Team USA gets its fourth different leading scorer in trouncing of Brazil, 122-87

Kevin Durant (494 points) becomes the highest scoring US Olympic basketball player of all-time in the blowout win

The United States, bolstered by Devin Booker’s shooting, LeBron James’s playmaking, and its overwhelming depth on both ends, surged out to a 63-36 halftime lead on the way to walloping an undersized Brazil squad 122-87 in the Olympic quarter-final. Team USA assisted on 12 of their first 13 made field goals (31 of their 45 total) to put the Brazilians in a hole that they would not get out of. After a brief slump late in the opening half, the US closed it out on a 15-0 run, while stifling the Brazilians at the point of attack and at the rim to net 16 stocks (9 steals and 7 blocks).

A brisk first frame found Team USA’s Stephen Curry (cutter) and LeBron James (fulcrum) reversing their typical roles to help get a 10-point lead within minutes. 41-year old guard Marcelo Huertas channeled his inner Oscar Schmidt to get a trio of baskets for Brazil. Bruno Caboclo and Huertas seemed like their only scorers for a large chunk of the stanza. In his finest start thus far, Booker had a smooth-looking three and dime to Embiid in the lane – following those up with an impressive four-point play to push the US lead to 13. USA’s hot-shooting quarter left them up 33-21 after one.

The US hit Brazil with a fast 7-0 run to start the second period. Jayson Tatum swatted away a Brazil 3-point attempt, but continued to struggle with knocking down shots. In Brazil’s only run of the game, Georginho de Paula, a player who looks like Sean Elliott but plays like Boris Diaw, hit a corner three, and a pair of Huerta’s jumpers brought their deficit down to nine. Embiid’s transition three and traditional and-1 nudged the advantage back out to 19. James punctuated a 15-0 run by finding Tatum for an alley-oop dunk to close out the half.

A pair of threes coming out of the break from Booker kept the Brazilians over 20 points down and maintained a sufficient cushion for the US. On a de Paula putback, he inadvertently grazed James’ eye, which took him out of the game. Anthony Davis paired a tough putback with an even tougher tip dunk in traffic. Even as the large deficit persisted, Caboclo competed admirably – gutting an and-1 over Davis and being a nuisance on the boards. Booker and Durant took turns hitting from distance to give the older players some rest in the fourth.

Brazil’s Caboclo (30 points and 6 rebounds) and de Paula (15 points and 8 rebounds) led the way, as Huerta’s (9 points and 5 assists) hot start was muted over the last 2 ¹⁄₂ quarters. Booker (18 points) led six Americans in double-figure scoring, with James (12 points and 9 assists) and Embiid (14 points and 7 rebounds) in support. The two Anthony’s – Edwards (17 points) and Davis (13 points and 8 rebounds) headed another sterling 60-point effort from the bench in victory.

Observations

• Brazil has several “wasn’t that guy drafted by an NBA team, but where are they now” players: Raul Neto, Caboclo, Criatiano Felicio, and Gui Santos. On the other hand, the roster has the best collection of hair of all the remaining teams.
• Sequence of the Game: In early action, Embiid threw a quick outlet pass to Jrue Holiday, who threaded a bounce pass through two Brazilian defenders to James for a difficult (for most humans) lefty layup on the right side of the rim.
• Booker has been an unsung contributor throughout these games. I don’t know how much more of a leap he can take next year, but these Games should galvanize him.
• The wildly erratic Embiid first quarter experience: turnover, made three, scored on by Caboclo, airballed jumper, made two.

The United States advances to the semifinals and takes on Nikola Jokic and Serbia on Thursday at 2:00 PM CDT on NBC.