With the Paris Olympics right around the corner and the US Mens basketball roster set, the US continued their exhibition play yesterday with a tight win over Australia. Anthony Davis scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, Tyrese Haliburton came up with a pair of late 3-pointers that helped stop a freefall by the Americans, and the U.S. beat Australia 98-92 on Monday to improve to 2-0 in its five-game slate of exhibitions leading into the Paris Olympics. Devin Booker scored 16 for the U.S., which saw a 24-point second-half lead cut to four in the final moments. Jock Landale scored 20 for Australia, which got 17 from Josh Giddey and 14 from Dyson Daniels.
We are so used to US dominance when it comes to basketball, any time we see a single-digit game it is easy to think, “what happened?” While it was just an exhibition game, the US is quickly finding out that they cannot just walk out on to the floor and automatically win like they used to. International basketball is producing more talent than ever right now and while it is great for the state of basketball, the US needs to be careful with taking teams lightly.
The US’ next exhibition game takes place tomorrow against Serbia.
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