United States' forward LeBron James scores as South Sudan's center Khaman Maluach attempted top defend during an exhibition basketball game between the United States and South Sudan, at the o2 Arena in London on July 20.Kin Cheung/The Associated Press
South Sudan is the 33rd-ranked team in the FIBA world rankings, by far the lowest of any of the 12 nations that will be vying for men’s basketball gold in the Paris Olympics that start this week.
The U.S. is ranked No. 1.
South Sudan nearly beat the Americans anyway.
The every-four-years wake-up call for the U.S. Olympic team seems to have arrived. A 101-100 win over South Sudan on Saturday in London came on a day when plenty went wrong for the Americans – traffic getting to the arena was brutal and Anthony Davis said arriving late threw off players’ routines, South Sudan shot lights-out from 3-point range and outscored the U.S. 42-21 from deep and the U.S. struggled in plenty of aspects.
And it all serves as a reminder that at the Olympics, there are no guarantees any more. Not even for the four-time defending gold medallists, a program that lost two exhibitions on the way to Tokyo in 2021 and then lost to France to open those Games before rallying to win gold at the end.
“There’s great teams all over the place and nothing is guaranteed at this point for USA Basketball,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said earlier this summer. “We know that well, I know it personally. We won the gold medal in Tokyo, but we lost three games along the way. Our gold-medal game against France went right down to the wire. So, this is an entirely different competition than it was in 1992.”
There was no doubt who was winning gold in 1992: The first U.S. Dream Team overpowered every team in its path. Chuck Daly coached a roster that included 11 future members of the Basketball Hall of Fame; Kerr loves relaying the story that Daly never had to call a timeout that whole summer, because no game was ever in any sort of jeopardy.
Kerr had to call one on Saturday with 20 seconds left to get LeBron James the ball and set up what became the winning, embarrassment-saving basket for the one-point win against South Sudan, a nation that gained its independence only 13 years ago, is set to make its Olympic debut and doesn’t have a suitable indoor facility for national team-level basketball training.
“A lot of these teams we’re playing have been practising either one month or months in advance,” James said. “We’re like maybe two weeks into it, together. So, every game, every film session, every opportunity we have to try to make the most of it.”
The last tune-up, the last pre-Olympic test, the last measuring stick of sorts for the U.S., comes Monday in London, where the Americans take on Germany. The U.S. is favoured by 15.5 points, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, over the reigning World Cup champions and team that beat the Americans in that tournament’s semi-finals a year ago in Manila. That was of no relevance Saturday, when the U.S. was 43.5-point favourites against South Sudan.
But if all the warm-up games around the world this summer have been any indication, then this whole Olympic tournament could be wide open.
South Sudan lost to Argentina and barely beat Britain, two teams that didn’t even qualify for the Olympics – then nearly knocked off the U.S. The Americans beat Australia, which beat Serbia, which beat France, which went 1-1 against Germany; the French win came with the Germans playing without brothers Franz and Moritz Wagner and the French loss came without Victor Wembanyama in the lineup.
“We’ve got a great 12 guys,” U.S. guard Stephen Curry said. “Basketball is such an interesting sport that if you don’t play the right way, if you don’t come with the right energy and the right focus to go play defence, rebound, not turn the ball over, you can be beat. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. So, it’s a good reminder of that.”
Saturday was also a good reminder of this: Nobody seems intimidated by the U.S. Not even 17-year-olds.
A couple of weeks after Cooper Flagg put on a show against the Olympic team at training camp in Las Vegas, a fellow Duke freshman – South Sudan’s Khaman Maluach – found himself going up against his big-man idols on Saturday in Bam Adebayo, Joel Embiid and Davis.
Just like Flagg did in Vegas, Maluach more than held his own, scoring seven points in 13 minutes on 3-for-4 shooting.
“Matching up with them was something I couldn’t imagine,” Maluach told Eurohoops after the game. “It was just in my head, `Oh, I’m playing against these guys?’”
An 18-0 run in the second half, a burst that started during a third quarter in which the U.S. outscored South Sudan 37-18, was the difference for the Americans. James made a layup to save his team at the end, and what was supposed to be a meaningless game sure seemed to have a whole lot of meaning.
“We can be beat if we don’t play our brand of basketball and our brand of basketball is playing defence,” Curry said. “They made some tough shots in the first half and they’re a skilled team with a lot of shooting, so if they get hot, they’re tough. But we didn’t make them uncomfortable at all in the first half and they took advantage of it.
“But we also learned we have that gear. If we can find it, no matter who’s out there on the court, we can overwhelm teams for 40 minutes. And it’s a great reminder of both. If we don’t play our game, we can be beat. We’re not invincible.”