Butler, USA Win Warmup Against Argentina
USA Basketball unleashed their 2016 superteam for the first time in their first friendly leading up to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil, beating Argentina 111-74 in Las Vegas on Friday night.
The 2016 Death Star of basketball is operational. If you watched Team USA take on Argentina on Friday night, you would be forgiven if you didn’t notice that 10 or so of the best American players were not featured on the roster. Despite being without players like Steph Curry and LeBron James, Team USA still put on a clinic, running the 2004 gold medal winning Argentina right out of the T-Mobile Arena and Las Vegas.
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New Warrior Kevin Durant led the way for Team USA with 23 points, four rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal, but it was two Bulls that were in the spotlight after a big USA win.
Andres Nocioni, who played with the Bulls from the 2005-06 season when he came into the league until he was traded to the Sacramento Kings in the 2008-2009 season, led Argentina with 15 points, seven rebounds and an assist on 50 percent shooting on field goals and from 3-point range in the losing effort. He wasn’t the only member of the team that should be familiar. This lineup features the last of the “Golden Generation” for Argentina, a core of players that defied all and unseated Team USA by winning gold at the 2004 Olympics. Manu Ginobili and Luis Scola also featured for the Argentinian squad in prominent roles.
On the USA side it was current Bull Jimmy Butler that was garnering attention. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for his play on the court, which was not good. Rather, it was due to Butler tweaking an ankle. Fortunately, Sean Highkin of Bleacher Report and NBC Sports reported that Coach Mike Krzyzewski called the ankle tweak ‘minor’:
Despite the good news on the ankle, Butler didn’t look particularly great in the first live action for Team USA. His first couple of shots were forced, including one sequence where he failed to get any separation, dribbled around the perimeter and off a moving screen from Draymond Green only to chuck up a contested shot from the other side of the arc that barely caught the front of the rim. For the game, Butler shot just 1-for-6 with two points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal.
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This is just the first game of their series of friendlies to get in sync for the Brazil games in August and we can expect a lot more from Butler as long as his ankle cooperates. Team USA next travels to Los Angeles for a few days of training and another friendly on Sunday against China before making a trip to Chicago at the end of next week.
Edit: A prior version of this post mistakenly represented the date of the Team USA vs. China friendly as Monday, July 24. The game is scheduled for Sunday, July 24.