It was another great show of dominance for Team USA at the Paris Olympics. The team that nearly beat them in exhibitions, South Sudan, was picked apart in every way possible by Steve Kerr's schemes. A big part of this win were LeBron James and Bam Adebayo. While these two have consistently been churning out big numbers for the Stars and Stripes, one of them got an odd prediction from Brian Windhorst.
Bam Adebayo got the last laugh over Brian Windhorst. The renowned analyst and journalist argued that Steve Kerr could be going in the direction of a smaller lineup in their Olympics clash against South Sudan. In effect, there were some bizarre statements that came out of Windy. He outlined why he thought that the Miami Heat superstar was not going to get much playing time in his appearance in The Pat McAfee Show.
“South Sudan's got a bunch of athletic wing players. Tatum's gonna be out there. They're gonna be switching all of those screens because they gotta play the perimeter, and there may be a guy like Bam Adebayo that gets benched,” Brian Windhorst declared.
Adebayo clearly got minutes against South Sudan. In fact, Kerr and the Team USA coaching staff elected to have him on the floor for a longer amount of time even if it meant not having to use Joel Embiid at all. By the end of the 103-86 win over South Sudan, the Team USA center racked in a total of 18 points while only missing two out of his 10 shots. All of these helped him lead the NBA greats in scoring. Not to mention, he also grabbed seven rebounds to round out an insane performance at the Olympics.
After improving to 2-0, Adebayo quickly went on X, formerly Twitter, and made fun of Windhorst.
Bam Adebayo reflects on his Olympics contributions to Team USA
Steve Kerr entered this South Sudan matchup with a goal of keeping up with their opponent's tempo. He outlined that the goal was to have a more laterally swift lineup. This was to keep up with their foes, via Joe Vardon of The Athletic.
“This is the fastest team in the tournament that we’re going to play, and so we wanted to match up. The whole game today was going to be about switching. Staying in front of people, and not letting them break us down. We just went with a change in the lineup. That’s how we’re going to do this. Whatever we need to do to win each game, that’s what we’re going to do. And so for this game, it just felt like that was the lineup that made the most sense,” the Team USA coach said.
Adebayo appreciated this decision and was just happy to help out, “I just feel like Steve trusts us.”
Team USA has not failed so far in the Olympics and lapses have been quite minimal. All of these are good signs that they are about to take home yet another gold medal for the Stars and Stripes.
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