OKC Thunder: Durant foul trouble punctuates Team USA loss to France

The Olympics in Tokyo is underway and with it, the Men’s Basketball event began on Sunday. Gabriel Deck is the only current OKC Thunder player participating with his Argentina club while several former players are in action.

Team USA played their first match on Sunday and SPOILER they lost to Team France by a score of 83-76.  It’s been a rough lead-up to the Olympics for the Americans with several players dealing with health and safety protocols eventually leading to Bradley Beal not making the trip.

A trio of stars only just joined Team USA following the NBA Finals wrapping up and all three (Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, Devin Booker) saw action on Sunday.

This loss ended the Americans’ win streak of 25 consecutive games. More importantly, it raises questions on how prepared they are for the Olympics and whether a medal, let alone a gold is a forgone conclusion.

OKC Thunder guard Theo Maledon celebrates Team USA loss to France

Back in the States, players on the OKC Thunder were celebrating as Theo Maledon was jubilant over his Team France victory. The point guard is working on developing his game for the upcoming season but took time to share an Instagram post simply titled ‘VICTOIRE”

Former OKC Thunder superstar Kevin Durant is leading the charge for the Americans but had an off performance in their opening match. KD scored a mere 10 points on 4 of 12 from the field and 1 of 6 from deep.

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Jerami Grant was one of the players who dealt with health and safety protocols leading up to the event and while he’s with the team in Tokyo he didn’t play in the match.

Team USA jumped out to an early 22-15 lead and was up 45-37 at the half but France steamrolled them after the break 46-31 to net the victory.  The pivotal point in the game occurred in clutch time with the US scoring only four points from the 4:20 mark to the buzzer. In contrast, the French scored 16 points which was the difference.

This was only the fourth loss by the Americans (53-4)  since NBA players have been allowed to play for their countries.

Next up for Team USA is Iran who’ll they face on Wednesday, July 28th airing at 4:00 pm (live stream 12:40 a.m), and the Czech Republic on Saturday, July 31st at 8:00 p.m.  Technically, they could lose one of these games and advance based on scoring margin, but they’ll want to win both matches to ensure their spot.

As for Deck, OKC Thunder fans can catch his first match tomorrow (Monday) as Argentina plays Slovenia at 1:40 p.m.