After Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton were kept on the bench for the entirety of Team USA’s Olympic opener vs. Serbia, Joel Embiid didn’t see the court in the Americans’ win over South Sudan on Wednesday, which clinched the U.S. a spot in the quarterfinals.
Before we get there, the Americans still have one game left to play to finish out their Group C round-robin schedule against Puerto Rico on Saturday. For that one, it appears Steve Kerr will go back to his original starting lineup of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Jrue Holiday, Devin Booker and Embiid.
Kerr has played the matchup card through the first two games and it has gone pretty much exactly as planned. Against Serbia, he played bigger with Embiid and leaned on two-big bench lineups, with Tatum drawing the short straw to make room for the return of Kevin Durant.
Against the smaller, faster South Sudan, he wanted more wings on the floor together, which made way for Tatum and the defensive mobility and athleticism of Davis in place of Embiid.
It shouldn’t matter what lineups the U.S. plays together against Puerto Rico; the talent discrepancy is too wide. But the Americans need to take every opportunity they have to build cohesion with the units they will lean on when they get into the quarterfinals, where one bad game takes you out, and hopefully, the medal rounds, where again, one bad game takes you out of contention for gold.
All things considered, the Americans have played superb basketball through the first two games. They have dialed up the defensive pressure from the start, and they’ve gone back to that every time they’ve needed to re-open a big lead. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Bam Adebayo, Derrick White and Anthony Davis have all dominated for stretches.
For Embiid’s part, he didn’t do much vs. Serbia. Much like Curry, who has also struggled, he is not the focal point of the offense and defense is not his strong suit in this faster environment. But he’ll be back in there on Saturday with another chance to put his prints on what the Americans are hoping will be a run to a fifth straight Olympic gold medal.
