ESPN's Brian Windhorst watched in awe as Team USA dismantled Nikola Jokic and Serbia in their highly-anticipated exhibition game in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night.
Displaying the firepower and defensive prowess that was expected of them, the Americans coasted to a comfortable 105-79 win over The Joker's national team. Serbia kept it close early, but once Steve Kerr put in his second unit in a hockey-style substitution, the Serbians didn't have the manpower to keep up with Team USA.
"Steph Curry knocks down his fourth three-pointer," narrated Windhorst. "The fans here in Abu Dhabi are falling out of their seats. Steph's never played here before. He's putting on a show. He's got 18 points in 11 minutes and he's subbed out. Can you imagine Steve Kerr sending somebody to sub him out? And then you see Team USA's second unit come in and it's Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker, and Derrick White. You're like 'Oh my god'. I mean we know who's on the roster but when you actually see that second unit come in, it's like 'Wow!' and that's what's been happening."
That was as almost as good as they could have played
Windhorst pointed out two things about Team USA's performance. First, he highlighted the devastating performance of their second unit, which as in previous games, was the group that broke the game wide open. Windy said it shows how deep this U.S. team is, that even the 4th ranked FIBA team in Serbia could not keep up after just two-quarters of play.
Then he also credited the frontcourt pair of Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo, which has given this version of Team USA the interior defense that the 2023 squad for the FIBA World Cup didn't have. With Joel Embiid starting to get his game back, the Americans have a big-man lineup that can terrorize their opponents' frontcourt.
"The Serbians were missing a couple of key players. Bogdan Bogdanovic sat out. Nikola Milutinov sat out. They were playing on the second of a back-to-back. But this formula is how the U.S. wins gold. And that's when we saw sort of full power today. They can play better still, but this was pretty close to full power," added Windy.
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KD has yet to play
Actually, the Americans are still without all-time Olympic leading scorer Kevin Durant, who remains sidelined with a calf injury but is expected to play in Paris. Embiid still struggled on 2-8 shooting, but he grabbed eight rebounds and looked much better out there than in previous contests. Once KD returns and Embiid gets in good shape, Team USA should be tough to beat in the Olympics.
"The Avengers Squad" will now head to London, where they will play two more exhibition games on Sunday and Monday against South Sudan and Germany, respectively. They will stay in the UK until Tuesday to watch their female counterparts play the Germans before heading to Paris.
The Americans begin their quest for gold on July 28 against Serbia. Three days later, they will take on South Sudan before closing out their Group C stage campaign against Puerto Rico. Hopefully, they will be at full strength then and ready to reclaim the title as the best basketball country in the world.
Related: Anthony Edwards on playing alongside LeBron, Steph, KD, and Tatum for Team USA: "I'm still the number one option"
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