LILLE, France — For three years, Team USA has been planning, recruiting and honing its skills to get to next week in Paris. And they've managed to line things up in an excellent position to claim their fifth consecutive gold medal.
The team took its final steps before traveling to the French capital on Saturday, finishing the Olympic group stage with a 3-0 victory over Puerto Rico, 104-83, to secure the top spot in the medal round. The round will begin on Tuesday, when the United States faces Brazil in the quarterfinals at Bercy Arena.
The qualities that the team has been developing over the past four weeks were once again on display in front of 27,000 fans at the Stade Pierre Mauroy.
There's Kevin Durant, the devastating scorer off the bench. Durant scored 11 points in another impressive performance as a reserve. And when it wasn't Durant, it was his second-unit teammate, Anthony Edwards, who scored 15 points in his first 10 minutes on the court and 26 for the game on 11-of-15 shooting. His spectacular dunk in the fourth quarter will be one of the lasting memories of the U.S.'s games in Lille over the past week.
There was LeBron James, the perennial point guard. James started the last two games at point guard (Jrue Holiday sat out as a precaution due to a minor ankle injury) and has played his classic set-up game. James had eight assists against Puerto Rico and finished the group stage with a total of 21 in three games. He also scored 10 points.
There was the second unit, the one that delivered the knockout blow. The Americans trailed by as many as eight points in the second quarter when the second unit took the court Saturday. When they left the field about eight minutes later, the lead had been reversed and was now five points. For the third straight game, their first-half turnaround changed the course of the game.
It was Anthony Davis, Derrick White and Bam Adebayo who combined with Durant and Edwards on this day and that group is simply exhausting on the international stage. Their collective ball pressure, rim defense and rebounding were too much for Puerto Rico to handle. No one has done it yet.
Team USA will be hoping these performances off the bench carry over into the next week, as they form the foundation of their game plan. But there were other projects afoot, too. Saturday was clearly a day for Joel Embiid to gain momentum. After struggling in the opener against Serbia and then falling behind against South Sudan, Embiid had a size advantage and his teammates wanted to make sure he got some touches.
The result was arguably his best game of the Olympics, as he scored 15 points and two blocks. He enjoyed interacting with the French crowd, who booed him again for choosing to play for Team USA, something Embiid encouraged.
Jayson Tatum, who spent his first Olympic game on the bench in a high-profile decision, started his second straight game and played strong with 10 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.
Puerto Rico was led by New Orleans Pelicans guard José Alvarado with 18 points.
