Team USA center Joel Embiid wipes his face with a towel during an exhibition basketball game between the USA and South Sudan, on the o2 Arena in London, Saturday, July 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
South Sudan is the Thirty third-ranked team within the Fiba world rankings, by far the bottom of any of the 12 nations that will probably be vying for men’s basketball gold within the Paris Olympics that start this week.
Team USA is ranked No. 1.
South Sudan nearly beat the Americans anyway.
The every-four-years wake-up call for the U.S. Olympic team seems to have arrived. A 101-100 win over South Sudan on Saturday in London got here on a day when plenty went flawed for the Americans — traffic attending to the world was brutal and Anthony Davis said arriving late threw off players’ routines, South Sudan shot lights-out from 3-point range and outscored the U.S. 42-21 from deep and the U.S. struggled in loads of features.
And all of it serves as a reminder that on the Olympics, there are not any guarantees anymore. Not even for the four-time defending gold medalists, a program that lost two exhibitions on the strategy to Tokyo in 2021 after which lost to France to open those Games before rallying to win gold at the tip.
READ: South Sudan nearly beat Team USA and here’s the way it happened
“There’s great teams all over and nothing is guaranteed at this point for USA Basketball,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said earlier this summer. “We all know that well, I comprehend it personally. We won the gold medal in Tokyo, but we lost three games along the way in which. Our gold-medal game against France went right right down to the wire. So, that is a wholly different competition than it was in 1992.”
There was little question who was winning gold in 1992: The primary U.S. Dream Team overpowered every team in its path. Chuck Daly coached a roster that included 11 future members of the Basketball Hall of Fame; Kerr loves relaying the story that Daly never needed to call a timeout that whole summer, because no game was ever in any form of jeopardy.
Kerr needed to call one on Saturday with 20 seconds left to get LeBron James the ball and arrange what became the winning, embarrassment-saving basket for the one-point win against South Sudan, a nation that gained its independence only 13 years ago, is about to make its Olympic debut and doesn’t have an appropriate indoor facility for national team-level basketball training.
“Quite a lot of these teams we’re playing have been practicing either one month or months upfront,” James said. “We’re like perhaps two weeks into it, together. So, every game, every film session, every opportunity now we have to attempt to benefit from it.”
The last tuneup, the last pre-Olympic test, the last measuring stick of sorts for the U.S., comes Monday in London, where the Americans tackle Germany. The U.S. is favored by 15.5 points, in accordance with BetMGM Sportsbook, over the reigning World Cup champions and team that beat the Americans in that tournament’s semifinals a yr ago in Manila. That was of no relevance Saturday, when the U.S. was 43.5-point favorites against South Sudan.
United States’ head coach Steve Kerr talks to his team during an exhibition basketball game between the USA and South Sudan, on the o2 Arena in London, Saturday, July 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
READ: LeBron James saves Team USA from upset, escapes South Sudan
But when all of the warmup games all over the world this summer have been any indication, then this whole Olympic tournament might be wide open.
South Sudan lost to Argentina and barely beat Britain, two teams that didn’t even qualify for the Olympics — then nearly knocked off the U.S. The Americans beat Australia, which beat Serbia, which beat France, which went 1-1 against Germany; the French win got here with the Germans playing without brothers Franz and Moritz Wagner and the French loss got here without Victor Wembanyama within the lineup.
“We’ve got an excellent 12 guys,” U.S. guard Stephen Curry said. “Basketball is such an interesting sport that in case you don’t play the proper way, in case you don’t include the proper energy and the proper focus to go play defense, rebound, not turn the ball over, you’ll be able to be beat. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. So, it’s an excellent reminder of that.”
Saturday was also an excellent reminder of this: No one seems intimidated by the U.S. Not even 17-year-olds.
A few weeks after Cooper Flagg placed on a show against the Olympic team at training camp in Las Vegas, a fellow Duke freshman — South Sudan’s Khaman Maluach — found himself going up against his big-man idols on Saturday in Bam Adebayo, Joel Embiid and Davis.
READ: LeBron sees ‘much to enhance’ for Team USA before Paris Olympics
Identical to Flagg did in Vegas, Maluach greater than held his own, scoring seven points in 13 minutes on 3-for-4 shooting.
“Matching up with them was something I couldn’t imagine,” Maluach told Eurohoops after the sport. “It was just in my head, ‘Oh, I’m playing against these guys?’”
An 18-0 run within the second half, a burst that began during a 3rd quarter wherein the U.S. outscored South Sudan 37-18, was the difference for the Americans. James made a layup to avoid wasting his team at the tip, and what was presupposed to be a meaningless game sure looked as if it would have a complete lot of meaning.
“We could be beat if we don’t play our brand of basketball and our brand of basketball is playing defense,” Curry said. “They made some tough shots in the primary half they usually’re a talented team with a number of shooting, so in the event that they get hot, they’re tough. But we didn’t make them uncomfortable in any respect in the primary half they usually took advantage of it.
“But we also learned now we have that gear. If we will find it, irrespective of who’s on the market on the court, we will overwhelm teams for 40 minutes. And it’s an excellent reminder of each. If we don’t play our game, we could be beat. We’re not invincible.”
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