September 13, 2018 11:13 AM EEST
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Up until Wednesday night, life in Rio was pretty good for players on the U. Cheap New York Rangers Jerseys .S. mens basketball team.They stayed on a luxury ship, and cruised past a couple of badly outmatched opponents. They played tourist at the Christ the Redeemer statue, and went on a field trip to watch Michael Phelps win yet another gold medal.Then an Australian team with a little pedigree of its own served notice that maybe the Olympic gold medal isnt such a foregone conclusion after all.Banged about and taken out of their game, the U.S. had to rally in the fourth quarter to salvage a 98-88 win that was even closer than the score indicated. Sheer talent -- and some timely 3s from Carmelo Anthony -- saved the Americans, but the Boomers from Down Under exposed some weaknesses even if they were not able to get the final job done.The look afterward of relief on the faces of some U.S. players told the story as well as anything.It got real, Paul George said. It definitely got real.This was supposed to be another romp in the park for the collection of NBA stars that is the U.S. Olympic team. Australia is good -- starting five NBA players of its own -- but no one expected it to be terribly close.That included the bookies in Las Vegas, who installed the U.S. team as a 27.5 point favorite after two laughers to open the tournament.What the bookies didnt realize was this wasnt just another opponent that was going to be intimidated. This was an Australian team plenty confident in its own abilities, a team that has played together in various incarnations for years.They battled for rebounds, fought over loose balls. They played hard and they played physical, refusing to give any possession away.Mostly, though, they played like they belonged on the same court as the U.S. players.I think its the Australian culture, said Joe Ingles, whose day job is playing for the Utah Jazz. Were not afraid of anyone. Were not going to back down to anyone. Were going to play the same way if its the top team or a low-ranked team.Andrew Bogut had warned his teammates before the game not to fall into the trap of paying too much respect to the Americans. Thats hard for most teams to keep from doing, even though the U.S. is full of new players and missing past Olympians like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.Once things got physical, though, it was anyones game. The Australians led by five at half, and still clung to a 2-point lead early in the fourth quarter before Anthony and Kyrie Irving combined to turn the tide.He was special tonight, George said of Anthony, the four-time Olympian who scored 31 points. Hes the reason we won tonight.The U.S. wouldnt have been eliminated had it somehow lost, but there is a certain pride factor when it comes to U.S. Olympic basketball teams. Theyve won two gold medals and 19 Olympic games in a row after the culture of the program was changed by USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo in the wake of the Olympic debacle of 2004 and the loss in the 2006 World Championships.Colangelo was watching courtside as the team he built on the theory that chemistry is just as important as talent struggled to contain Australia defensively and was taken out of its offensive flow by the aggressive play of the Australians.There were only two possible scenarios after the first half tonight, Colangelo said. One is the streak is over. The second is that theyre not invincible because we had a close game.Thanks to Anthony and Irving, who combined for all but the last 2 points of the fourth quarter for the Americans, the second scenario was the one that played out. Afterward, almost everyone connected to the U.S. program tried to take a positive out of it, saying a close game will prove good for the team as it chases the gold.Its pretty obvious why its good for us, said coach Mike Krzyzewski, who screamed at an official after Boguts hard foul on Irving in the third quarter. You beat one of the best teams in the tournament. You beat a team thats going to vie for a gold medal. You beat a team that was undefeated and has played together for years, a really good basketball team so I dont know how that could not be good for us.It was good for Australia, too, though the Boomers had to wonder if anyone can beat the U.S. after just falling short in their best effort.Asked if the Americans could be beaten, longtime NBA player and assistant Australian coach Luc Longley didnt exactly offer a lot of hope.Not tonight, he said. We rolled all our dice tonight and couldnt beat them.----Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. 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LOUIS -- St. Pakistan 8 for 97 (Sarfraz 31*, Hazlewood 3-19, Starc 3-45, Bird 2-7) trail Australia 429 (Smith 130, Handscomb 105, Renshaw 71, Wahab 4-89, Amir 4-97) by 332 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAustralia and Pakistan on night two in Brisbane resembled nothing so much as Australia and most of the rest of the world during the great recession of 2008. Having planned and saved soundly in the good times on a slower day one pitch, the hosts were able to absorb the shock of tougher batting conditions, helped by a Peter Handscomb stimulus package.Pakistan had no such safety net, and when the crash came under the Gabba lights against the wobbling pink ball, they went swiftly into free fall. The visiting batsmen jutted their bats out at the bad real estate offered by Australias canny bowlers like so many reckless traders, and were left observing the ruins of their first innings like former employees of Lehman Brothers.The main reason for the days violent swerve from 1 for 43 to 8 for 67 was the quickening of the surface, which clearly did not need a single millimetre more grass than the two the curator Kevin Mitchell Jnr. left on it. One wonders how swiftly the match might have moved with the 6mm preferred by Adelaides groundsman Damian Hough.Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Jackson Bird had far too much speed, accuracy and movement for Pakistans batsmen, cowed as they already had been on slower, seamier pitches in New Zealand. Of the tourists only Sami Aslam gave any indication of permanence, and even that was of the painful, white-knuckle kind as he wore two blows on the helmet before glancing Bird into Matthew Wades gloves.Handscombs chanceless century, in only his second Test, ensured that the quality spells bowled by Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz did not result in a similar level of mayhem. Amirs figures were his best since returning to the Pakistan side, but he was unable to dislodge Handscomb, who showed patience beyond his years and deep trust in his way of batting. Gleefully, he leapt from 91 to 101 with a powerful six off Yasir Shah then a delectable square drive off Amir. Bird and Nathan Lyon bolstered Australias total with a pesky stand of 49 - runs measured in value through the deepening furrow in Misbah-ul-Haqs brow.Steven Smith and Handscomb had begun intent on a long occupation, but the captain appeared to decide it was time to go on the attack after the fourth wicket stand went beyond 170 runs. First he tried to deposit Yasir into the Gabba stands only for Amir to drop a swirling chhance, then flayed at Wahab to end an equal parts fine and fortunate innings. Cheap Colorado Avalanche Jerseys. Nic Maddinson was not confronted by floodlights and a swinging ball, but the extra pace off the pitch did appear to trouble him against both spin and pace before he was unable to withdraw his bat from Wahab in time - having already been turfed at short leg off Yasir. Wade and Starc both offered up catches to the slips off the persistent Amir before Handscomb was able to reach three figures, doing so with an exultant yell and matching fist pump.Despite the late flurry from Bird and Lyon, Pakistans openers did have the advantage of starting in daylight. Starc gained some early swing, but it was a ball angled across with bounce that found the edge of Azhar Alis bat - expertly snaffled by Usman Khawaja. For a little more than 15 overs, the resolute Sami and a seemingly composed Babar Azam held the Australians at bay, even as the lights took effect.It was clear they stuck around longer than the hosts preferred, as evidenced by Starcs ever more prominent snarling in Samis direction. But it was to be Hazlewood who signalled the start of the downturn by tempting Babar with a delivery just wide enough to drive, and just short enough to make it risky. The resultant edge was well held by Smith, turning his body, and next ball Wade had a far simpler task to collect a thinner edge from a fencing Younis Khan.Though Misbah survived the hat-trick, he seemed mesmerised by the bouncing, seaming ball, and it was no surprise when his searching bat succeeded only in edging low to Matt Renshaw at first slip. By now the Gabba had taken on full Colosseum mode, as near enough to 25,000 spectators willed further edges into the Australian cordon.They got them too, as Asad Shafiq and Yasir offered further catches to Khawaja, either side of a return catch from Wahab and a forlorn touch down the leg side by Sami. His determination to keep his bat from harm had been the closest any Pakistani came to a workable method in such bouncy conditions.Late in the piece, Sarfraz Ahmed and Amir managed to hang around until stumps while inching the total towards three figures - the former was reprieved when Wade failed to glove a stumping chance off Lyon. 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