Olympics men's basketball results: China vs USA recap
Parity is at or close to an all-time high when it comes to Olympics men's basketball heading into Rio 2016. Though USA Basketball is the clear favorite to take home the gold medal at the Games, there are seemingly more viable contenders to take them down than ever before. As Team USA opened up their preliminary round action on Saturday, though, it became apparent that China is not one of the teams that'll be challenging the Americans in Rio.
After two free throws off of an early possession, China took a 2-0 lead over USA Basketball. That was where the trend of good things happening to the Chinese squad stopped. Kevin Durant starting ripping nets with his jumper, DeMarcus Cousins started to bully Yi Jianlian in the post, and things went south quickly for China.
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China trailed USA Basketball by 20 points after just the first quarter and the Americans didn't dial that back in the second period as they pushed the lead to 29 points going into the half. And if you thought the onslaught would end there, you'd be wrong.
The United States continued to pressure the ball all the way up the floor on defense, try to get out on fast breaks, and to simply play their game. As you'd expect, this resulted in more carnage inside the arena in Rio.
When all the dust had settled, Team USA had undoubtedly made a statement against China as they secured a victory in their 2016 Rio Olympics opener as they won 119-62 in absurdly dominant fashion.
Three Stars:
Kevin Durant, USA – 25 points, six assists, four rebounds, two steals
DeMarcus Cousins, USA – 17 points, five rebounds, two assists
Yi Jianlian, China – 25 points, five rebounds
Next Game:
USA Basketball's next game in Olympics men's basketball action will be against Venezuela on Monday, August 8 at 6 p.m. ET.
China's next outing in Rio will be a matchup against France on Monday as well, tipping off at 9:30 p.m. ET.
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