Team USA routs South Sudan, advances to Olympic quarterfinals as Joel Embiid sits
VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France – The intrigue wasn’t in the final score, but in Team USA’s lineup.
Joel Embiid, last year’s NBA MVP and the Americans’ starter at center for their first six games this summer, didn’t play at all in the team’s 103-86 blowout win over South Sudan at the Olympics on Wednesday evening. Bam Adebayo was the U.S. high scorer with 18 points.
Jayson Tatum, a first-team All-NBA performer three years in a row who was left out of the rotation against Serbia on Sunday, started this game but replaced Boston Celtics teammate Jrue Holiday. Anthony Davis was at center for Embiid and coach Steve Kerr stuck with Adebayo and Derrick White on a second unit that included Holiday.
South Sudan relied on quickness to surprise the Americans in that close exhibition game between the countries on July 20 in London, so a plausible explanation for Embiid being held out made sense from a matchup perspective to make the 7-footer the odd man out.
If the fervor back home over Tatum not playing Sunday was any indication, then there could be a whole new trove of intrigue surrounding Team USA’s lineup moving forward. Then again, Tatum largely struggled and starters as a whole did not play particularly well together in the second half.
Either way, the Americans are moving forward. With the win Wednesday they clinched a spot in the Olympic quarterfinals Tuesday. Kerr said Embiid and Holiday would start in the Americans’ Pool C finale against winless Puerto Rico.
“This is the fastest team in the tournament that we’re going to play, and so we wanted to match up,” Kerr said. “They made 14 3s against us in London. So the whole game today was going to be about switching, staying in front of people, not letting them break us down.
“And so we just went with a change in the lineup. That’s how we’re going to do this. Whatever we need to do to win each game, that’s what we’re going to do. And so for this game, it just felt like that was the lineup that made the most sense.”
Adebayo – who possesses the perfect combination of size and speed to wreak havoc on an undersized South Sudan frontcourt – added seven boards, two blocks and shot 8 of 10 from the field. He was the top player off a bench that far outshined the starters. American reserves outscored their South Sudanese counterparts 66-14.
Kerr turned to his bench earlier than usual in the third – he had to go to the second unit to start the third quarter against South Sudan in the last meeting because of defense – after growing tired of watching the opponent convert too many easy baskets.
“I just feel like Steve trusts us,” said Adebayo, who added two 3-pointers to give him five for the summer; he connected on just 15 in 71 regular-season games for the Miami Heat last season.
Among starters, LeBron James was again the best on the floor. He finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists and became just the third player in U.S. history to score 300 points over his national team career, joining Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony.
James, the Americans’ leading scorer and assists man this summer, applied full-court pressure on defense to start the game and scored eight of his team’s first 10 points.
“I mean at the end of the day I just wanted to win, I’m here to win and win the gold and that’s my only mindset,” James said. “It’s not even about scoring. It’s not about any of the stats. All the stats that pretty much don’t show up (on the stat sheet), closing out, getting a hockey assist if possible, just stopping guys from crashing the glass.
“So it is definitely an honor to, any time you hear your name in any type of record books, but at the end of the day I’m here for a bigger picture.”
Tatum had four points, five rebounds and two assists. His first shot went off the side of the basket and on at least one occasion, a South Sudanese ball handler blew past him for a layup and left Tatum (literally) with his back side on the floor. Kerr used Durant over Tatum with the starters in the fourth quarter.
Tatum, though, at least had comfort in that he was not alone with his struggles. Steph Curry was 1 for 9 from the field and scored just three points. He missed all six of his 3-point tries.
Davis was his typical USA version of himself Wednesday with eight points, seven rebounds and two blocks. Devin Booker was solid again with 10 points. He also guarded one of South Sudan’s heroes from the past game against the U.S. – Carlik Jones, who still scored 18 points but was 8-of-19 shooting.
Nuni Omot, a former Baylor Bear, led South Sudan with 24 points.
“The defense was fantastic tonight,” Kerr said. “We had a few letdowns, but it was more on the offensive side. I thought the ball stuck a little bit on offense. We had some turnovers, but the defensive effort was the key to the whole thing.
“Our strength is that we can lean on all of those great players depending on matchups, depending on how we want to play, who we’re playing. And every single guy is capable of coming out there and taking over a game.”
The Americans sought to make sure the rematch was nothing like their exhibition showing. They were ahead by 19 at halftime and had set the tone with a full-court pressure defense and some bullish drives by James early – which was enough to build a comfortable enough cushion to withstand a rough third quarter in which they went 3 minutes without scoring and saw South Sudan cut the deficit from 21 points to 10.
Durant was great off the bench again with 14 points; the U.S. outscored its opponent by 26 when he was on the court. White had his high-point game of the summer with 10 points – he added three steals and knocked down three 3-pointers. Anthony Edwards scored 13 off the bench. Tyrese Haliburton saw his first action for the U.S. since the last time the team played South Sudan, and scored six points.
“Kind of fun,” Kerr said about the Americans’ second unit Wednesday, before noting that Davis would revert to the bench and Holiday would go back with the starters
Embiid is going from not playing to starting, which could mean the same for Tatum, unless he gets another start and Booker sits against Puerto Rico.
“This thing goes so quickly. We only have four games left,” Kerr said. “And so I think keeping everybody engaged, looking at some different combinations. Everything kind of matters to us.”
Embiid, meanwhile, has struggled for the majority of the summer and especially on Sunday, when he scored just four points in 11 minutes against the Serbians. He’s averaging 9.7 points and six rebounds in the exhibition season and Olympics combined, and since he’s arrived in France, he’s had to deal with a consistent chorus of boos every time he is on the court.
On Wednesday, the boos hit him as soon as he walked out for early shooting, about an hour before tip. This time he responded, waving to the crowd to keep it coming. When the fans did the same thing to him during pregame introductions, the entire U.S. team gestured to the crowd, in support of Embiid.
“We understand what the crowd is after,” Adebayo said. “We understand why they boo, but he’s one of us. When you’re one of us, we going to stick together through thick and thin.”
Serbia beat Puerto Rico 107-66 in the other Pool C game Wednesday, spearheaded by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić and his 14 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists. The winner of Serbia-South Sudan on Saturday advances to the Olympic quarterfinals.
In the other pools, Canada, France and Germany – three teams to be considered among the top competitors to the U.S. – have qualified.