RIO DE JANEIRO – Red, white and blase for one quarter, the U.S. Olympic team woke up and won with ease.
Shaking off a sluggish, sloppy start and maybe some Brazilian boredom, the Americans regrouped in the second quarter and romped over Venezuela, 113-69, on Monday, taking another step toward a possible third straight gold medal.
Kevin Durant scored 16 points and Carmelo Anthony 14 for the U.S. squad, which may have grown a touch overconfident following a 57-point blowout of China in its tournament opener.
The Americans were tied at 18-all after one quarter, but stopped turning the ball over and fouling, unleashed their defense and outscored Venezuela 30-8 in the second period. They cruised from there, improving to 82-1 under Coach Mike Krzyzewski and reminding everyone it’s going to take a special performance for 40 minutes to deny them another Olympic title.
“Everything’s not going to be easy,” Durant said. “We know that, even with this great team.”
It was similar to the meeting between the teams in Chicago on July 29, when the U.S. shot poorly and still won by 35 on their pre-Rio exhibition tour. Maybe this was a reminder that no team can be taken lightly – and there is little margin for error – once the Olympic flame is ignited.
“Once we settled down, made our adjustments to the way they were calling the game, the way that Venezuela wanted to play the game, that second quarter we picked it up defensively and turned it around,” Anthony said.
The Americans continue pool play on Wednesday against unbeaten Australia. The Aussies, featuring five NBA players, four of them league champions, improved to 2-0 on Monday with an impressive 95-80 win over Serbia. Australia has never won an Olympic medal in men’s basketball, but Krzyzewski knows the team from Down Under will be up for the Americans.
“I don’t think they’ve gone back to their boat or apartment or wherever they’re staying thinking they can’t beat us,” the coach said. “They feel like they can beat us and we understand that.”
Anthony, the four-team Olympian and two-time gold medalist playing in his record 25th game for the United States, provided a much-needed spark in the second quarter.
With the Americans leading just 28-22 and looking anything but golden, Anthony came across the lane and stripped the ball away from Venezuelan center Gregory Echenique and passed it to Kyrie Irving. Anthony followed Irving up the floor, accepted a feed on the wing and knocked down a 3-pointer that lifted some of the pressure – and fog – off Team USA.
“That changed the game,” said Paul George, who led the U.S. with 20 points. “Melo made that three and it gave us all confidence.”
Anthony moved past Michael Jordan on the career scoring list and now only trails LeBron James and David Robinson for the most points by an American Olympian.
“I never even knew that,” Anthony said. “Anytime you can break a record or make history or pass somebody like Michael Jordan, it’s an honor. We still have more games to go so hopefully we can break more records.”
Jimmy Butler scored 17 – most of them coming in extended garbage time – and DeAndre Jordan added 14 and nine rebounds in the first Olympic matchup between the nations.
Venezuela’s John Cox, a cousin of American superstar Kobe Bryant, scored 19 and Echenique 18.
Although this may not be the best made-in-America team as James, Stephen Curry and others chose to skip the first games held in South America for a variety of reasons, the U.S. squad that came to Brazil appears to be in a class by itself. There will likely be tougher games ahead, but they haven’t had one yet.
Venezuela, which doesn’t have an NBA player on its roster, didn’t figure to be a threat but the FIBA Americas champion wasn’t intimidated by the U.S. roster of household names and with their fans doing all they could to push the heavy underdogs, they outworked the Americans in the first quarter, which ended with the U.S. committing six turnovers.
It was a very different story in the second, when the Americans flexed their muscle at both ends, reeled off 13 straight points in one stretch and took complete control.
“They have a lot of shooters, no?” Venezuela Coach Nestor Garcia said with a smile.
They have a lot of everything.
Elsewhere, the third day of Olympic competition featured a couple of notable firsts: Rafaela Silva captured host Brazil’s initial gold medal of the Rio Games and fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad became the only American ever to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab.
Serena Williams struggled before beating France’s Alize Cornet, 7-6 (5), 6-2, in her bid for a second consecutive singles gold medal.
Silva, who grew up on one of Rio’s hillside shanty towns, won judo’s 57-kilogram division, then, overwhelmed with emotion, performed the Brazilian version of the Green Bay Packers’ “Lambeau Leap” to celebrate with her compatriots Monday.
It was, at the least, a momentary reprieve for the host country bracing for what once seemed unthinkable: an early exit by its men’s soccer team from the Olympic tournament. Brazil finds itself needing a victory against Denmark to advance and avoid another huge embarrassment two years after a demoralizing 7-1 loss to Germany in the semifinals of the World Cup.
Brazilian fans aren’t just booing their men’s soccer team. After months of dire predictions from abroad about the mosquito-borne Zika virus, some locals are doing some stinging of their own: They’re jeering U.S. athletes and taunting them over the fears that kept some competitors away from South America’s first Olympics.
In the women’s sabre tournament, Muhammad, sporting a plain black Muslim head scarf under a red, white and blue mask, was a winner in her opening bout before bowing out. A New Jersey native who started fencing in part because the uniform allowed her to adhere to the tenets of her faith, Muhammad also competes in the team event later this week.
Australia won the first gold medal for rugby sevens at the Olympics, beating archrival New Zealand, 24-17, in the women’s final Monday night.
A day after adding a record 19th gold medal to his collection, Michael Phelps is swimming the 200 meter butterfly semifinal Monday night and fellow American Katie Ledecky is swimming the women’s 200 meter freestyle.
Other highlights from Day 3 of the Rio Games:
Golf debut: The first Olympic golf shot in 112 years will be hit by the lone Brazilian in the men’s field. The International Golf Federation tapped into what few Olympic roots it has by selecting Adilson da Silva to be the first to tee off Thursday. Also in the opening threesome: Graham DeLaet of Canada, a country IGF President Peter Dawson called the defending champ – George Lyon of Canada won the gold medal at the St. Louis Games in 1904.
Brazil bleak: It has come to this for the Brazilian men’s soccer team: The fans are so disappointed with the team that they heckled football icon Neymar and chanted the name of the women team’s star during a lackluster, scoreless tie against Iraq over the weekend. Brazil is now facing elimination – a prospect that once seemed unthinkable in the soccer-obsessed Olympic host country.
Spectacular seas: Sailing, not the dirty water, was finally the focus on troubled Guanabara Bay during a spectacular start to the Olympic regatta on Monday. Windsurfers sped across the waves toward Flamengo Beach in a fresh breeze, against the imposing backdrop of Sugarloaf Mountain. Robert Scheidt won the second race in the Laser class. He’s trying to become the first Olympic sailor and first Brazilian to win six Olympic medals.