The United States men's basketball team played a warm-up game against the Germany men's basketball team today, and they narrowly defeated the Germany men's basketball team 92-88. Durant still did not appear in this game, which also means that Durant can only return in the main Olympic game, because the United States team has finished their entire warm-up schedule. Kerr has also basically confirmed their rotation lineup through this game, and Durant may occupy a starting spot after his return.
It is worth noting that there was one player who did not get playing time in today's game, and that was Haliburton, who had a sluggish performance against South Sudan in their last game. Haliburton played seven minutes without scoring a point against South Sudan in his last game, grabbing just one rebound. In this game against Germany, he was dropped by Kohl.
In fact, it is very understandable that Haliburton was abandoned by Kerr on the one hand because every player in the United States men's basketball team has very strong individual ability, but a game needs to reasonably allocate the playing time of players, Kerr can not expand the rotation too much, need to keep stronger players more on the court, so it is bound to compress the playing time of many players, and Haliburton may be the one who was sacrificed.
Another reason is that Haliburton is not suitable for the Olympics, because Haliburton's style of play is not very confrontational and he is not particularly good at the defensive end. In addition, Haliburton does not have a strong desire to attack on the offensive end, preferring to organize tandem balls on the court, but the United States men's basketball team already has multiple organization points on the court, if he does not attack on the court, then it is indeed not much help for the United States men's basketball team.
So you'll find that Haliburton's playing time has been replaced by White. White is more defensively capable than Haliburton, and his style of play is simpler and clearer, that is, he resolutely shoots three-pointers after getting open spots on the outside, which is the main reason why Kerr likes to use White. White doesn't have any possession, and Haliburton doesn't have the ball, so he can't play to his advantage.
Through the last two warm-up games, it seems that it is still difficult for the United States men's basketball team to win gold at this year's Olympic Games, and if James did not turn the tide at the last moment, the Germany team would have a great chance to beat the United States men's basketball team today. So there are a lot of contingencies in a win-or-lose competition like the Olympics. Let's look forward to seeing what the United States men's basketball team will do in the main draw of the Olympics.