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Brian Windhorst, ESPN Senior Writer
LILLE, France — Team USA is through to Tuesday’s Olympic basketball quarterfinals after a 103-86 victory over South Sudan secured that berth on Wednesday.
The game was a far cry from the first matchup against South Sudan in a pre-Olympic exhibition earlier this month, when LeBron James needed a last-second layup to secure a 101-100 win.
The Bright Stars are technically the lowest-rated team in the Olympics at 33rd in the FIBA World Rankings. But that is misleading, and they will have a reasonable shot at advancing to the quarterfinals, as well, depending on the outcome of their meeting with Serbia on Saturday.
After playing zero minutes in Team USA’s opening game, Jayson Tatum was back in the starting lineup, replacing Jrue Holiday, and put up four points in 17 minutes. While Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton and Derrick White didn’t play in the first Olympic game, Joel Embiid was the only player kept out of the second game after scoring four points in 11 minutes on Sunday.
The bench racked up 63 points, led by Bam Adebayo’s 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting and seven rebounds and Kevin Durant’s 14 points.
Team USA wraps up pool play on Saturday against Puerto Rico.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Team USA’s second Olympic game.
Steve Kerr gives a sermon
There may come a time when it’s fair to criticize coach Steve Kerr for his performance in these games; that’s the fragile nature of the event. But now is not the time. What he is doing — whether it be unorthodox, against tradition or perceived as disrespectful — is working.
His game plan against the fast and 3-point-shooting South Sudan team was to go with a wing-heavy starting lineup featuring Tatum at power forward and James at point guard. Out of that lineup were Embiid and Holiday, two players who represented a significant part of the game plan against Serbia.
Then he had a second unit of defensive stalwarts paired with the offensive firepower of Durant and Anthony Edwards. The “backups” destroyed South Sudan and the Americans gave up 14 fewer points than they did in the exhibition they almost lost two weeks ago in London.
Kerr, unemotional but well aware his decisions to bench Tatum and then Embiid are a topic of discussion, explained his choices.
“The NBA is so popular worldwide and the regular season is kind of a soap opera. And so we understand that and social media takes over and everything becomes so dramatic,” Kerr said. “And I think we need to give these guys more credit. They’re here to win a gold medal.
“The beauty of the Olympics is none of that crap matters. And I know everyone’s going to write about it, but none of that crap matters. We’re just trying to win every game and win a gold medal and it’s an incredibly pure feeling and the guys are committed to each other and they’re not going to worry about any of that.”
He said Embiid and Holiday will start Saturday against Puerto Rico.
Tatum responds to benching
Tatum had 4 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists in 17 minutes on Wednesday after not playing against Serbia. He spoke to the media for the first time since it happened.
It was a new experience for him and, while he didn’t complain or criticize the decision, he made it clear it was difficult and left an impact.
“Definitely a humbling experience, right? You win a championship, new ($314 million) contract, (get on the) cover of 2K and then you sit a whole game,” Tatum said. “You can be frustrated that you want to play as a competitor but maybe have some empathy for some of the guys on my team that don’t always get to play or play spot minutes. So a learning experience to have, see it from that point of view and just move on from it.”
Embiid vs. the French
Embiid may not be having a ton of fun at the moment. He’s struggled at times returning from injury and then from a recent illness. He was a DNP-CD on Wednesday and he’s been getting booed relentlessly by the huge crowds in Lille this week after his decision not to join the French team.
He leaned into it, egging the crowd on to boo him louder as he took the floor before the game. His teammates did as well in their way of offering support.
“We understand what the crowd is after we understand why they boo, but he’s one of us,” Adebayo said. “When you’re one of us, we going to stick together through thick and thin.”
Then again, some of them get the French frustration.
“I don’t know why he gets booed all the time, I still don’t get it,” Edwards said. “Y’all got (Victor Wembanyama) and Rudy (Gobert), why would he play with y’all? I mean, y’all want three 7-footers? Nah, but that would’ve been hard to beat for sure.”
Derrick White vindication
The focus on the shifting lineups has muted the criticism USA Basketball took for selecting White over Jaylen Brown, among other options, to replace the injured Kawhi Leonard three weeks ago. Or maybe it’s because White has muted it himself.
He’s played two excellent games in France and had 10 points, 3 steals and a block on Wednesday. Through two games, he has 5 steals and 2 blocks and the Americans are plus-33 when he’s on the court. Those stats don’t even illustrate how much of a force he’s been at the defensive end.
“Derrick White’s a phenomenal basketball player,” Kerr said. “He’s a winner. He’s a FIBA player. FIBA is different for every single guy. There’s some different rules, different flow. Derrick’s a champion. He’s a phenomenal basketball player and he’ll continue to make a huge impact for us.”