When the bracket developed for the elimination games in men’s basketball at the 2024 Olympic Games, it was quite clear who’d gotten the roughest draw (sorry, Canada) and who’d earned the pass to the medal rounds (U-S-A! U-S-A!)
The USA Basketball men drew Brazil. They are 9-0 in Olympic competition against Brazil – oh, no, wait, it’s 10-0 after a 122-87 thrashing – a team that entered Paris 2024 with one of the lowest percentages of active NBA players in the competition.
The bigger question as Tuesday dawned was whom the U.S. would face in the semifinals, and the answer is Serbia, a team they’ve defeated twice, badly, since gathering in July to begin their Olympic journey.
On this day, though, the U.S. took care of the business assigned. It’s unclear whether limiting their turnovers to 11 – down from an average of 14 in pool play, and many more in their exhibition series – was a product of the opposition or better attention to detail.
Keeping that number low will help in the biggest games.
Onto the player ratings.
MORE: Full schedule for USA men’s and women’s basketball at the 2024 Olympics
Starters
LeBron James (power forward): 9
Should he have earned a 10? With the same effort against a better opponent, probably. But you can only play the course you’re on, and James was magnificent. He finished with 9 assists, including eight in the first half, and also scored 12 points in his 17 minutes. James left the game after being struck in the eye. He spent some time in the locker room being treated, but returned to the bench with no bandage and no apparent swelling with 3 minutes left in the game. He gestured to the crowd as if to indicate he was feeling fine.
Devin Booker (small forward): 9
Two things had to happen to maximize Booker’s value to this team: 1) His teammates in the starting lineup (other than James) had to be more assertive about moving the ball; 2) Booker had to be comfortable firing open shots while playing with four all-stars. The first of those probably took longer, but they’re both in place now. Booker was the difference as the U.S. broke open the game, finishing with 18 points in just 15 minutes and hitting 5-of-7 from long range.
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Joel Embiid (center): 8
Still problematic as a defender, Embiid more than made up for what he allowed to occur at the point of attack by ringing up jumpshots. He shot 5-of-6 from the floor and nailed a trio of 3-point attempts. Embiid’s inability to cover ball screens in any other fashion but a very loose drop style has been exploited by better teams, but Brazil lacked that ability. Often flirting with a minus rating as a U.S. player, Embiid was a plus-25 in just 12 minutes.
Steph Curry (point guard): 5
How many times does Steph Curry not make a single 3-pointer in a game?
Well, this was one of them. (He’s 5-for-20 from deep in the Olympics).
The U.S. nevertheless shot 48 percent from long distance against Brazil.
Jrue Holiday (shooting guard): 7
You don’t have to wonder if Holiday is confident. He’s probably the 11th or 12th-most skilled offensive player on the U.S. roster – thank goodness for Derrick White, you know – and yet he’s gone throughout this experience firing 3-pointers off a single pass. Some of the are in transition. Some of them, like in the first half against Brazil, were challenged by a defender. So long as it doesn’t happen in crunch time, and there probably will be crunch time at some point, the U.S. can live with it. And he was efficient in this game, shooting 4-of-7 from the field and earning a plus-21 rating.
Substitutes
Kevin Durant (small forward): 6.5
Durant can be a game-changing offensive player, and certainly was in the United States’ first Olympic game against Serbia. This was not one of his exceptional games.
MORE: Kevin Durant makes USA history in win over Brazil
Bam Adebayo (power forward): 6.5
Adebayo started the second half at center as Embiid rested. He had been better playing power forward alongside Davis than as the primary big man accompanied by a perimeter-based team.
Anthony Davis (center): 8
Davis delivered what might have been the most spectacular play of the United States’ Olympic men’s basketball adventure when he dashed down the lane with 4:22 left in the third quarter to slam home a missed 3-pointer from Steph Curry and etched Gui Santos’ picture on the poster. Davis continues to look like the best version of himself, the player who once appeared to be headed toward a position among the top two or three players in the world – before injuries derailed his ascent.
Anthony Edwards (shooting guard): 7
Is it possible that Edwards scored a quiet 17 points? I mean, he does nothing quietly, and he did have a terrific dunk, but it seemed as though his contributions in this game were mostly adding to large leads already established. It’s been great to see how he has embraced his role within this team structure. It does not mean muting his offensive game, but he has been much more judicious about when to attack than early in the exhibition series. It might be connected to playing most often on a unit with Durant.
Derrick White (point guard): 6
White tried to give a foul in the final 2 seconds of the third quarter, but he sloppily hit Georginho de Paula as he heaved a buzzer-beating 3-point attempt. That put Georginho at the line for three free throws. He did deliver a beautiful block in the first half and passed for four assists.
Jayson Tatum (small forward): 5
Yes, Davis’ throw-down in the third-quarter was even better than Tatum’s off a sideline inbound pass from James just before the half. But Tatum’s was pretty amazing. It also was the only shot he made in the game.
Tyrese Haliburton (point guard): 6
His inexplicable benching ended at 8:15 of the fourth quarter. He scored one pretty basket and passed or one assist in his limited appearance.
