Kevin Durant stars as USA blows past France 98-71 -
London Olympics Men Basketball Recap
In what was supposed to be a stiff competition for the Americans, Kevin Durant and company blew past France 98-71 in their first preliminary round game at the London Olympics on Sunday night.
NBA’s three time reigning scoring champion led the way for the Americans with 22 points and 9 boards in the game.
In a line up full of star studded players, LeBron James managed 9 points and mustered up a game high 8 assists in the ball game. He was content with the overall performance;
"It wasn't perfect," James said. "We've still got room for improvement. We had too many turnovers, too many fouls and we had a couple of defensive rebounds we could have come up with. But overall, we played a pretty good game for
as close to 40 minutes as possible."
Kobe Bryant cruised his way to 10 points while Kevin Love in his brief spell off the bench shot the ball 5 of 8 from the field to pound 14.
Ali Traore and Tony Parker were the only French players scoring in double figures, managing their way to 12 and 10 points respectively. The remaining NBA contingent present among the French ranks like Nicolas Batum, Kevin Seraphin
and Boris Diaw could only muster up small contributions in the game.
Team USA got off to a steady start and held an 8-3 lead but a resilient French effort saw them remain close (21-22) after the first period. USA missed their first six three point attempts.
However the Americans opened the second period on an 11-0 run to take a double figure lead. The French replied back with a 5-0 run of their own but the Americans continued to dominate and were able to extend their lead to 52-36
by the end of the first half.
A break did not halt the American charge. They continued to mount incredible offensive pressure on the French. With 2:53 on the clock in the third, the Americans were leading by as many as 17 points and then went on to score the
final 10 points of the period to take a 78-51 lead into the final quarter.
After dominating the proceedings for the first three quarters, the Americans did not really have to put any extra effort into the final period. Coach Mike Krzyzewski brought on his reserves including Anthony Davis enroute to a
98-71 romp.
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