After defeating South Sudan 103-86 on Wednesday night, Team USA clinched a spot in the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics. With this victory, the Americans clinched the top spot in Group C and advanced to the quarterfinals, eliminating Puerto Rico from advancement. 

It was a much different outcome than what had transpired between these two teams in a recent exhibition match. South Sudan missed a potential game-winner at the buzzer at the USA Basketball Showcase in London. This served as a warning sign for Team USA, setting the stage for their Group C rematch at the Paris Olympics. 

South Sudan head coach Royal Ivey felt Team USA was much more prepared and was ready to respond after the recent exhibition matchup at 02 Arena. “In London, they weren’t prepared for us, and we came in there, and we tried to hit them on the chin and almost had a knockout. Now, this time, they were prepared, they were ready, they were ready for the punches we threw, and they blocked them, and they threw haymakers at us,” Ivey said after the match. “That’s a fight for you. But we got knocked down and kept on getting up, we kept on fighting, we kept on being resilient.”

The turning point in the game came when Team USA made it their mission to stop Carlik Jones from repeating his previous performance. Jones had collected a triple-double in their exhibition game in London. This time, he couldn’t comfortably play pick-and-roll, with Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo stifling with switching. A 25-4 run in the first half helped solidify a 

LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and the other superstars kept attacking downhill, quickly establishing a double-digit advantage in the first quarter and never looking back. Durant, USA’s all-time leading scorer at the Olympics, contributed 14 points, making 8 of 9 free throws. James added 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. 

Durant praised the progression Team USA has experienced after achieving a second comfortable victory against a talented opponent, with the first being a 110-84 win over Serbia. “It’s all about the group. We had great guys out there. The first unit got us started, maybe up 6-0, 8-0. We set the tone and played well off each other,” said Durant, while adding despite external expectations being even higher, the team is clicking. “People might expect big wins by 30 or 40 points, but we’ve still won the last two games by an average of 20 points against good talent. We just keep building. Defensively, we were all on the same page, playing great basketball.”

The Americans took complete control of the game with the impressive play of the bench group, led by Durant, proving too challenging for South Sudan to handle.

Team USA’s bench provided a dominant performance

The largest lead reached 21 points, but South Sudan attempted a comeback, cutting the gap to 11 points in the third quarter. Anthony Edwards, who scored 13 points and added 3 steals and 2 assists on the night, led another strong response to keep the game out of reach. One stretch featured the Americans’ 17-5 run, with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker playing next to Bam Adebayo, Derrick White, and Edwards. There was a heavy dose of shot-making and turnovers being forced, essentially clinching the victory.

“Yeah, that lineup was incredible,” Durant said regarding the successful lineup he helped guide. “When you can switch a lot of different things, and keep the ball in front of you, don’t worry about over helping at all. We’re just talking to each other. There were some high IQ defensive players out there.

Durant added that this lineup embraces playing his favorite brand of basketball. “When you can throw that lineup out there, it’s fun,” Durant explained. “That’s when you don’t have to run offense, when you can get stops and go and play in transition. And that’s basketball to me.”

Team USA’s bench played a crucial role, scoring 66 points compared to South Sudan’s 14. Adebayo emerged as an essential contributor, coming off the bench to produce instant offense for Team USA. He scored 14 points on 6 of 6 shooting, including two corner three-pointers, in the first half alone. He finished the game with 18 points and 7 rebounds, with the team being a plus-22 team with him on the floor. 

Adebayo has fully embraced commanding the bench group. “We’ve been calling ourselves the bench mob for a long time now,” Adebayo said. And it doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup. We always seem to figure it out.”

Adebayo has embraced providing defensive versatility along with his ability to space out and shoot when his team needs it, saying, “I think being able to switch one through five, being able to guard off positions, that makes me, you know, that much versatile now, you know, being able to space the floor,” Adebayo detailed. “And obviously, you know, doing in-between things like the point center, it just gives us a more diverse team.”

While Adebayo has not regularly utilized perimeter shooting in his NBA career, he’s shown increased usage when Team USA has needed it. Durant views this as a major asset when the Americans seek to maximize floor spacing. He said, “When he’s knocking down that shot, our team goes to the next level. We’ve seen that in Abu Dhabi. He made four or five threes tonight.

Durant conveyed the importance of Adebayo continuing to take open shots throughout the Olympics, emphasizing, “We need him to shoot with confidence and keep playing around the rim. He mixed it up well and helped us build a nice lead.”

Other vital contributors for Team USA included Devin Booker, who added 10 points and 6 assists. Anthony Davis chipped in 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Derrick White contributed pesky on-ball defense while scoring 10 points, shooting 3 of 3 from the field, and contributing 3 steals and 1 block. 

With so much talent, the Americans boast no shortage of combinations to cater their identity to a specific opponent in ways other teams cannot manage. With a previous matchup to reference, there was full preparedness to handle South Sudan.

Team USA’s lineup changes illustrate collective unselfishness

After reigning NBA champion and All-NBA First-Team player Jayson Tatum did not play against Serbia, he was inserted into the starting lineup. Anthony Davis also started, while Tyrese Haliburton got six minutes of action in the first half after not playing in the Olympic opener. Joel Embiid was the only player benched for the entire game. 

The goal behind not playing Embiid was for Team USA to maximize quickness and favor switching instead of having a drop coverage center like Embiid, as Team USA head coach Steve Kerr explained to reporters after the game. “This is the fastest team in the tournament that we’re gonna play. So we wanted to match up,” Kerr explained. “And they made 14 threes against us in London so the whole game today was gonna be about switching, staying in front of people, not letting them break us down, so we just went with a change in the lineup.”

While many can try to guess the approach Team USA will take on a game-by-game basis and debate the choices made, Kerr made clear the coaching staff will continue to use whatever skill sets deemed best based on matchups. “The beauty of USA Basketball, we have more great players than any other country. Other countries, they have some of the best players in the world now, that’s how the game has grown,” Kerr clarified. “We can lean on all those great players, depending on matchups, depending on how we wanna play, who we’re playing, and every single guy’s capable of coming out there and taking over a game.”

Tatum heard the external noise about him not playing against Serbia but knew how important it would be for him to remain positive. While he understandably wanted to play, he’s glad the team is winning games. “We won. I was glad to just get back out here and play again today,” Tatum said. “There was a lot of chatter over the last few days, but I was in good spirits, had a good attitude about it. It was fine. As a competitor, you want to play.”

The message of sacrifice has been received loud and clear by the players, with Tatum detailing how the group has embraced doing whatever is necessary to win. “The amount of talent and IQ we have in the States allows us to mix and match. Last game, we had a champion and All-NBA player not playing any minutes, and tonight we had an MVP not playing any minutes,” Tatum said. “They didn’t complain, and other guys stepped up and filled those roles perfectly. Defensively and offensively, there are times when it doesn’t look perfect, but our intensity was there. Coach mixed it up with starting AD, who can switch out on a lot of things. It’s good to have a versatile group like that.”

While unselfishness remains the theme for the Americans, the talented group continues to have historical achievements that occur naturally individually.

Kevin Durant and LeBron James make Olympic history

After his latest performance, Kevin Durant has scored 472 points in his Olympic career, moving him to ninth on the all-time scoring list. He’s on the fast track to becoming the first American player to score 500 points. He would need to continue producing dynamic scoring results with a lengthy Olympic run, but he is gradually climbing toward the top five on this list. He would need to reach 524 points to surpass Manu Ginobili for fifth.

LeBron James also made history. His 12 points pushed him beyond the 300 career points mark in Olympic history. Durant and Carmelo Anthony are the only players in Team USA history who have reached this threshold. James also reached 102 career assists, making him the fifth player with over 100 career assists at the Olympics since 1976.

“I just want to, you know, win. I’m here to win and win the gold, and that’s my only mindset. It’s not even about scoring. It’s not about any of the stats, all the stats that pretty much don’t show up, closing out, getting hockey assists, if possible, just stopping guys from crashing the glass. So it’s definitely an honor any time you hear your name in any type of record book, but at the end of the day, I’m here for the bigger picture.”

As the Americans look ahead, intent on continuing to do whatever is necessary to win a gold medal, the rest of the field must compete to establish the bracket for the quarterfinals, which will be played in Paris instead of Lille.

What’s next for Team USA after winning Group C?

It remains to be seen which matchup No. 1 seed Team USA will have to begin in the quarterfinals, but the draw will be conducted on Saturday night. Knockout-stage matchups will be played to determine which teams will advance and be included in the draw, including South Sudan facing Serbia.

The Americans will compete against Puerto Rico on Saturday, providing another opportunity to build chemistry and experiment with lineup combinations; as Anthony Davis detailed, “There’s a lot that we can get better at, a lot that we can clean up, and we’ll use Saturday’s game against Puerto Rico to tighten the screws again and then just see where it takes us from there.”

If the bracket holds as it currently is, Team USA would face Spain before any further changes. Again, plenty of changes could occur before the draw.