Team USA upset again, loses to Australia in Olympic exhibition game

Things are not going well for Team USA basketball. It’s been three days and the U.S. has been upset twice. Just a few days after losing to Nigeria in one of the biggest upsets in men’s international basketball play, Team USA has now lost to Australia, 91-83 on Monday night in Las Vegas. This tweet from Team USA basketball says it all. DELLY!

This U.S. roster isn’t as stacked as it could be. With that said, it doesn’t really matter. Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, Jayson Tatum, Zach LaVine, Bam Adebayo. You’d think having like, one of those guys, would be plenty to get past Australia and Nigeria in tune-up games. That isn’t the case it seems. This Team USA has a lot of “soul searching” to do before the actual games get going.

The funny thing is, this upset isn’t nearly as bad as the Nigeria one. The Australia team has a few names in Joe Ingles, Patty Mills, Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova. They also have Sixers defensive stopper Matisse Thybulle and G Dante Exum. Mills led the Aussies in scoring with 22 points while Ingles chipped in 17.

As for the U.S., Lillard had 22 points in the game while Durant added 17. Beal, Lillard and KD all played over 28 minutes, so it isn’t like coach Gregg Popovich was being liberal with his rotations or something. So this is a bit concerning for Team USA, which will enter Olympic play as a large favorite to win the gold medal (regardless of how these exhibition games are going). U.S. was a 17.5 point favorite to win this game against Australia.