Team USA Beat The Absolute Shit Out Of Japan With A Casual 53 Point Win
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OK is everyone happy now? I get it, Team USA hasn’t looked as dominant as previous teams, in fact they mostly played like shit against Turkey and were lucky to survive, but after beating the living hell out of Japan essentially from the opening tip and turning in a 53 point win the US finishes this stage undefeated. Just like they should. I will say, after this team has given us mostly stress everytime they’ve hit the floor, whether it was in fake tune up games or the real thing, it was a nice change of pace to actually not have to worry about anything. A quick 13-0 run to start the game pretty much told you how things were going to go. Now I know what you’re probably tempted to say
“wahhhhhh it was Japan big deal they stink”
Look I’m not going to sit here and tell you Japan is a basketball powerhouse. But I will say that in terms of the FIBA power rankings the competition the US has faced hasn’t been all that bad
Of course these are all teams the US should destroy, and you could do a lot worse than blowing out two of the three. I will say today’s beatdown was much more along the lines of what I was expecting from this team, and the fact that Team USA did it shorthanded was pretty impressive. Tatum is out for the next couple games due to his sprained ankle when he sacrificed himself for America, and Marcus Smart was held out with a quad strain. Seeing as how this wasn’t an elimination game and Pop figured he could win without him I have no problem being cautious. Hold them out as long as you need to until they’re 100% please.
After shooting the ball like absolute dick against Turkey, today was basically the polar opposite. Pretty much everyone who hit the floor shot the ball well, as a team they finished 48/63% and it was a great bounce back effort from guys like Kemba and Donovan Mitchell who reaaaallly struggled with their shot in the game prior. They combined to shoot 9-19 for 25 points but the best part was nothing seemed forced. Sometimes Mitchell can fall victim to some hero ball and sometimes Kemba gets baited into bad midrange attempts, but we didn’t get that today. They were both awesome. Kemba has basically been this team’s best player since this tournament started, and he’s doing a great job of mixing in his scoring responsibility with getting his teammates involved and never turning it over. He set the tone early and the rest was history.
But the best player to touch the floor in this game was clearly Jaylen Brown. A sight Celtics fans love to see since he only played 6 minutes against Turkey and was essentially a non factor. Today, he was everywhere. Awesome in transition, hit some threes, rebounded well (7), and didn’t really turn it over. With Tatum and Smart out this was a prime opportunity for Jaylen to get some legit run, and he certainly took advantage and frankly Japan had no answer for him. He was efficient, he didn’t make any glaring defensive mental mistakes, it was just the type of performance that shows why he made this team and why I’m excited for Contract Year Jaylen.
Shoutout to Joe Harris too who made the spot start and was also pretty effective both as a shooter and a rebounder. We all knew the dude could light it up from behind the arc, but I’ve been surprised with how effective he’s been on the glass as well. He pretty much saved them against Turkey with it, and he had another 5 rebounds today including 3 on the offensive glass. Not bad for another guy also in a contract year.
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We have no idea how this team will match up against someone like Serbia who has looked unstoppable so far, but all you can ask is that they beat the team in front of them and don’t embarrass us as a country. Considering that hasn’t always been easy for this team, I’ll take a complete blowout every day of the week. The real test now comes on Saturday when this team runs into Giannis. It’ll be the first time they don’t have the best player on the floor, and here’s a little preview of what’s coming