Through four games at the Paris Olympics, it feels like the U.S. men's basketball team has hardly broken a sweat. Tuesday's quarterfinal against Brazil might have been the most effortless win yet, as Devin Booker (18 points) led six scorers in double-figures and Team USA led by 27 at halftime in a 122-87 win that never felt in doubt even for a moment.
LeBron James added 12 points and nine assists on 5-of-6 shooting, while Joel Embiid enjoyed a bounce-back game with 14 points and seven rebounds in just 12 minutes of work. Even for a team that sometimes seems to exist to be nitpicked, it's tough to poke holes: The U.S. was flying around from the opening tip and never slowed down, shooting 58% from the field and 48% from 3 while holding Brazil — which came in leading the Olympics in 3-point shooting — to just 12-of-37 (32%) from beyond the arc.
Of course, when you're gunning for your fifth straight gold medal, satisfaction only lasts until the next game. And the competition will only get tougher as this tournament reaches its final four: Next up for the U.S. will be a semifinal rematch with Nikola Jokic and Serbia, which held off Australia in an OT thriller earlier on Tuesday.
Here's everything else you need to know from a near-perfect night in Paris.
U.S. 122, Brazil 87: Full recap and key takeaways
Start fast, stay fast
The U.S. knew it entered this game with a decided athletic advantage, and unlike in previous games against Puerto Rico and Serbia, it pressed that advantage from the tip. In the half-court, every cut was decisive and hard. And when a stop gave it the slightest opportunity, Team USA got out and ran, Booker capping a 16-6 opening run with an open wing 3 off a picture-perfect fast break.
From there, the party was on. Every chance the U.S. got, it was running, daring Brazil to try and keep up. James played orchestrator throughout the first half, throwing hit-aheads and finding cutters for easy buckets en route to seven assists. Everything was up-tempo, everything was in rhythm, and the stretches of ennui that characterized this team offensively during its pre-Paris tune-ups was nowhere to be found. That's how you wind up with a box score in which 10 of 12 U.S. players shot 50% from the floor or better.
"That's the beauty and the strength of our team is that it can be any one of these guys there," head coach Steve Kerr said. "They all have to carry their franchises individually when they go back to the NBA. So we know they're capable of carrying our team on any given day, but we don't know who it's going to be and that's the strength of the team. As long as we play the right way and move the ball, somebody's going to get hot."
Welcome back, Joel Embiid
If there's been any source of angst around this team during its first four Games in Paris, it's been Embiid, who struggled to deal with Jokic in the opener and then sat the entire game against South Sudan. But the big fella was back in business in this one, dropping 10 points and a couple of 3s in the first quarter — and, of course, egging on the typically hostile French crowd while he was at it. If this is the Embiid the U.S. is getting for the rest of the tournament — in a rhythm, not thinking too much, comfortable with the midrange game that was such a terror during the NBA season, engaged on defense — there might not be a single weakness to exploit on this roster.
Don't forget about defense
It will get buried beneath the pile of offensive highlights from this game, but the only reason the U.S. was able to produce the kinds of looks it did in both the open court and half court is that it held up its end of the bargain on defense. Brazil follows a simple formula: 1) shoot 3s, 2) crash the offensive glass, 3) profit. And while the U.S. had struggled in both of those areas at times this summer, it was having none of it on Tuesday.
Brazil shot well below its Olympic average from deep, and the offensive rebound battle wound up dead even at 11-11. Brazil put together a quick 10-0 run in the second quarter in which Team USA let its foot off the gas a bit, but beyond that, this team was dialed in, stiff at the point of attack and closing out on shooters with ferocity. Again: The only way this U.S. team will lose is if it beats itself by ignoring the little things, the ones that lay the foundation for the big ones, and its refusal to do so to this point is impressive.
"It starts with the defensive end," James said. "We understand that in order for us to lock down in this tournament it starts on the defensive end and then offensively we've got to continue to help each other spread the ball out and be in a great rhythm."
A full 40 minutes
In just about every other quarterfinal today, we saw teams — Greece, France, Australia — get out to big leads only to fritter (or almost fritter) them away. But the U.S. is so deep that it can keep its foot on the gas for 40 minutes, and that's what it did here: The Americans won three of four quarters by 12 points or more, and everyone who stepped on the court seemed to take that responsibility seriously regardless of score and situation. Booker scored nine in the first, sat for the entire second and then came back in the third and promptly knocked down a couple more 3s. Anthony Edwards was almost silent in the first half, then erupted for 17 in the second. The Dutch have total football, and this is about as close as Team USA can come to total basketball.
What's next for the U.S.?
Another date with The Joker. The three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic is waiting in the wings, hoping he and his Serbian teammates have learned from the blowout they suffered against the U.S. in group play.
"They're just more familiar with us, they understand how we're coming out there, we understand them as well," Kevin Durant said. "So it's going to be about who wants it more, to be honest."
Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, Aug. 8.