Team USA basketball rolled to a dominating 122-87 win over Brazil in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, in a game that saw Joel Embiid put up a big first-half effort and Kevin Durant make a bit of history.
The victory set the stage for the Americans to face Serbia in the semifinals on Thursday.
Embiid, who has faced criticism for his Olympic performance thus far, finished the night with 14 points — all of which came in the first half — and embraced the villain role that has been bestowed on him by the boos from the French crowd during this year’s games.
Team USA superstar LeBron James had 12 points and Devin Booker finished the night with a team-leading 18.
All 12 players on the American roster recorded points in the seemingly effortless performance against Brazil, who had jumped to an early 4-2 lead in the first quarter before the US put up a quick seven points to go in front.
After that, Team USA never looked back.
United States ended the first half on a 16-0 run, which concluded with a no-look ally oop pass from James to Tatum, that sent the Americans into the locker room with a commanding 63-36 lead over Brazil.
From there Team USA continued to pad their lead, shooting nearly 60 percent from the field and nearly 50 percent from 3-point range through all four quarters on Tuesday.
Durant surpassed American women’s basketball star Lisa Leslie for the all-time scoring record in Team USA Basketball Olympic history with a slam dunk with just over three minutes to play in the third quarter.
Durant finished with 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
James left the victory late in the third quarter after he appeared to be poked in the eye.
He went to the team bench and eventually to the locker room, but returned to the bench late in the fourth quarter to see the completion of the game.
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