MANILA, Philippines – The U.S. men’s basketball team opened its mission for a third straight Olympic gold medal in Rio with a dominant 111-74 exhibition game victory over Argentina on Friday, July 22 (Saturday, Manila time) at the T-Mobile Arena.
New Golden State Warrior Kevin Durant led the national team in scoring with 23 points while Paul George added 18 points. Carmelo Anthony also scored 17 points, and DeMarcus Cousins provided 14 points plus 15 rebounds.
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This is the first of 5 exhibition games for USA, which will also take on China twice and then face Venezuela and Nigeria before competing in the Rio Olympics.
Argentina was led by the 15 points of former NBA player Andres Nocioni. San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili added 11 points.
It was also the first game where Durant played with his new Warriors teammates Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. Durant and Anthony are the only players in this year’s USA roster who were part of the team’s gold-medal winning squad in 2012. – Rappler.com