Devin Booker, Team USA continue exhibition tour with win over Australia

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker had another solid performance in the Team USA Showcase exhibition tour ahead of the Olympics, scoring 16 points in a 98-92 win over Australia on Monday in Abu Dhabi.

Booker moved to the bench in an expected move by head coach Steve Kerr, who said he will mix and match lineups over the exhibitions. Team USA plays a second game in Abu Dhbai on Wednesday and two in three days in London before departing for Paris, which will likely include some players like Joel Embiid and LeBron James getting at least one of those games off.

Booker’s most impactful sequence came in the early third quarter when two buckets, a steal and an assist contributed to an 11-2 run that extended the Americans’ lead to 23.

That's toughhhhh, Book 😤

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— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) July 15, 2024

The largest task for Kerr and anyone in his seat remains how to balance lineups on the floor and also egos. Booker surely won’t care about when his minutes come and won’t let that affect his play, either, so that’s a luxury for Kerr off the bench. At the same time, Booker has proven fully capable of playing as a complementary piece off star power, which is what the younger players will have to do on this squad given it is led by Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Stephen Curry.

Perhaps that will be a role James and Curry are cool with playing in their own right, which is when it will help for them to be flanked by Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum. Edwards heated up early with 11 points in his first shift and this was a very good game out of Tatum to apply rim pressure that triggered Team USA’s ball movement.

The United States cleaned up the turnover problems from the Canada win until the third quarter when it committed seven turnovers in under four minutes of play. All of these guys want to move the ball and know that is the key to success, so there are going to be patches when the giveaways stack up given how low the familiarity is.

This got Australia comfortable and it used that rhythm to cut the deficit all the way down to six with just over five minutes to go. That’s when some antsy energy can take control of the game, a natural response for an American group that is never supposed to lose. Tyrese Haliburton knocked down back-to-back 3s to quell any further concern.

The first of those was set up by a great Booker cut.

BALL MOVEMENT » CORNER 3

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— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 15, 2024

He later grabbed an offensive rebound and calmly reset the possession before hitting a middy that essentially iced the game.

Got 'em.

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— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 15, 2024

Anthony Davis was awesome for the second straight game on this tour, posting 17 points, 14 rebounds, an assist, steal and two blocks in 18 minutes. He is the leader in the clubhouse for the “Olympic Melo” role as the hyper-talented Team USA player able to completely dominate just as much despite a far lower usage through play that seems to thrive in a FIBA setting. Carmelo Anthony was a tremendous sparkplug over the years and Davis in that spot would be quite dynamic.

Like the opener for the showcase tour in Las Vegas, this one did not include Suns forward Kevin Durant due to his calf injury. The Americans have stated he should be fine for the start of the Olympics in late July but ESPN’s Brian Windhorst noted in his story from Abu Dhabi that Kerr pushed back Durant’s timeline on Saturday. Managing director Grant Hill said in Las Vegas that they expected Durant to play on either Monday or Wednesday.

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