SportsUS Loses To Australia 91-83: Have D'Tigers Jinxed US Basketball?

US Loses To Australia 91-83: Have D’Tigers Jinxed US Basketball?

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July 13, (THEWILL) – Before the USA Basketball team lost to D’Tigers of Nigeria on Saturday, they had only tasted defeat twice in their previous 54 games in major exhibition matches since NBA players began playing for USA Basketball in 1992. But they have now lost twice in as many games.

On Monday in Las Vegas, Australia’s men basketball team followed in the path opened by D’Tigers to hand the Americans a second defeat in a 48-hour period after their exhibition match ended 91-83 in favour of the Aussies.

For a US side that was upbraided in the local Press for the loss to Nigeria, it took Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers to lead the way for the US with 22 points and four rebounds. Uncharacteristically, Kevin Durant was cold for most of the game. He still managed to contribute 17 points to the final score.

But, it was the performances of the Australian talent plying their trade at the top of the National Basketball Association (NBA), which is even more than Nigeria’s, which edged the game in their favour.

The aboriginal Patty Mills of the San Antonio Spurs, Joe Ingles of the Utah Jazz, Matisse Thybulle of the Philadelphia 76ers, the Toronto Raptors’ Aron Baynes, the Houston Rockets’ Dante Exum and Matthew Dellavedova, who won an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 more than matched the US in the game.

A second consecutive upset for what used to be an invincible basketball team will increase the calls for a more committed squad for the Olympics and the questions about the ability of coach Gregg Popovich to lead the team to victory in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo as they have done for the last three Olympics, Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro, in a row.

The Australians had a big helping from Mills. The 32-year-old was responsible for the late surge as he scored 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter. And because the US just could not muster enough stops to back up their own hot shooting, the match went to the Australians.

They will credit their defense capabilities for keeping the US team within limits to take this victory. The fact that they are familiar with most of the American players, whom they play with and against in the NBA, cannot be overlooked. They put that experience to good use and applied lessons they must have picked up in Nigeria’s feat on Saturday.

The US team will expectedly improve the more time they jell together as a unit and feed off each player’s capacity. Their loss of possession for the two exhibition defeats appeared to have been partly down to the little time they have had to get used to their play as a team. And like the Australians, they will have to improve defensively.

Most of their critics in the sports media across America will point to the fact that neither the Australians nor the Nigerians have had much time to play together as well and will not take that as enough justification to exonerate what they consider as the lackadaisical attitude of some of their players and the tactical efficiency of Popovich.

In fact, the coach had a heated exchange with a reporter in the post-match interview as Popovich was not the least impressed with the line of questioning and the reporter’s suggestive writing off the teams that the US had defeated in the past. Popovich felt the need to straighten out that slide remark and defend his players from the accusation of not living up to early expectations.

For all his defense, the disparity between the talent on display and the results is not easy to simply wave off. For the first time since America’s domination of basketball, they have lost four in five games played at the national level. In truth, it is the team everyone wants to beat and they must begin to appreciate the effort that teams will put into that outcome.

Nigeria’s D’Tigers have shown the way. The Australians have followed through. The question now is whether the American squad can rejig their game and return to winning ways or whether the loss to D’Tigers engendered a nose dive that will take some time to correct before normal ascent resumes?

When the Americans play their final tune-up match on Tuesday against Argentina, who won the last Olympics that was not won by America, the Athens-hosted Games of 2004, and who the very impressive D’Tigers also defeated on Monday night, some part of the answer to this pertinent question will be clear.

The US will head to Tokyo after the game against Argentina, where the team is drawn in the same group with France, Iran and the Czech Republic for the initial stages of the Games.

About the Author

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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.

Jude Obafemi, THEWILLhttps://thewillnews.com
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.

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