LeBron James will carry the U.S. flag. However first, he carried the U.S. males’s basketball staff.
James scored the ultimate 11 factors for the People down the stretch, and the four-time reigning Olympic gold medalists held off World Cup champion Germany 92-88 in London on Monday evening in its ultimate tune-up earlier than the Paris Video games begin later this week.
Introduced earlier within the day because the male flagbearer for the People in Friday evening’s opening ceremony down the River Seine — the feminine flagbearer might be revealed Tuesday — James got here by time and time once more down the stretch, simply as he did over the weekend when his layup with 8 seconds left gave the U.S. a 101-100 win over upstart South Sudan.
James had 20 factors for the U.S., whereas Joel Embiid scored 15, Stephen Curry had 13 and Anthony Edwards completed with 11.
Franz Wagner led Germany with 18 factors. Andreas Obst — the hero of final yr’s German win over the U.S. within the World Cup semifinals — had 14, whereas Dennis Schroder had a 13-point, 10-assist evening. Daniel Theis added 13 for Germany and Moritz Wagner scored 12.
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The USA completed its exhibition slate 5-0, however there was just one recreation that was a real cakewalk. That was towards Serbia, the staff that’ll face the U.S. on Sunday within the first Olympic recreation this summer season for each groups.
Canada gave the U.S. points at occasions, Australia got here from manner again to make issues attention-grabbing on the finish, South Sudan almost pulled off an upset as a 43.5-point underdog and the Germans had the lead over the U.S. with 4 minutes left on Monday.
Then it was James’ time. He outscored Germany 11-6 by himself within the ultimate 3:57.
And now, Paris awaits. The video games begin for actual this weekend.
For the second consecutive recreation, the U.S. acquired outscored by 21 factors from 3-point vary. And it almost burned the People once more.
Germany was 13 for 45 from past the arc, the U.S. was 6 for 17, and that’s a 39-18 distinction in factors from deep.
South Sudan outscored the U.S. 42-21 from deep on Saturday.
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Additionally not serving to the U.S. trigger on Monday: it had 14 turnovers to Germany’s seven.
Theis had 26 factors, whereas Schroder and Obst had 24 apiece in Germany’s 113-111 win over the U.S. within the World Cup at Manila a yr in the past.
That trio was implausible once more Monday, combining for 40 factors.
It ought to be famous that the loss to Germany final yr was about when some gamers — James, for instance — began critically fascinated about becoming a member of the U.S. program for this run to the Paris Video games.
Kevin Durant acquired some pregame photographs up once more, simply as he did Saturday in London. And, once more, that was the extent of his game-night motion.
The three-time gold medalist didn’t play whereas he continues to get well from the calf pressure he suffered a couple of days earlier than the U.S. convened for coaching camp in Las Vegas.
Durant missed all 5 pre-Olympic video games exhibitions, although he did apply this previous weekend. He has not appeared in an actual recreation since late April, when Phoenix was swept in a first-round NBA playoff collection by Minnesota.