Team USA: 'It was a win-or-go-home' / News - Basketnews.com

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After defeating World champions Spain and advancing to Tokyo Olympics semifinals, the USA acknowledged the importance of the game and the strength of their opponent.

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"It was a wonderful game in the sense that we feel absolutely great about the victory, knowing full well there's a lot of work to be done. Spain are a terrific basketball team, with an amazing coach Sergio Scariolo, one of the finest in the world. The way his team executes is just remarkable to me, it's very impressive the way they play under his tutelage. To go down by 9 or 10, whatever it was, and stay in it, and find a way to actually win - it's very satisfying," said USA head coach Gregg Popovich after the game. "But I got to give them a great deal of credit for what they do, and what they've done for many many years. Unbelievable organization, and my 'hats off' to them."

Jayson Tatum, who scored 13 points for Team USA, reflected on how close this quarter-finals matchup was.

"We knew what was at stake, and that they knew it as well. It was a win-or-go-home. We knew it wasn't going to be easy because they are a really good team, well-coached team. It was a great game, and a dog fight, but we expected it."

In a post-game video conference organized by the USA Basketball, Kevin Durant explained what it took to come back from being down by 11 in the first half: "We just had to slow it down and get to our stuff. I think defensively we ramped up the intensity and were able to get some stops, which put us at ease on the offensive side. We moved the ball and took the shots that we normally take and they happened to go in during the second half. We know it’s a game of runs and they made a few, we made a few and we were able to withstand their punch and keep it going.”

Player of the Game EFF 27 Kevin Durant Points 29 Accuracy 10-17 Rebounds 2 Assists 4

KD praised his teammates who didn't need a lot of guidance from him: “It’s basketball at the end of the day. These dudes are high IQ players. It might be a different setting, rules may change as far as, you can sit in the lane, but we all played in college, we all played in high school so we understand how that’s like. All of us have years under our belts and we played in different systems, so we’re all at the same level.”

He was also asked if he felt like these Olympics were more competitive compared to previous years: “No, I remember in 2012 we had some tight games. I had 30 in the gold medal game against Spain. It was a tight game all the way to the end, I think we won by single digits. I mean, we didn’t win every game by 30 in 2012. We played Lithuania and it was a tight game. We played Serbia in 2016 and they had a chance to tie it up at the end of regulation when they had an open three. So you’re going to have games where it’s going to be tight. We understand that and today it was good that we pulled away. But we’re not expecting to come out here and beat everybody by 30.”

The all-time leading scorer in Team USA history said that they the Americans were not thinking about the gold medal game yet: “Obviously, we know the situation we’re in, but we’re trying to take it a day at a time and realize that this is a part of the process. Just get focused for the next day at practice and the preparation for the next team we play. We’re not trying to look too far to the end goal, we’re just trying to focus on today."

Durant finished by praising Gregg Popovich and the entire coaching staff: "The best thing about our coaching staff is that we all have an open dialogue on what needs to happen. They listen to us and we listen to them, so it’s been a great relationship this far. We have a lot of coaches who know how to deal with this caliber of players. They’re letting us be who we are and when the time is right, they speak up and they hold us accountable, which is only going to make us better. I feel like we’re a real team at this point, but guys are still growing."

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