The Olympics kicked off the past week and everyone was pumped up. After not getting them in the summer of 2020, all everyone wanted was to watch their favorite athletes or country compete for the gold. For me, my favorite Olympic sport to watch is basketball because I am an avid NBA fan. I love watching this because it is like the NBA all-star game every day due to the quality of the players on the team. The team is headlined by Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Devin Booker, and Jayson Tatum. In this article, I will quickly catch you up on what's been happening with the U.S.A. Men's Basketball Team.
The team kicked off their pre-Olympic games with a nail-biter against Nigeria. The game came down to the last possession and sadly, Nigeria won the game at a score of 90-87. Following this game a few days later, Team USA took on Australia and also lost by a score of 91-83. It wasn't looking so great for the U.S.A.
The team was 0-2 in the exhibition games, but they still had a ton of confidence going into this next game. Our new opponent was Argentina. They had few NBA players, and none as impactful as the ones of the other side. When the game started, it was clear that Team U.S.A. brought their A-game. We won by a final score of 108-80, with all starters scoring at least 12 points! (Damian Lillard, Zach Lavine, Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, and Bam Adebayo. There was never a single time that it was in doubt.
Now it was time for the last exhibition game before the Olympics really began. Our team was taking on Spain. Spain does have a good amount of NBA players on their roster, headlined by Ricky Rubio, Pau Gasol, and Marc Gasol. Like most of the games, it was a battle. It was always close, but in the final few minutes, we got some momentum and pulled away. We won by a final score of 83-76. That's a terrific way to end the exhibition games!
Now, it's time for the real Olympics. Time to buckle up because the fun's only now starting. In the first real game that the team had to play, they played hard. Their opponent was France, headlined by Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz and Evan Fournier of my Boston Celtics. Both of these players are dynamic in the NBA. Even before the tip-off took place, everybody watching knew that it would be a dog fight. With four minutes left, team U.S.A. was up 7! Then when the buzzer sounded to end the game, we were down 7. We choked against France! The final score was 83-76.
Even though our team was 0-1, they felt good about our next opponent, Iran. This was a game that we had to win. We couldn't be down 0-2 in the Olympics, we needed to get back to .500. Team Iran is arguably the worst team in the Olympics and one of the only ones with no NBA players on their roster. When the game started, you knew that it was going to be a blowout. Team U.S.A. dominated in a game where it was the opposite of their previous nail-biters. The U.S.A. won by a final score of 120-66. We beat them by 54 points! That's crazy! Now, this is a great way to end a game.
Team U.S.A. is finally getting some momentum at the perfect time! As always, we will definitely be a contender! Go Team U.S.A.!
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