With a 103-86 win against South Sudan on Wednesday, Team USA clinched a spot in the men’s basketball quarterfinals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Bam Adebayo led the United States in scoring with 18 points on 8-for-10 shooting and added seven rebounds, a steal and two blocks.
Unlike the exhibition game against South Sudan in London a week and a half earlier, Team USA did not need any late-game heroics in Lille. After trailing 10-8 halfway through the first quarter, the United States went on a 25-4 run to take control of the game. South Sudan cut Team USA’s lead to 10 points in the third quarter, but never got closer than that.
The United States’ defense was worlds better than it was the last time these two teams met. South Sudan scored just 36 points in the first half and Team USA recorded five of their 13 steals in the first quarter.
Nuni Omot scored a game-high 24 points on 8-for-12 shooting for South Sudan. Bul Kuol added 16 points and shot 4-for-5 from deep. For the first three quarters, Team USA held Carlik Jones, who had a triple-double against them in London, to six points on 3-for-12 shooting, but Jones got going in the fourth and finished with 18 points 8-for-19 shooting, plus seven assists.
After not playing at all against Serbia on Sunday, Jayson Tatum started for the United States alongside Stephen Curry, Devin Booker, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. This time, the only member of Team USA who got a DNP-CD was Joel Embiid, who started in the opener and all five tune-ups.
Next up for Team USA is their final game of group play against Puerto Rico on Saturday (11:15 a.m. ET). They are atop the Group C standings. South Sudan, who opened the tournament with a win over Puerto Rico, will face Serbia on Saturday (3 p.m. ET).
Wham, bam, thank you, Bam
Starting Davis in place of Embiid made Team USA more mobile and switchable defensively from the opening tip, but that went to a new level when the second unit took the floor. Jrue Holiday provided his usual all-world ball pressure and Derrick White was absolutely everywhere, but no one made a bigger impact than Adebayo.
On Adebayo’s first defensive possession, he poked the ball away from Khaman Maluach, which led to Kevin Durant getting fouled in transition. Early in the second quarter, he switched onto Marial Shayok and blocked his jumper, then sealed Shayok under the basket in transition, drew a double team and kicked the ball out, which led to White making an open 3.
For the first time since this group got together, Adebayo and Davis didn’t share the floor. Separating the bigs, however, did not mean that the bench unit had to be more selective about switching Adebayo onto perimeter players. Durant is more than capable of protecting the rim, and no guard does it better than White. In 11 first-half minutes with Durant and Adebayo in the frontcourt, Team USA outscored South Sudan 35-12.
Adebayo appears extremely pleased to be playing off many of the world’s best creators. He continues to take 3s when open, and made two of them in the first half. The first was from Tyrese Haliburton, who got his first playing time in the Olympics, on an out-of-bounds play:
And the second came off a drive-and-kick from Curry:
In this context, Adebayo doesn’t have to shoulder the same kind of load as he does with the Miami Heat, but it’s not a stretch to say he dominated a portion of this game. He scored 14 of his 18 points before halftime on 6-for-6 shooting, while wreaking havoc on the defensive end. And while his second half was a bit quieter, this particular play was memorable:
Adebayo pushing the ball in transition and flowing into a dribble hand-off is nothing new, but it’s particularly terrifying for the defense when he’s surrounded by stars.
It’s Team USA, everybody
In every international tournament, the United States will be at a disadvantage when it comes to on-court chemistry. Defining roles is always a challenge, particularly with such little lead time, and no coach wants to tell an All-NBA player that he’s not going to be in the rotation, even just for a game.
This is why USA Basketball scheduled five exhibition games in advance of the Olympics, and it shouldn’t be surprising that Team USA looks a lot more cohesive now than they did early on. It’s clear that coach Steve Kerr wants the team to be defined by its defense — and its ball pressure, in particular — but, after some uneven offensive performances in the friendlies, it no longer feels like the United States needs to turn defense into offense in order to get good looks.
Team USA’s halfcourt offense wasn’t perfect on Wednesday — they’ll surely look at their string of third-quarter turnovers on film — but it was as crisp as it has been this summer. The second unit, in particular, had the ball popping around the perimeter, but the whole team and the staff deserve credit for getting into action quickly and playing unselfishly (without the accompanying indecision that led to tons of turnovers earlier this month).
Offensively, this was the definition of a balanced effort. Six Americans scored in double digits, and nobody attempted more than 10 field goals. Team USA’s most encouraging stat: They had 29 assists (and 37 made field goals).
Now let’s see if they can keep this up when Embiid returns to the rotation.
