Team U.S.A. Basketball Falls to Australia, Its 2nd Straight Loss

When the United States men’s basketball team lost to Nigeria last week, the result seemed to be a novelty: a historic win for an African team, but not one that truly foreshadowed anything about Americans’ hopes for the Tokyo Olympics.

Then the United States lost to Australia, too.

N.B.A. players comprise half of Australia’s team, and two of them led the way in the 91-83 win on Monday night in Las Vegas: Patty Mills of the San Antonio Spurs, with 22 points, and Joe Ingles of the Utah Jazz, who scored 17.

The Americans, whose roster is dotted with N.B.A. All-Stars, played a little better on Monday than they had against Nigeria on Saturday. Damian Lillard led the way with 22 points and Kevin Durant added 17 points, but the team has now lost the first two games of its pre-Olympic exhibition tour.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/sports/olympics/team-usa-australia-basketball.html