Team USA Needed LeBron Heroics And A Miss At The Buzzer To Beat South Sudan

After a 3-0 start to their exhibition slate with solid wins over Canada, Australia, and Serbia, the USA men’s basketball team looked the part of a gold medal favorite. While there were things to clean up, they were never in significant danger late in any of their games thus far, and few expected that to be the case against South Sudan on Saturday night in London, where the Americans were 43.5-point favorites.

However, they got punched in the mouth early as South Sudan came out bombing away from three, taking a 14-point halftime lead that served as quite the wakeup call for the Americans. LeBron James and Stephen Curry led the way for a third quarter barrage that gave Team USA a 5-point lead going into the fourth. At that point, it seemed the American squad had woken from its slumber and would cruise to a win, but Carlik Jones, Marial Shayok, and JT Thor would not let South Sudan fall apart. They kept their side in the game, clearing the way for a late flurry as Shayok hit back-to-back buckets to cut the USA lead to 99-97, before Thor drilled a corner three with 20 seconds to go to give South Sudan the lead again for the first time all fourth quarter.

Team USA turned to James for their final possession, putting the ball in the future Hall of Famer’s hands as he barreled to the rim for a layup to put the Americans back on top.

On South Sudan’s final possession, Jones shook free of Jrue Holiday and had a good look at a runner, but put it too strong off the glass and a putback dunk attempt went begging to prevent a shocking upset.

LeBron finished with a team-high 23 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists, while Curry added 12 points, Anthony Davis chipped in 15 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, and Joel Embiid had 14 points and 7 rebounds. The three-point shot betrayed Team USA in this one, as they went 7-for-28 as a team, while South Sudan buried 14-of-33 from beyond the arc to put the Americans under serious pressure. Shayok finished with 25 points, while Jones had a 15/11/11 triple double, and Thor added 14 points off the bench. It was nearly the biggest win in South Sudan’s basketball history, exhibition or not, and they’ll get another crack at Team USA in group play at the Olympics in a couple weeks.

Team USA will have one more tuneup game in London against Germany on Monday before Olympic group play starts on July 28 against Serbia. They’ll face this same South Sudan side on July 31, and will need to be more locked in for that game if they’re to avoid another scare in Paris.