Carmelo Anthony Passes Michael Jordan on USA Olympic Scoring List

In my last article I said that Australia would provide Team USA with their toughest competition in pool play, but I did not think that Australia would push the US until the final minutes. In fact, Australia led at halftime 54-49.

Anthony, a four-time Olympian and the Team USA leader, finished with a game-high 31 points to leapfrog David Robinson and LeBron James on the list of all-time leading scorers at the Olympics among American players. They have never won a medal, but four of their players own National Basketball Association rings, and with smart passing and strong rebounding, almost became the first team to knock off the Americans in the Olympics since 2004.

Most athletes don’t have an opportunity to say that they won a gold medal, better yet three gold medals. The game progressed into a very physical contest, with Australian Center Andrew Bogut adept at playing the villain. But as the game went on, two American superstars put it on to take the win.

But no other US players had much going, with Durant going 2 for 10 in the first half and Irving 2 for 7. Zhou Qi got China within one point at 64-63 with 1:22 remaining, but the Chinese team would not score again and Nestor Colmenares drained a floater with 15.8 to play to ice the game for Venezuela. After a particularly hard foul in front of the United States bench, the normally subdued head coach of Team USA, Mike Krzyzewski shot up and yelled in the refs face. The U.S. actually shot better on threes (17-of-39, 44 percent) than twos (17-of-48, 35 percent) in the game.

Anthony’s 31-point eruption against Australia was both fitting and necessary. Aside from being the highest scorer in the match, The New York Knicks star Anthony also saved the whole U.S. team from an upset this Summer Olympics. Anthony scored to tie it, hit a 3-pointer to give the Americans the lead for good, and then hit a couple more 3s that pushed it to 83-76. On the Australia vs. United States of America basketball game night, he scored 30 points. Taurasi had five 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes, equaling her Olympic team record. He then captured back-to-back gold medals during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 Olympics in London.

The U.S. men’s basketball team follows up its first real test in the 2016 Olympics with a matchup against Serbia on Friday.

With five National Basketball Association players in their lineup, Australia refused to be intimidated by the mighty Americans, who have won gold medals at 14 of the 17 Olympics they have participated in, including the last two.