By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Kevin Durant dropped 23 points and became USA’s all-time scoring leader in the Olympic Games as he and his teammates crushed the Czech Republic 119 – 84 to secure a spot in the quarterfinals.
The Czech Republic dropped to 1-2 and was eliminated, while Germany already qualified as one of the best third-placed teams of the group phase.
Durant entered the game with 311 career points in the Olympics and passed Carmelo Anthony who’s had 336 points over four Olympic tournaments. The Brooklyn Nets superstar finished with also eight rebounds and six assists.
Jayson Tatum led USA in scoring with 24 points while Zach LaVine added 13 points in a duel with his Chicago Bulls teammate Tomas Satoransky. The latter had 12 points, eight assists, and six rebounds, Blake Schilb scored 17, and Ondrej Balvin posted 15 points for a Czech team that entered the game strongly but ended up getting routed in the second half.
The Czech team took a 10-point lead halfway through the first period and held an advantage until Durant drained the triple to put his team up 34 – 33. USA closed halftime ahead 47 – 43 and proceeded to dominate the third period to enter the final stretch with a 82 – 60 lead.
There was no turning back from that margin and USA continued pushing to make the game a blowout. Gregg Popovich’s players finished 20 out of 41 3-pointers while shooting with a ridiculous 81 percent (25-31) on their 2-point attempts.