Beaten by Australia, USA suffer 2nd straight Olympic exhibitions loss

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Patty Mills (#5) of Australia penetrates in the Tokyo Olympic exhibition game against USA at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., July 12, 2021. /CFP

Team USA fell to Australia 91-83 on Monday to lose their second consecutive Olympic exhibition basketball game in three days.

Despite having six NBA All-Stars, the Americans did not display the dominance they were expected to have on the court. After a 27-24 lead in the first quarter, the team failed to score 20 points in any of the remaining three quarters.

It was the fourth warm-up game loss for USA since NBA players were sent to the Summer Olympics for the first time in 1992.

Coach Gregg Popovich adjusted the team's starting lineup, replacing Jayson Tatum with Jerami Grant and Bam Adebayo with Draymond Green. Grant and Green plus Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant comprised a typical small-ball squad of the NBA.

Damian Lillard (L) of USA shoots in the Tokyo Olympic exhibition game against Australia at Michelob Ultra Arena, July 12, 2021. /CFP

Lillard benefited from these changes, shooting 6-10 from downtown to score a team-high 22 points. Durant also drained four triples for 17 points. However, Popovich's adjustments did not improve the team's vulnerable perimeter defense. Patty Mills waltzed in and out of USA's paint encountering almost no resistance. Joe Ingles easily found his way to the rim.

Meanwhile, replacing Tatum and Adebayo did not save USA's bench firepower. In fact, they were leading 58-50 about five minutes into the third quarter, but it only took Tatum and Adebayo two minutes to waste that lead and watch the game reach a 60-60 draw. Tatum scored only eight points for the whole game after missing all six 3-point attempts.

USA's rebounding weakness was still there. They trailed 46-34 against Nigeria in the last game and lost to Australia in this area again (32-25). Their big men – Adebayo, Green, Grant and Durant – had only three, three, three and four rebounds respectively. By contrast, Jock Landale and Nick Kay grabbed seven and nine rebounds respectively.

Joe Ingles (#7) of Australia drives toward the rim in the Tokyo Olympic exhibition game against USA at Michelob Ultra Arena, July 12, 2021. /CFP

The real decisive moments of Monday's game happened in the last four minutes of the fourth quarter. While the Americans were obsessed with shooting 3-pointers, their Australian opponents stopped at nothing to charge the rim. The 9-1 run by Australia during this period came from penetrations and free throws of Mills, Matisse Thybulle and Ingles as well as five missed triples by Durant, Tatum and Lillard.

Today's Team USA lack qualified back-court orchestrators and big men who can cause damage under the rim. As a result, their offense has been over-reliant on perimeter shooting. They attempted 36 shots from beyond the arc, which were about 55 percent of the team's field goal attempts, but only made 13 of them.

USA meet Argentina in their next exhibition game on Tuesday.