Team USA clinched the No. 1 seed at the 2024 Olympics with a blowout victory over Puerto Rico on Saturday morning.
Team USA put together the final piece of a perfect group play on Saturday morning with a convincing and largely uneventful win over Puerto Rico, 104-83.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis each had relatively quiet games. LeBron’s best work came as a passer, tallying eight assists with 10 points and six rebounds while shooting 4-6 from the field. AD had 10 points, six rebounds and three assists and two blocks.
Anthony Edwards had 26 points on 11-15 shooting to lead Team USA. Six players reached double figures.
As he noted well before the game he planned to do, Steve Kerr reverted back to a previous iteration of the starting lineup, though with one change. An ankle injury for Jrue Holiday ruled him out for the game, so Jayson Tatum took his spot.
Relevant to Lakers fans, the change meant a return to the bench for AD in favor of Embiid. Regardless of the lineup change, though, it was Puerto Rico who looked far more feistier to start the game.
Behind nine points from Jose Alvarado in the opening frame, Puerto Rico led for most of the frame. While Team USA’s second unit has usually provided a boost when entering the game, that wasn’t the case on Saturday as Puerto Rico went on an 8-0 run when they entered the game.
That group, though, turned things around in the second quarter. After trailing 29-25 after the end of the first period, a 9-2 run gave them a 34-31 lead following threes from Kevin Durant and Anthony Edwards.
AD’s impact in the first half came almost exclusively on the defensive end as KD and Ant carried the offensive load.
Once LeBron returned to the court, he continued dishing dimes, including a nifty behind-the-back pass to Embiid before a much easier assist to Steph Curry for three.
A pair of fastbreak dunks, one a putback after a missed Curry layup, were part of the finishing touches of a second quarter that had LeBron’s fingerprints all over it. Behind him, USA opened up a 64-45 lead at the half.
From there, the second half largely played out as a formality. USA’s lead grew to 30 points as they comfortably saw out the win in their final group game, securing the top seed for the next round as well.
As a result, USA will be drawn to face one of Brazil or South Sudan in the next contest. They beat South Sudan fairly convincingly in group play and have not yet played Brazil either in the Olympics or warm-up games.
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