LeBron James Bails Out A Struggling Team USA Once Again Late In Game

Getty Image

There’s no doubt that, on paper, Team USA Men’s Basketball are overwhelming favorites to bring home the gold medal from Paris France when the 2024 Summer Olympics get underway later this week. But, they’re not playing like a gold medal team right now, and they were saved again by strong play from LeBron James.

Lebron’s late baskets helped the USA beat a stubborn Germany team, 92-88, just days after only beating upstart South Sudan, 101.

Once again, the USA looked incredibly in spurts, but too often looked lackadaisical in the half-court on both sides of the ball, especially on defense. Once again, Joel Embiid was the main culprit of struggles, as the team seemed to play much better when he was on the bench. He did have an awesome monster block, but he has looked like a fish out of water at times with Team USA. Their best lineups on Monday arguably included two bigs in Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis.

Thankfully, in a close game, it was the 39-year-old LeBron James who made the big baskets down the stretch and led Team USA in scoring with 20 points.

In total, James had 11 points in the final four minutes in the game after making the winning layup against South Sudan. It’s good that he’s playing well. But, the concerns run deeper.

Right now, things simply don’t look fluid on either end for the USA. They look pretty clueless on defensive rotations and the half-court offense is a lot of standing around and one-on-one play. They had just 20 assists against 13 turnovers on Monday. That is completely unacceptable and shows the lack of ball movement and cohesiveness in the half-court on offense.

That being said, when they get stops on the defensive end, they’re deadly in transition. Even LeBron James at nearly 40 was sprinting downcourt for alley-oops on the fast break.

That being said, they did finish their exhibition schedule 5-0. All you’ve got to do is win, and it doesn’t matter how pretty it is. Right now they look vulnerable, and I’m sure Head Coach Steve Kerr knows that. They have things to work on.

LeBron James and Team USA open Olympic play on Saturday against a good Serbia team featuring Nicola Jokic. Before that, LeBron James will all of Team USA’s flag-bearer during Friday’s Opening Ceremony.