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Tim Bontemps, ESPN
LAS VEGAS — The U.S. team made plenty of mistakes Wednesday night in its first Olympic dress rehearsal, but coach Anthony Davis was solely focused on his team’s defense after a comfortable 86-72 win over Canada before a record crowd of 20,756 at T-Mobile Arena.
“We’re unbeatable,” Davis said when asked what would happen if the U.S. played the same defense and offense as they did Wednesday. “Frankly, we were awful offensively, but we were awful in a good way in the sense that we were trying to make the right plays.” [But] If you’re worried about the offensive side of things, I think we’re in a good spot.
“Our focus tonight was defense.”
Anthony Edwards came off the bench to lead Team USA with 13 points, and Davis had 10 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks as the Americans bounced back from a slump early in the second half to put the game on the line.
The Americans missed their first six shots and committed eight turnovers in the first quarter, but as the game went on, they started to get better and, despite playing far from their best, ultimately won by double digits against one of their biggest rivals for next month’s gold medal.
Playing before a rapt crowd that included former President Barack Obama, the U.S. held Canada to 33.8 percent shooting and just 7 of 33 3-pointers. Canada’s star-studded backcourt of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray combined to make just 5 of 18 field goals.
“It was a good opener for us,” U.S. Team Coach Steve Kerr said. “We’re just starting out with four days of practice. We showed some rust early on offensively. We had a lot of turnovers in the first half. [but] “We showed great defensive intensity and rebounding work. It was a good first look at how we want to develop our game going forward.”
In addition to nailing down the playing style, one of the big questions looming for the U.S. team is who will fill all five positions in coach Kerr’s starting lineup.
Three of those spots seem destined to be filled by Stephen Curry, LeBron James or Joel Embiid. On Wednesday night, the remaining two spots were given to Jrue Holiday, arguably the best perimeter defender in the world and a natural fit alongside Curry in the U.S. backcourt, and Devin Booker, who could fill the spot left vacant by Kevin Durant, who missed a fifth straight day with a calf strain.
Meanwhile, the second unit of Tyrese Haliburton, Edwards, Bam Adebayo, Jayson Tatum and Davis has dominated games and could be a very effective unit over the coming weeks if Kerr chooses to keep it together.
Naturally, Kerr, who is known for not wanting to discuss lineups, said there was nothing to read into the lineup decisions for Wednesday’s opener.
“You can’t go wrong with this starting lineup,” Kerr said. “We’re going to do something different for the next two games. We’ll look at a few combinations before we make any decisions. We knew Canada didn’t have any big guys, so we wanted to use Joel early in the game. We wanted to use Bam and Anthony Davis in the second group. We wanted to get a feel for what it was like.”
Embiid, playing in a U.S. national team uniform for the first time, looked sluggish, finishing with five points, six rebounds and five fouls in 13 minutes of play.
Embiid and Kerr had talked in recent days about getting back into shape and increasing his activity level after recovering from a knee injury suffered late in the regular season and playing through the injury in the Philadelphia 76ers’ first-round playoff loss to the New York Knicks. Embiid said he, like Team USA, still has a long way to go.
“We could have played better,” Embiid said. “We didn’t take care of the ball. Defensively, we were pretty good. So that’s where we’re going to be. Offensively, we’ll see.”
Additionally, Curry was part of the 2010 and 2014 world championship winning teams, while James won gold medals with Team USA at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, marking the first time that Curry and James played together on Team USA.
They’ll have a few more chances in the future. The U.S. team, without Durant and Derrick White, who replaced Kawhi Leonard early Wednesday, is preparing to leave for Abu Dhabi on Thursday for a pair of exhibition games against Australia and Serbia next week on the next leg of their pre-Olympic world tour.
“It’s just awesome that we’ve gotten to this stage in our careers and we’re able to use our talents and do what we love and give back a little bit to the fans,” James said of playing with Curry. “So to get to play alongside one of the greatest players in the history of the sport is just awesome and I’m looking forward to the rest of the summer.”
