The United States men's basketball team narrowly defeated the Germany men's basketball team 92-88, ending the Olympic warm-up journey with a record of five wins. Looking back at these five warm-up games, the United States men's basketball team only won by 10.2 points per game, and three of them were even in danger of losing. CBS has begun to worry about not winning the gold medal, and Durant's rhetoric about winning opponents by 40-50 points per game may be difficult to fulfill.

What's the problem with only 10.2 points per game?

Let's take a look at the scores of the 5 warm-up games of the United States men's basketball team: United States men's basketball 86-72 Canada men's basketball, United States men's basketball 98-92 Australia men's basketball, United States men's basketball 105-79 Serbia men's basketball, United States men's basketball 101-100 South Sudan men's basketball, United States men's basketball 92-88 Germany men's basketball.

They beat Canada by 14 points and Serbia by 26 points, with just 11 points winning their remaining three games. An important issue is the consistency of their defense, and while the international game is eight minutes less than the NBA game, it now seems that the star-studded United States men's basketball team will struggle to lock up the opponent throughout the game.

In the game against Germany, for example, although the United States men's basketball team has the height and athleticism, their defensive performance is not good enough, the Germany men's basketball team scored 30 points in the third quarter, the team used five outside tactics, and opened up space to create problems for the United States team.

In the other two narrowly won games, the United States men's basketball team also had times when the defense was powered off. 1 point narrowly beat South Sudan, the United States men's basketball team lost 32 points in the second quarter; In the 6-point win over Australia, the United States men's basketball team conceded a whopping 68 points inside.

In addition to defensive inconsistency, the United States men's basketball team also has some problems on the offensive end. For example, there are too few three-point shots and too many turnovers. Against the Germany men's basketball team, the United States scored seven fewer three-pointers than Germany, and they only made 17 three-point attempts as a team, while Curry alone had at least 17 three-pointers in six games with the Warriors last season. This is a mathematical problem, as strong as the United States men's basketball team, but also needs to enrich the play and open up space through three-point shooting.

As for the number of turnovers, the United States men's basketball team had more mistakes in three of its five warm-up games, one was tied with the opponent, and only the game against South Sudan had fewer mistakes than the opponent. After all, this is a team that has not been formed for a long time, and the tacit understanding between the stars still needs to be cultivated. In this game against Germany, the United States men's basketball team had 14 turnovers, and Germany only had seven. In the third quarter of the game, the United States men's basketball team had five turnovers in four minutes.

Durant's absence is an offensive hazard

One of the common denominators of the five warm-up games is that Durant is out due to injury. It is still unclear whether he will be able to play in the opening match of the Olympic Games. His long-term absence has created a hidden danger on the offensive end for the United States men's basketball team.

James is the only player on the team to score at least 20 points in the past two games, and if it weren't for James' performance in key moments, the United States men's basketball team could enter the Olympics with two consecutive losses in warm-up games.

Durant said he feels he is a well-rounded player who can play any position, and where the United States men's basketball team needs the Olympic men's all-time scoring leader (435 points) the most, is to score points. Speaking about Durant, James said: "He's going to give us more firepower, more leadership, and we're looking forward to his return." We're already strong, and he's going to make us stronger. ”

According to the NBA's official website, Durant only participated in two training sessions after the United States team left Las Vegas. Since the start of training camp, he hasn't sweated as much in training as Leonard (who has since retired from the Olympics). However, as long as Durant can play, he will be a scoring weapon in the Olympic arena. If Durant can return to the court, it can also relieve the pressure on James, who is almost 40 years old.

Winning an average of 40-50 points per game is unlikely to be achieved

When Durant talked about the Olympics in March, he made some heated remarks. At that time, he said that if he wanted to show the dominance of the United States men's basketball team, he had to win by 40-50 points in a game. Judging from the state of the warm-up, such a wild victory may be difficult to achieve.

On the one hand, the opponent's strength and state are not as bad as Durant imagined, and even South Sudan, which is far below the world ranking of United States, can lead the United States team by a large score in the warm-up game, and only lose by 1 point in the end. On the other hand, Durant himself has not been able to play, which has also affected the offensive firepower of the United States men's basketball team, although the team is star-studded, but the offensive and defensive state has not yet reached the best.

The United States men's basketball team's only goal is to win gold, but can they easily achieve it? The results of the warm-up matches were worrying. Wade and Anthony talk about the United States and agree that "[winning the championship] is not that simple." They raised the question that the United States men's basketball team is indeed star-studded and star-studded, so who will play the role players?

"I've seen LeBron, Stephen, Durant, and the list is still long," Wade said, "but I think it's a team and I know what the team has to do." Wade emphasized that a significant reason for the United States men's basketball team's past several successful Olympic journeys is that they have a balanced mix of star and role players. At the 2008 Olympics, the United States men's basketball team boasted Michael Reid and Tyshawn Prince, who were not household names but played vital roles.

Are you optimistic that the United States men's basketball team will finally win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics? Will their strengths be as obvious as Durant said? Feel free to leave a message to express your opinions.