Team USA Targets 5th Straight Gold with Strong Start
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00:00We start with Team USA in its hopes of winning a fifth consecutive men's basketball gold
00:10medal.
00:11A shaky exhibition series that did feature a matchup against Serbia that was the American's
00:16best performance.
00:18And in the Olympic opener yesterday, another dominant performance over Nikola Jokic and
00:24Serbia.
00:25110-84.
00:27Team USA, Jacob Covering is a 13 and a half point favorite.
00:31A total of 185 and a hook does sky over.
00:34Led by LeBron James and Kevin Durant in his first action this summer with Team USA.
00:41The Americans make a statement in their Olympic opener.
00:44What did it say to you about Team USA in its hunt for a fifth straight gold medal?
00:50I think it just goes to show the depth of this team.
00:53We talk about this every year.
00:55Just how deep the quality of the U.S. rosters are.
00:58But I think specifically this year, we have LeBron James back in action.
01:02You have Kevin Durant there.
01:03You have Steph Curry there.
01:04You have all the star players from the United States pretty much in this tournament.
01:09And we saw early in the game, the first half, it was a little shaky.
01:13They were figuring out their rotations a bit.
01:15I thought Joel Embiid struggled a bit.
01:17He only ended up playing 11 minutes.
01:20So I think Steve Kerr is still trying to figure out the best way to utilize these guys.
01:24Jason Tatum didn't even play.
01:26And Kerr, after the game, said he felt like an idiot not playing him.
01:29But that's just how great this team is.
01:31You can sit Jason Tatum and be fine.
01:34So I think you're going to see him continue to mix and match, try to figure out the best
01:38matchups.
01:39And maybe don't put Embiid in a game where he might have to guard a guy like Jokic, maybe
01:43not, at least in long stretches.
01:45So I think it was good to see them kind of learn in the first half, and then in the second
01:49half, pull away.
01:50I think if you're a United States basketball fan, you're feeling pretty good about that.
01:55No doubt about it.
01:56And also taking a look at the superstars on this team in one, LeBron James, 27 minutes,
02:009 of 13 from the field, 21 points, chips in with 7 rebounds and 9 assists.
02:05I can't say, like, Jacob, we're not surprised by this year, but it looks like that true
02:09alpha dog on Team USA is LeBron James.
02:12Yeah, he still seems to be that guy, and he seems to want to run things through him.
02:18And Team USA, I think, realizes that LeBron's experience and his ability to operate both
02:24as a forward, a scorer, a slasher, and a distributor as a point-forward type is invaluable to this
02:31team, because LeBron just has such a high basketball IQ, 20-plus years of experience
02:35at this point, and so much on the Olympic stage that they know if they run things through
02:40him, things are probably going to go pretty smoothly.
02:42The right guy's going to get the ball.
02:44The right guy's going to get an open shot.
02:46They're going to be good in transition if he has the ball in his hands.
02:49So I know there will be some LeBron haters out there who say, oh, he's hogging the ball
02:53too much.
02:54He's trying to do too much by himself.
02:55No, if just this team works best when he is the one making the decisions and being that
03:01floor general.
03:02So I expect that to continue, and I expect him to continue to post solid, well-rounded
03:06stat lines like you mentioned.