By Mark Bacon
Team USA Basketball began its journey to what it hopes will be a third straight Olympic gold medal Friday night with a blowout; a 111-74 victory over Argentina at T-Mobile Arena.
Here are several takeaways from the game, the first of five exhibition games for Team USA before it departs for Rio de Janiero next month.
The Debut of the New Warriors Troika
When Team USA was unveiled a few weeks ago, it boasted three members of the Golden State Warriors: Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes. Since then, of course, Barnes has been replaced by Kevin Durant.
For a brief stretch in the second quarter — exactly 105 seconds — Thompson, Green and Durant played together for the first time, although both Green and Durant said they didn’t even realize it as it was happening.
“It definitely was [fun],” Green said. “When you’re out there right now, you don’t even think about the fact that we’re teammates. We’re all teammates right now.… Honestly, if you want me to be quite frank with you, I didn’t even notice me, Klay and KD were out there together. That’s not something you think about right now.”
It will be hard not to think about it Tuesday, when Team USA plays the third leg of its exhibition tour in Oakland at Oracle Arena — the regular season home of the Warriors. Durant admitted that was something he’s looking forward to experiencing.
Paul George’s Sensational Return
A little less than two years ago, Paul George took the court not far from T-Mobile Arena, at the Thomas & Mack Center on UNLV’s campus and suffered a horrific broken leg as part of Team USA’s scrimmage before it selected its roster for the FIBA World Cup that fall.
Friday marked the first time George was back on the court in a game in Las Vegas since the injury, and his first competitive game for Team USA, as well. Understandably, George had some emotions about the moment, calling it “eerie” to be back here playing again. But it wasn’t clear that was the case for anyone watching George play, as the 6-foot-10 forward put on a spectacular show, finishing with 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting to go with two rebounds, an assist and two steals.
“I just wanted to come out here and play well and get this win,” George said. “There were a lot of emotions, I’m not going to lie.
“The guys in the locker room did a great job of making sure I was good when I came out on this floor.”
Four starting spots — Kyrie Irving, Durant, Carmelo Anthony and DeMarcus Cousins — appear locked up, and Klay Thompson is almost assuredly going to be the team’s starting shooting guard. But even if George doesn’t replace Thompson in the starting five, he’s going to play a major role as the squad’s sixth man, and as its third point guard.
“I think he’s playing the best basketball of his life right now,” Team USA Coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
“He’s a very good guy to coach, because we can play him anywhere. When we had the two point guards pick up two fouls quickly, we had him bring the ball up and we’d like, every once in awhile, to take a look at that, too.”
Nobody in the World Wants to Rebound with DeMarcus Cousins
Marc Gasol might have been the world's only hope against DeMarcus Cousins. He's one of the few big men in the game of basketball who can stand next to Cousins and not be completely dwarfed. Gasol isn't a great rebounder, but he's big enough to tango with Cousins in the paint; additionally, he isn't going to play in the Olympic games. Quite a few really talented big men will miss the games in Rio.
That is bad news for the rest of the world when Cousins is on the floor. He showed Argentina big men like Luis Scola, Marcos Delia, and Roberto Acuna just how futile it is to try to keep him off the offensive boards. Seven of Cousins' 15 rebounds in just 16 minutes came on the offensive end of the floor. He had two more offensive boards than the entire Argentina team. It helped the USA create a 26-6 advantage on second chance points.
And that's just how it's going to be for a lot of frontcourts. Cousins is going to wear them out. DeAndre Jordan is going to be easier to deal with when it comes to rebounding and he's going to wear them out too. Watching Cousins battle for offensive boards against Argentina was like watching Dwayne 'The Rock ' Johnson rearrange bags of potatoes in a walk-in pantry. He's just too big for the rest of the world.
Good luck with that, rest of the world.
Even Without All of the Overwhelming Athletes, USA Still Forces a Ton of Turnovers
In the past, USA Basketball would have guys like LeBron James and Russell Westbrook out there to completely overwhelm the opposition with this alien athleticism. They don't have quite that same level of insanity when it comes to pure speed and size with the 2016 roster as they have in the past. That's not keeping this team from wreaking havoc in the passing lanes and in pressuring the ball. With "just" Paul George, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, and Harrison Barnes (among a few others) hawking the ball and stalking passing lanes, they forced 23 turnovers in 40 minutes of action.
Those 23 turnovers were turned into 36 points -- treating a lot of defensive possessions as transition drills you'd run in practice. George had breakaway dunks. Cousins was even ripping the ball from a ball handler and starting the break. Durant was harassing initiators for Argentina's offense and making them pay for the littlest mistake or lapse in concentration.
Team USA may not win a lot of track meets like they have in the past but it doesn't mean they won't turn all of these mistakes into easy opportunities the other way. Forcing a 17-23 assist-to-turnover ration is pretty good.
Kevin Durant is Still Unguardable
Durant is still someone the rest of the world struggles to defend. Almost everybody in the NBA struggles to defend the guy with the third highest scoring average in NBA history, so it makes sense that wings for Argentina or any country wouldn't know what to do against him. Durant went 7-of-12 from the field and 4-of-9 from the shorter 3-point line. But he didn't let that extra foot or so of space behind the 3-point line be a factor for him. It seemed like he kept shooting it from deeper and deeper every time.
He hooked up with Draymond Green on several buckets to finish with 23 points overall. He also had four rebounds, three assists, a steal, and two blocks all in just under 21 minutes. A big stretch of his scoring came in the second half after Argentina had cut the lead a bit to possibly wake Team USA up. It awoke KD and he made sure to put everybody to bed well before the final buzzer.
Argentina’s Ageless Old Guard
Twelve years ago, Argentina won an Olympic gold medal with a team headlined by Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino and Andres Nocioni. As Argentina prepares for the 2016 Olympic games, those same four players, remarkably, remain the team’s backbone.
No, Argentina didn’t see a new golden generation of talent follow its previous one, but the four old hands still can be successful on the international stage. Argentina’s best stretch in this game was when the four of them were on the court together in the third quarter, and the familiar ball movement and shooting that’s made this group so dangerous over the years briefly came back to life.
It will still be tremendous fun to see Ginobili, Scola, Nocioni and Delfino take the floor one final time together on the international stage. It’s the right way for one of the most distinct and memorable collections of players in international basketball history to go out.
A second “Golden Age” for Argentine basketball stars hasn’t transpired, but one new player stood out, to me at least. Former George Washington University (GWU) star forward Patricio Garino. Garino scored 6 points, with no rebounds, in 20 minutes of action, but exhibited some defensive prowess at times.
I mention Garino and GWU because GWU is my alma mater. A small private university, located blocks from the Watergate in DC’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood is now embroiled in an Abusegate scandal involving their men’s basketball coach, Mike Lonegan.
GWU will hire outside counsel to help conduct a Title IX investigation into allegations by some men’s basketball players that they were victims of verbal and emotional abuse committed by Coach Lonergan.
“The George Washington University is undertaking a Title IX review of allegations against men’s basketball coach Mike Lonergan,” the university said in a statement. “Some of the reported allegations go beyond the scope of Title IX, and the university is bringing in outside counsel to assist in its investigation. The university expects full cooperation and will not tolerate retaliation during the course of the investigation. We will also continue to inform the student-athletes on our men’s basketball team of the university’s support and of the resources available to them.”
A George Washington spokesman said Friday that school officials had no further comment on the matter.
The announcement of the investigation came in the wake of a story published by The Washington Post that detailed the complaints of five former and current players that Lonergan was abusive and used graphic and inappropriate language in rants about Patrick Nero, the school’s athletic director.
The current and former George Washington players and staffers requested anonymity because they feared reprisals that could affect their careers.
Several people with knowledge of the situation said school officials fielded complaints about Lonergan’s behavior after the 2014-15 season and took steps internally to address the issue. Athletic department officials addressed his language and requested practice tapes for review, people within the program said.
Former IU and GWU star Maurice Creek, who played one season under Lonergan, said in an interview that Lonergan “never crossed the line with me; he never crossed the line with any of the guys. He just wanted to win.”
Another former star under Lonergan, forward Isaiah Armwood, wrote on his Twitter account that he and Lonergan “bumped heads often, but this story is ridiculous.”
Patricio Garino, George Washington’s second-leading scorer as a senior this past winter, also expressed his “shock” at learning of the allegations made against Lonergan and took issue with former teammates complaining anonymously.
“Coach is very old-school,” Garino wrote in part on Twitter, “and he’s gonna push you to the limits to reach your potential.”
GWU is rarely in basketball related news. There was former Coach Mike Jarvis, who led GWU to some prominence in his early days before moving to St. John’s. the late Yinka Dare, Allen Iverson briefly committing to GW before moving over to the Hilltop in Georgetown, and the recent, moderate successes of Coach Lonergan. Now it remains to be seen if Lonergan survives this latest scandal.
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