Cruising to a blowout win would have been the easy way out. It also likely never was going to be an option, superstar power and all.
Team USA Men’s Basketball barely survived being on the wrong end of a near historic upset loss to South Sudan by one point five days ago. Their response in Team USA’s final showcase game before the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics was exactly what this group needs. Adversity is their friend right now.
More adversity again showed up Monday in London at O2 Arena for Team USA, and they again prevailed by beating Germany 92-88. South Sudan was ranked as FIBA’s 39th-best team when Team USA needed LeBron James to power through them for a 101-100 win on a team they were favored to beat by more than 40 points. Germany, like the Americans, has its eyes on winning gold in Paris.
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They’re the No. 3-ranked team and Team USA’s toughest pre-Olympics opponent. Germany beat Team USA last September 113-11 in the semifinals of the FIBA World Cup, preventing them from competing for a gold medal. The Germans are a team that features FIBA World Cup MVP and 11-year NBA veteran Dennis Schroder at point guard, along with Wagner brothers of Franz and Moe. Franz, the younger of the two, scored a team-high 18 points and Moe added 12 off the bench.
Schroder struggled mightily shooting the ball, but his 10 assists were five more than anybody on Team USA. Somehow, Germany was the team who posed the biggest threat beyond the arc.
German sharpshooter Andreas Obst scored 24 points and made four threes last year against Team USA. A year later, he went for 17 points and was 5 of 11 on threes. The world’s greatest shooter wasn’t nearly as successful. Steph Curry scored only 13 points and was successful just once on seven 3-point attempts.
Overall, Team USA made seven fewer threes than Germany – six compared to 13. Accuracy was on the Americans’ side, though. They shot 35.3 percent (6 of 17) and Germany was even worse at 28.9 percent (13 of 45).
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“We haven’t played our best offensive game yet,” Curry told reporters in the locker room after the win. “But when we lock in defensively and rebound, nobody can really beat us.”
That’s where Team USA was much better than Germany this time. Now given the size of Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo, along with James’ strength still at 39 years old, Team USA outrebounded Germany 50-45 and swatted away seven shots. Everybody had a blocked shot in the starting lineup, and Davis and Adebayo each had one off the bench. The trio of Embiid, Davis and Adebayo combined for 20 rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals.
After being unprepared and outhustled against South Sudan, Team USA jumped out to a strong start behind an emphasis of pushing the ball up court off missed shots from Germany. Leaking out led to two thunderous dunks by James and Derrick White getting fouled on a layup attempt in the first quarter.
Team USA used a 21-6 run to lead 29-19 after the first quarter, and were ahead 48-41 at halftime. The previous game against South Sudan they trailed by 14 points. But Team USA vs. FIBA opponents isn’t a pure contest of talent vs. talent. Really, the comparison is talent vs. cohesion in Team USA being ahead in the former and naturally behind in the latter.
During parts of the second quarter, and especially in the third, Germany’s years of playing together came to life. Team USA was outscored 30-20 in the third quarter and all of the sudden faced a three-point deficit, 71-68, going into the fourth. Germany had all the juice and appeared to be charging its battery as the game went on.
Then there was the reminder Team USA is the greatest collection of basketball talent on the planet, and James still can slam the door shut when the game is on the line. Eleven of LeBron’s 20 points came in the final quarter to will Team USA to another win.
“Great f–king job to close out the preliminary games,” James said to his Team USA teammates. “We saw some adversity, which is f–king good. We’ve been down two games in a row and that’s going to be good for us.”
It took trading the lead four times in the fourth quarter and tying another three for Team USA to come out on top against Germany. They beat Canada and Australia by six points apiece, blasted Serbia by 26 and handled South Sudan and Germany by a combined five points. Team USA more survived the Showcase than swept it.
Now the real fun starts Sunday against Nikola Jokić and a Serbia team looking for vengeance. Adversity always feels like a foe, yet it was Team USA’s greatest friend in their road to Paris.
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