost sealed the deal. From the game we could see that Australia capitalized on fastbreaks, they were quick in transition and filled the lanes correctly. But this strategy started falling apart ever since the USA started getting back on defense after a miss or made the shot. By the end of the 3rd quarter, it was evident that the USA is running away with this one. Now it’s a guaranteed Silver for the USA. But like Greg Popovich said after the game, the mission is not over and they have one more game to go.
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