VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France—In the rematch, the U.S. men’s basketball team had an easier time with South Sudan than it did when the teams met in an exhibition game a couple of weeks ago.
Easier. Not easy.
The U.S. clinched a trip to the quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics by beating South Sudan 103–86 on Wednesday night—a game that wasn’t ever really in doubt but was no romp, either. Bam Adebayo scored 18 points and Kevin Durant had 14 for the Americans, who took control with a 25–4 run in the first half.
And led by Adebayo, the U.S. reserves scored 66 points.
“We’ve been calling ourselves the bench mob for a long time now,” Adebayo said. “And it doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup. We always seem to figure it out.”
Anthony Edwards scored 13 points and LeBron James added 12 for the U.S. Nuni Omot led South Sudan with 21 points, while Carlik Jones scored 18, and Bul Kuol added 16.
The win locked up a knockout-round berth and the No. 1 seed out of Group C for the U.S., which joined Canada, France, and Germany in the quarterfinals. There are seven teams still alive for the other four quarterfinal spots. Only Puerto Rico, which faces the Americans on Saturday, has been eliminated from contention to advance.
That said, Saturday’s game—the first between Puerto Rico and the U.S. at the Olympics since an embarrassing 92–73 U.S. loss in Athens 20 years ago—isn’t meaningless for the Americans. A 3–0 record in group play would give the Americans their best chance at a top-two seed for the knockout round and, in theory, an easier matchup in the quarterfinals.
“It’s not the goal,” U.S. forward Anthony Davis said of making the quarterfinals. “It does give us a sense of satisfaction as far as being able to play next week. But there’s a lot that we can get better at, a lot that we can clean up, and we’ll use Saturday’s game against Puerto Rico to tighten the screws again, and then just see where it takes us from there.”
South Sudan finishes group play against Serbia on Saturday, a game that has knockout-stage implications for both teams. The draw for the quarterfinals will be held Saturday night, and all four quarterfinal games will be played Tuesday in Paris.
“We knew this wasn’t going to be an easy task,” Jones said. “Our spirits are still positive.”
South Sudan Coach Royal Ivey likened his life to a movie after his team won its Olympic opener over Puerto Rico, and understandably so. The story of his team—from the youngest country in the world, a group that overcame absurd odds just to get to the Paris Games—is a quintessential Olympic one, and will be talked about for years whether the African nation wins another game in France or not.
That said, if nearly beating the Americans in a July 20 exhibition in London—the 101–100 game where James had to bail out the U.S. at the end—was a movie, then this was the sequel.
In the movie world, sequels often aren’t as good as the originals. Such was the case Wednesday.
The first few minutes after the opening credits weren’t bad—South Sudan led 7–6 and 10–8—but the plot quickly got predictable. Durant made a 3-pointer with about a minute to go in the opening quarter for the first double-digit lead, Adebayo scored inside with 8:42 left in the half to cap the 25–4 run, the Americans had a 33–14 lead, and there wasn’t a ton of drama the rest of the way.
“They’re a talented team,” U.S. guard Stephen Curry said. “On any given night, they can beat anybody.”
South Sudan cut the lead to 10 in the third, but the U.S. took a 73–57 edge into the final 10 minutes.
Most of the drama, such as it was, happened pregame anyway. U.S. Coach Steve Kerr changed his starting lineup, putting Davis and Jayson Tatum in, and taking Jrue Holiday and Joel Embiid out. Embiid didn’t play at all, while Tyrese Haliburton got his first playing time of the Olympics as the U.S. went to an 11-man rotation for the first half and took a 55–36 lead into the break.
South Sudan outscored the U.S. by two in the second half, but that hardly mattered in the end.
“We’ve got 12 guys who are all capable of dominating,” Kerr said. “Every night is going to be a little different. But we like our chances with the number of great players we have on our roster.”
By Tim Reynolds