LeBron James Big 4th Quarter Helps Americans Squeak Past Lithuania.
Saturday morning, Lithuania gave the rest of the Olympic men’s basketball tournament hope by showing the vulnerability of Team USA’s poor play. Fresh from their historic Thursday 83-point blowout win over Nigeria, the American’s were back on the court to continue “invincibility”; but unlike the rest of the world, Lithuania thought otherwise. In the first three games of play in this tournament, Team USA’s won by an average of 52 points; but in this one they would only win by 5.
The story of today’s game was their poor free-throw shooting displayed by the American’s as they went 19-31 from the stripe as well as poor shooting from the floor with the exception of Carmelo Anthony. In the middle of the 4th, they would find themselves in an awkward position as Lithuania would take a 82-80 lead led by the high point man, Linas Kleiza. LeBron James would immediately go on a tear as he scored 9 of his 20 points in the last 4 minutes of the game giving U.S. the victory in this nail-bitter. LeBron & Melo both finished the game with 20 points each being the only players on the team to shoot above 50%. After the game, Coach Mike Krzyzewski stated in the second half, his team played zone defense and minimized fast break opportunities from Lithuania showed in their previous 3 games. The Americans now improve to a perfect 4-0 record in pool play.
Their next game is scheduled for Monday against Argentina at 5:15pm ET on NBC Sports.
OS REWIND: U.S. Men’s Basketball Blows Out Nigeria 156-73 In Record Setting Victory