The Oklahoma City Thunder small forward led the game in scoring with 33 points after a sluggish first half by the U.S. team.
The U.S. opened the game missing 17 of their first 25 shots, getting beat defensively and in rebounding, trailing for most of the first half. However, the score going into halftime was 44–39 U.S.
A turning point in the game came in the third quarter when another Oklahoma player, Russell Westbrook, dunked after a turnover, then stuck a 3-pointer, made a steal, and then delivered another dunk.
The surge helped move the U.S. ahead 65–50 after being up by just five points minutes earlier. It was all Durant after that.
“I think some of us, we kind of started off a little slow and then didn’t jump on them early, and tonight that was a big problem for us,” Westbrook said. “Then second half, we kind of got into our rhythm.”
Westbrook finished the night with 12 points and Denver Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups scored 15.
Defeat is not an impossibility for the star U.S. team though as they face a semifinal newby Lithuania, who beat Argentina 104–85 on Thursday.
The United States was a basket away for blowing it in the preliminary round with a 70–68 nail-biter against Brazil on Aug. 30.
Still, the closest game after that was a 22-point win over Slovenia on Aug. 29; the biggest mauling in all seven U.S. wins came against Angola 121–66 on Sept. 1 in the Eight-Finals.
The United Ststes leads the world in overall world championship medals with 10—three gold, three silver, and four bronze—followed by Yugoslavia (8) and the former Soviet Union (8).
Team USA’s last medal was in the 2006 World Championship in Saitama, Japan, where the United States took bronze after a 96–81 defeat of Argentina. The last gold for the United States was way back in 1994 against Russia.
This year’s tournament began on Aug. 28 with the gold medal game being played on Sunday, Sept. 12, in Istanbul, Turkey.
With Turkey already making it to the semifinals against Serbia on Saturday it could turn out to be a great tourney for the host nation, who has never won a medal.
