The US men’s basketball team closed out pool play with an un-beaten record but a nervy 100-97 win over France confirmed that getting to the top step of the Olympic podium will not be an easy climb.
“I felt we were going to dominate these Games that they were going to come easy,” American guard Paul George said.
“But you start playing better competition, you see these teams are pretty good.”
After a pair of blowout wins over China and Venezuela to open the tournament, the United States have received a wake-up call in the way of narrow three-point wins over France and Serbia and a battling 10-point victory against Australia.
The alarm bells continued to ring on Sunday as the United States allowed France, playing without talismanic point guard Tony Parker, to rally from a 16-point deficit late in the third quarter to turn a predicted rout into another nail-biter.
Despite their troubles, the United States finished top of Group A with a perfect 5-0 record to run their Olympic winning streak to 22 games and remain the favourite to claim what would be a third straight gold on the final day of the Games.
“Today they did not play very well and still won so they are still the favourites,” said 7-foot, 1-inch (2.16) French centre Rudy Gobert, also known as the ‘Stifle Tower’.
The United States will not know their quarter-finals opponent until after the final Group B matches today but are well aware that they need to raise their game considerably if they hope to make it to the final.
While the performance has been uneven, Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski remained unconcerned, insisting there is only one statistic that matters and that is the win column, where his team is perfect.
“At the end of the day, no one will ask you anything else except if you’ve won,” Krzyzewski said.
“While you are approaching that winning you are asked a bunch of other things.
“I think we are getting better offensively and we have to get better defensively.”
In other Group A action, Australia (4-1) locked down second place after easing past Venezuela 81-56, while France (3-2) finished third.
Serbia (2-3) beat winless China 94-60 to finish fourth and grab a spot in the knockout round.