LeBron James, Kobe Bryant steer USA to a 119-86 romp over Australia – First Half Breakdown: London Olympics Basketball
In the last quarterfinal matchup on Wednesday night between USA and Australia, the Americans romped to an emphatic 119-86 win. And they did not achieve victory without making history as LeBron James became the first player in the
Olympics to record a triple double.
However as lopsided as the scores predict the game to be, it wasn’t until the fourth quarter that team USA were able to pull away for good, after facing stiff competition from Australia in the first three quarters.
In the early stages of the ball game, the game saw some end to end action. Kevin Durant opened up the scoring by knocking in a triple which was replied by a deuce from David Andersen only to see Tyson Chandler respond back with
a two pointer of his own.
Patrick Mills got into the act early as he knocked down back to back triples to give the Australians a 6-0 burst. But, Durant was right there for team USA to respond with a three pointer on an assist from Chris Paul as he tied
the game up at 8 apiece.
The scores remained close for the next few minutes as both sides looked to out manoeuvre each other. From the 5:31 mark till the 4:08 mark of the first quarter, team USA put together a 7-0 run – a lead which they never relinquished
in the entire match and closed out the first frame, holding a 28-21 advantage.
The second quarter started in a similar fashion to the previous one as Durant delivered a long range missile to give his team double-digit lead at 31-21. The Australians tried their best to make their way back into the game, but
every time, they tried to start something the Americans launched a counter punch.
With 4 minutes remaining in the first half, Australia was able to cut the advantage down to 9 points but a 9-4 run to close out the stanza saw team USA get their lead above the double figure mark again, as they headed into the
interval with a 56-42 lead.
American outscored the Australians 28-21 in both the first and second quarters of the game.
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