After seemingly building up their chemistry and finding their footing against Nikola Jokic and the Serbian squad, Team USA was expected to enter their fourth matchup in the USA Basketball Showdown and dominate South Sudan.
Team USA beat the Serbian national team by nearly 30 points, thanks to LeBron James and Steph Cury. With this, many are expecting the American team to come into the matchup with South Sudan and have an easy game.
The American national team got off to a 12-2 start to open the game. However, they ended up going into halftime trailing by 14 points and turning the ball over more than they dished out assists in the second quarter.
Thanks to a major second-half showing by James, who finished with 26 points, Team USA was able to storm back into the game in the third quarter. This team even took the lead thanks to an extremely deep three from Curry, which initially took the wind out of South Sudan’s sails.
While fans and even the broadcast assumed that Team USA would pull away in the fourth quarter, the South Sudanese squad matched them blow for blow. They came within a couple of points of pulling off the upset, with JT Thor drilling a clutch step-back three with 20 seconds remaining in the game to take a one-point lead.