But the offense went into a complete sputter for much of that period - and that, combined with Durant’s foul trouble, led to big problems. early in the third quarter after Durant scored the opening basket of the second half. Lose another one, and the Americans might not even finish in the top eight of this 12-team tournament. The Americans play Iran on Wednesday and then the Czech Republic on Saturday in its final two Group A games win both of those, and the U.S. out of medal contention, but it essentially eliminates the margin for error. “I don’t want to use big, big, big words, but he made some very big shots.” “Evan was amazing,” France coach Vincent Collet said. bench and made a 3-pointer that put France up for good with 57 seconds remaining.
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The dagger came off a broken play Guerschon Yabusele dove to save a ball from going out of bounds on the French offensive end, flailing and slapping it to Fournier. 16-2 from there, and the Americans missed all nine of their shots - five of them in a 21-second span on the same trip down the floor in the final minute, three of those from 3-point range. lead in the third quarter was wasted, and so was a 12-point barrage from Holiday in the opening 4 ½ minutes of the fourth quarter as the Americans went from six points down to start the period to six points up with 5:23 remaining. The idea of anyone else leaving an Olympics with gold hasn’t been all that realistic in recent years. “But until we have what we want to have around our neck it doesn’t really matter.” Going back to the World Cup in China two years ago, the Americans are 3-5 in their last eight games with NBA players in the lineup. The Olympics, they were supposed to be different. Jrue Holiday had 18 points for the U.S., Bam Adebayo had 12, Damian Lillard 11 and Kevin Durant had 10 for the Americans - who are just 2-3 in their games this summer, the first four of them exhibitions in Las Vegas that weren’t supposed to mean much.ĪLLEZ LES BLEUS puts up 27 points & defeat USA for the 2nd time in a row in major events! #Basketball #Tokyo2020 And for those 40 minutes, they played better than we did.”įournier had 28 points for France, while Rudy Gobert scored 14 and Nando de Colo had 13. “We’ve got to work for it just like everybody else. “I think that’s a little bit of hubris if you think the Americans are supposed to just roll out the balls and win,” U.S. had won 25 consecutive Olympic games, last losing at the Athens Games 17 years ago and settling for a bronze medal there. Evan Fournier’s 3-pointer with just under a minute left put France ahead to stay in what became a 83-76 win over the Americans on Sunday in the opening game for both teams at the Tokyo Olympics. And the Americans’ quest for a fourth consecutive gold medal is already in serious trouble.įrance - the team that knocked the Americans out of contention in the Basketball World Cup two years ago - dealt the U.S.
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men’s basketball team has lost in the Olympics. SAITAMA, Japan (AP) - For the first time since 2004, the U.S.