Pitchin with Pritch: NBA championships and then Olympics
There’s still some basketball going with the NBA in their championship series and the start of the Olympic pool play.
A number of teams have NBA players on their roster and the USA team is all NBA players.
The USA team is led by guys like Kevin Durant and the other 11 are good players as well.
Durant has never before played in a loss for USA Basketball in 39 senior international games.
The USA’s first game was with Nigeria and the USA was favored as they have been in almost all Olympic games played and even more of a favorite since the professional players have been allowed to participate.
Well, sure enough, Nigeria upset the USA 90-87 in each team’s first game. Nigeria pulled off an international shocker with a roster filled with little-known NBA players defeating a full squad of NBA players on the USA team and most of them were All-Star and Max-contract performers to boot.
One of Nigeria’s players, Gabe Nnamdi, who goes by Gabe Vincent when playing for the Miami Heat, was quoted as saying “We just wanted to compete.
“We know what USA basketball means around the world and what they’ve stood for so long.”
The USA has only lost 11 games before the Nigeria loss.
The NBA players first started playing in the Olympics in 1992. Nigeria lost to the USA team in the 2012 Olympics by 83 points and then again four years later by 44 points.
This is the first time that the USA team has lost to an African opponent.
The set-up in the Olympic games in basketball is that the teams are divided into groups of four for pool play and then the top two teams plus the four best third place teams go to the next round.
The USA’s next game will be with Australia.
NBA Championship
The other games being played were the NBA Championship series between the Suns and the Bucks. The Suns won the first two games on their court and did it pretty easily.
A lot of the sports people started hinting about a sweep and after those first games, I could believe that happening. But like a lot of teams, there is no place like home.
The Bucks got back to their home court last Sunday night and they pretty much eclipsed the Suns, winning 120-100.
There was some outstanding shooting and a lot of pretty good defensive things, even though the score had both teams in triple digits.
AGiannis Antelokounmpo for the Bucks had 40-plus points again that helps a bunch. (Try spelling Antelokounmpo with spell check!) He has had two games in a row with 40 or more points and double digit rebounds.