In the final game of the group stage, the United States men's basketball team defeated the Puerto Rico men's basketball team 104-83, winning easily by 21 points, and won three consecutive group stage games. Although entering the quarterfinals as the first seed, this is only the beginning for the powerful United States men's basketball team, and the real test is in the rematch stage.
Group stage expectations and reality
The United States men's basketball team is in Group C is relatively weak, and the only threatening opponent, the Serbia men's basketball team, is also in the stage where it has not yet fully run-in. Therefore, the United States men's basketball team's three-game winning streak was expected. With their quality and star line-up, the only goal of this Olympics is to win the championship. Victory in the group stage is just the beginning for them, and the real focus is on the rematch.
Although the United States men's basketball team performed well in the group stage, are they ready for a rematch opponent?
Judging from the current game, the originally somewhat rusty United States men's basketball team is gradually getting better in these games, but it seems that there are still some details to be perfected from the complete body we expected. Especially in this game against Puerto Rico, the United States men's basketball team has played its best performance in several group stage games, and several players who have been in a sluggish state and awkward positioning have shown signs of recovery in this game, which can be regarded as looking forward to their subsequent performance.
Playing aggressive Embiid
First, Embiid has to talk about it. In the previous games, our criticism of him should have been the strictest. But judging from the details of the game, his peripheral teammates made him defend less in the penalty area in one step, and the whole team forgot to be grabbed by the opponent in the card position, and these problems should not all be blamed on him. Although Embiid's current performance is not far from expectations, at least he has a positive impact on the international stage.
Against Puerto Rico, the head coach was clearly deliberately creating opportunities for Embiid to regain his form in the game. Embiid, who got the opportunity, finally regained the offensive desire that had disappeared in the past few games, and no longer hesitated between passing, covering, and shooting options, but executed the attack more decisively. Although his shooting percentage of 6-of-14 shooting was still subpar, when he was able to finish decisively in the low post and shoot from mid-to-long distance, the positioning of the court was much better than in the past few games.
However, it's important to note that Embiid can be overly emotional at times during games. While he enjoyed the mix of boos and cheers, he still needs to keep his emotions in check and avoid surprises that could affect his team's performance in the rematch if the match goes into a stalemate.
Tatum who blends into the team
After talking about Embiid, who was previously pressed on the bench, the second place is Tatum, who was frozen in the first game. If Embiid is the most awkward United States player since the warm-up game, then Tatum's condition is definitely second behind him.
Judging from this season, Tatum is obviously evolving, from having no sense of presence once he has a bad hand in the past, to now being able to change the tide of the game through his defensive influence, he can be regarded as officially evolving from a pure scoring forward to an all-round forward. But judging from a few games on the national team, Tatum has almost no chance to hold the ball, and it is difficult to even touch the ball to complete the shot, and since the playoffs, his shooting skills have been inconsistent, which makes it extremely embarrassing for him to choose to squat in the bottom corner.
To put it simply, Tatum is a complete defensive engineer in this United States men's basketball team, completely erasing his offensive and defensive influence on the court.
However, in the game against Puerto Rico, Tatum's own offensive desire has increased significantly, or it is a deliberate arrangement of team tactics, and he began to get more offensive opportunities. He has the opportunity to use his strong body to execute air cuts, and if the first shot of the attack is not blocked by the opponent, then Tatum will directly and ruthlessly dunk and score; And if there is no offensive opportunity in the first shot, he can also choose to use his size advantage to play hard and eat strongly, and his personal offensive and defensive efficiency is also quite good, with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds on 4-of-9 shooting.
Basically, apart from possession of the ball, if Tatum's size system can continue to get opportunities on the inside, he will be the most suitable offensive and defensive machine for the United States. Especially in the future, once encountering opponents such as Canada who have a serious lack of rotation depth in the fourth or fifth position, Tatum, Adebayo, Durant and even Edwards and other forwards with obvious body advantages will be important offensive breakthroughs.
Instruction manual for the second elder of Zhanku
To be fair, judging from the last game against South Sudan, James and Curry, as the two most high-ranking players in the United States men's basketball team, did not play well. Curry made all three points out of the basket, and only scored 3 points in the game; Although James has good numbers on paper, too much ball handling is accompanied by a whopping six turnovers.
Let's start with Curry, who now seems to be the best player on the team to be an off-ball shooter who can play with the ball. And with FIBA's rule of not defending for three seconds, it is almost impossible to expect Curry to tear through the opponent's defense and smash the Yellow Dragon with his current physical condition. As we mentioned earlier, once Curry can't bring a threat on the offensive end, then backcourt players with better defense such as Holiday and White will obviously be a more ideal and suitable key scheduling option.
Therefore, if Curry is to continue to maintain the starting position, he must be able to pose a historic threat from the outside; And once he can't hit a three-pointer, then Kerr may have to be ruthless to put Curry off the bench at a critical moment.
Speaking of James again, although he has repeatedly proven that he still has gas in the tank, and he does have the ability to play the game, but realistically speaking, the starting lineup is sometimes too monotonous offense, and James, as the main ball carrier, must be the main responsibility, especially in the first two games of the group stage, James is the ball-holding core who averages 6 turnovers per game.
Compared with the previous two times, James in this game played very efficiently, and the team's positioning is more like the role in the Lakers last season, whether it is finishing without the ball, or serving as a setter, or even a cover role, the ball-holding offense at critical moments is commendable, and what is particularly impressive is that he has served as a card point in the high post many times, passing the ball to Tatum, Embiid, Edwards and others on the inside, and even played the role of Green and Curry played a blocker.
Considering the All-Star United States men's basketball team, instead of letting James play a key role in the whole game, it is better to play the role of the team lubricant most of the time, as in this one, and also leave room for the subsequent key moments.
Finally, Edwards.
Combined with the previous content, the United States men's basketball team is now significantly better than the starting lineup, with Davis and Adebayo on the defensive end, Durant and Edwards on the offensive end, and with jack-of-all-trades players such as White or Holiday , this bench is definitely the strongest team during the entire Olympic Games.
As for Edwards, his progress is clearly underestimated compared to last year's World Cup. From the perspective of the lineup, the United States men's basketball team chose to put James and Curry in the starting lineup, and with Booker, who switched to point guard this season, the team is more troublesome in the ball holding position. Although the defense of the bench has always been a key focus for us, there has always been a concern that they do not have a pure point guard to sort out the offense, and can only rely on the individual ability of the star to solve the defense.
Therefore, Edwards' consistent performance from the warm-up game has become more and more valuable. It is no exaggeration to say that as long as he can improve normally, he will definitely be the top two in the United States men's basketball team in the future, and if the United States men's basketball team wants to win the championship this year, whether he and Durant can maintain a stable bench output in the remaining games is absolutely crucial.
The unsolved puzzle of the United States men's basketball team
Overall, against Puerto Rico, the United States men's basketball team did play better in the team run-in than the first two games, although there are still some flaws, but the flaws are not hidden. But then, they still have two unsolved issues: player status and squad scheduling.
In terms of player form, especially Curry and Embiid, if they can take advantage of the improved open advantage, the United States starting lineup has a better chance of being a better threat than the bench. But if the follow-up continues to be sluggish, then it may be a high probability that they will be kicked out of the closing lineup at a critical moment.
In terms of lineup scheduling, Holiday was suspended for this game, which means that the United States men's basketball team has not yet fully tried a final scheduling lineup. Although the twelve players in the team are the best basketball players in the world, they will also meet teams with longer partners and better chemistry, and without a stable rotation, the United States men's basketball team will still be variable at key moments.
All in all, the United States men's basketball team performed well in the group stage, but the real challenge is yet to come. In the next rematch stage, they need to further adjust their form and find the best lineup as soon as possible in order to win against stronger opponents and achieve their goal of winning all competitions.