Team USA faced a test against Spain prior to the World Championships, but their game against Brazil today was clearly their biggest challenge of the summer. Fighting an uphill battle most of the game after getting behind late in the first quarter, the Americans had to rally in the second half to overcome a three-point halftime deficit. Thanks to an explosion from Kevin Durant a few solid defensive stands down the stretch, Team USA kept their undefeated streak alive at three games as they defeated Brazil 70-68.
Brazil gained the lead in the first quarter thanks to a couple of ridiculous contested three-pointers from Leandro Barbosa. Team USA’s offensive execution wasn’t great as Brazil’s defense forced several long, contested shots, and when they did score, Barbosa or Marcus Vinicius were tossing up three’s in response and Tiago Splitter was working the pick and roll beautifully as Brazil’s off-the-ball movement flourished. . It wasn’t until the second half when Team USA was finally able to get out on the break and take advantage of their greatest strength and even then Brazil was fast enough to get back and foul them rather than giving them an easy bucket.
After Lamar Odom gave Team USA a 64-62 advantage with seven minutes left in the game, only 12 points were scored by both teams combined. Luckily for Team USA, they were able to hold Brazil to a tie, giving them the two point lead when the buzzer sounded. Derrick Rose had a pretty circus shot that he banked in on the reverse while getting fouled (missed the free throw). Minutes later at the 3:54 mark, Rose drove to the basket again in transition and was fouled again. This time he made both free throws.
The next basket didn’t come until there was just 1:04 left in the game when Brazil got a basket from Marcelo Tieppo Huertas. Chauncey Billups responded with a lay-up in transition which was answered by Leandro Barbosa with a two of his own. Now down 70-68 with possession of the ball after a Billups missed three, Brazil looked to score in transition after rebounding his shot.
With five seconds left, Huertas stepped to the line with a chance to tie the game but missed the first one. On the ensuing shot, Heartas attempted to throw it off the rim so that his teammates could grab a rebound and attempt a putback at the buzzer. He missed perfectly as the ball bounced behind the USA players to the left corner. Alex Ribeiro Garcia came up with the ball and was immediately trapped on the baseline. Garcia passed it into Barbosa as the clock winded down and the NBA star had a chance to tie it at the buzzer with a lay-up but his shot rimmed out and Team USA escaped with a come from behind victory.
“I thought it was in to tell you the truth,” Derrick Rose said after the game. “Thank God it came out.”
Things didn’t look good early for Team USA but in the end, the fact that Brazil challenged them and forced them to shut things down defensively and score big baskets on the other should help this team going on. Adversity isn’t something you want to face constantly but when you do face it and you come out on top, you receive more confidence in yourself and the Americans should be proud that they were able to come through when it mattered most today.
Though the team a whole didn’t look great today, Kevin Durant continued to shine through. Durant is just so, so good. I’m running out of things to say about this guy. He’s the best player in this tournament and he’s making a case for himself as the top talent in the NBA. Durant played the entire game (save for 35 seconds or so) today and he never gave in. He was just as active and effective in the final minute of the game as he was right after tipoff.
Durant finished with 27 points on nine-of-18 shooting with four three-pointers along with 10 rebounds and seven turnovers (sloppy passes and a few travel calls). He continues to impress with his ability to score the ball even when the rest of the Team USA offense isn’t getting anything done or moving at all. He needed to step up in this game against Brazil in order to preserve a perfect group record and Durant did just that and even more.
“It was a hard game, a tough game from the beginning,” said Durant. “Brazil is a well-coached team. They have a lot of great players, they are very disciplined. I think in that first half we didn’t bring any energy as a group. Overall it was a great game. We fought hard. Both teams fought hard and it’s something we can learn from.”
Derrick Rose had 11 points (4-of-7 FG), five rebounds, four steals and two assists in this game. Rose really attacked the Brazilian guards when he could defensively and was equally aggressive on the other end when taking it to the basket and finishing with creative shots like his unique floater or reverse lay-up underneath the backboard. Chauncey Billups scored the second most points for Team USA with 15 but he shot one-of-seven from deep and forced too many shots from deep.
“It was definitely exciting,” said Rose. “They’re a good team. They challenged us throughout the whole game. This is what we live for: to play in these type of games.”
Lamar Odom played 30 minutes in this game and was clearly gassed by the end of the contest. Odom had to played extended minutes in this game but its not clear why. I made a call yesterday for Kevin Love to get more playing time and even Tyson Chandler did well in his five minute stretch. But instead, Coach K went with Odom and though he rebounded well in the fourth quarter (and grabbed nine overall), Lamar had four turnovers, three fouls and missed six out of 10 shots. More Kevin Love, please.
(Coach K’s comments on Love after the game: “Kevin could play 20 minutes or none. He’s just gotta be ready for that. Having Lamar in there as long as we did and I thought Tyson did a good job for a few minutes. Again, we’re still finding out about our team.” Not sure I agree.)
One player that may not get as much credit as he deserves for his performance today was Andre Iguodala. Though Barbosa did cross him once and he had issues moving the basketball on a possession or two, Iguodala played his role perfectly. He played 29 minutes and took just one shot, but he contributed with his defense. Iguodala took over on Barbosa late in the game and was a big reason he finished just five-of-18 from the field and three-of-13 from three. Iguodala had five steals in this game and five rebounds. Excellent, excellent game from Andre.
“Andre is our best defender,” Coach K said after the game. “Even if he doesn’t score, he’s going to be on one of the two of those guys. We got a little bit of a lead and Machado scored five straight points to keep them in the ball game right at the end of the third quarter and I had Andre out of the game. And, I got him right back in.”
“I know my role on this team,” Iguodala said. “The main thing is we got the win. All the other stuff doesn’t matter. It only matters what the score is at the end of the game. I had a job, which was to make it tough on Barbosa to score and he had to pull out his best moves to score in the second half. With this group, I feel like I go out there and try to shut down whoever their top scorer is.”
As you can see, the starters played most of the minutes. Stephen Curry and Danny Granger didn’t play, Eric Gordon, Love and Chandler all played just five minutes and Russell Westbrook and Rudy Gay played just 13 and 11 minutes respectively. Those five guys combined for just six bench points.
Other than Barbosa, who had his moments but was overall ineffective, Brazil was led by Vinicius and Tiago Splitter. Marcus had 16 points with four three’s and Splitter had 13 points and 10 rebounds. More on him later.
Team USA has an off day tomorrow and their remaining opponents (Iran and Tunisia) aren’t likely to lose by less than 30. This was an important win for the Americans and they have Kevin Durant to thank for it.
