With eight seconds left, LeBron James made a driving layup that gave the United States team a chance to go home without a threaded dignity.
“I did not do a great job preparing our team, I think we did not focus enough on what they’re capable of and that’s on me,” Team USA coach Steve Kerr said.
“They played a wonderful game and the ending was good for us just to feel that. To feel what it’s going to be like in Paris and Lille … a good reminder that when we play against teams, it’s the biggest game of their lives and we have to expect everyone to play like that.”
Former Charlotte Hornets forward JT Thor had made a 3-pointer with 20 seconds remaining and South Sudan had three attempts in the final seconds, but they could not win it.
At one point, South Sudan was up by 16 points. They were ready to push the biggest upset in history before Team USA narrowly won it.
James scored 25 points and made a string of tremendous plays in a 23-5 run from late in the third quarter to early in the fourth. A power dunk that led to a three-point play and a 3-pointer was critical.
“Don’t take nothing away from South Sudan,” James said. “They played extremely good basketball and that’s why the game is won in between the lines and not all on paper.”
Steph Curry made two clutch 3-pointers, helping end a stretch of Team USA missing 14 of 15 3-pointers that contributed to the deficit, in the run.
“We can be beat if we don’t play our brand of basketball. And our brand of basketball is playing defense,” said Curry, who had 12 points.
“We didn’t make them uncomfortable at all the first half and they took advantage of it. But we also learned we have that gear if we can find it, no matter who’s out there on the court, we can overwhelm teams for 40 minutes and it’s a great reminder of both.”
Joel Embiid played his best game for Team USA, with 14 points and seven rebounds.
“There is a tendency at times to let down; I think the fact that we played well against Serbia the other night, this was kind of a natural letdown game that you fear,” Kerr said.
“What we’ve learned with USA basketball is that the gap has closed … so it’s not a shock to see a team from South Sudan play really well and knock down 3s. The game has gotten better across the globe, but we still feel like we always control the outcome with our performance, and as good as every other team is now, we still feel like it’s up to us to determine the outcome based on our defense and our effort.”
