Olympics News: What Does The Loss To France Mean For Team USA?

Team USA started their bid for Olympic gold in the men’s basketball tournament with a 76-83 loss to France.

The star-studded Team USA went into the game with a 25-game win streak that runs all the way back to the 2004 Olympics that saw them finish the tournament with the bronze medal after beating Lithuania, 104-96.

Team USA struggled to convert most of their shots but was still able to lead the way for most of the game.

However, a collapse in the fourth quarter with a seven-point lead, in the last 3:20 was telling of the problems that had plagued the NBA-laden team.

They had a ton of opportunities to put the game away, but they just couldn’t and France was able to pull off the comeback victory behind a 14-0 run.

Tim Legler of ESPN appeared on "SportsCenter" after the game and gave his assessment of Team USA’s loss.

“Basketball is a sport that requires a lot of timing, cohesion, role definition, a very important part of basketball. You take a team and you, sort of, throw ‘em together, it’s just very difficult to be able to find that sort of rhythm offensively," he said.

"You also don’t have great role definition on this team because you end up trying to close the game with five guys who are used to being the number one scoring option for their teams and that makes it difficult.”

This clip backs up what Legler meant with his last statement. Kevin Durant and Jrue Holiday take wide open shots that they normally make in the NBA and completely bricking them despite being in a five-on-four advantage.

They could’ve attacked the basket and go for the tie but opted to take ill-advised threes when they had Damian Lillard, Zach Lavine and Bam Adebayo on the floor.

All five men on the floor at the time roughly make close to around a billion dollars in terms of salary and yet they couldn’t find the bottom of the net or the wherewithal to attack the basket--or even just pass the ball around for an easy shot.

The lack of team chemistry is hurting Team USA, and it showed in their exhibition games prior to the Olympics.

They will have two more days before their next game and all that time should be spent on defining their roles.

After all, when you hear your co-NBA player say that your talent is good but you can’t get together as a team, you have to take that to heart.

When the man who makes the most gut-punching shots in the clutch other than Steph Curry says that those same rotation players in the NBA play better with their national team, you have to feel some type of way.

With no disrespect meant to France, their talent across the board is incomparable to that of Team USA. But when the team doesn’t know their role or tries to even fit in to those roles, that’s when they become very beatable.

Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier led the way for France to expose Team USA’s lack of cohesion on the world stage and they’re riding a wave of momentum as they go up against Czech Republic on Wednesday at 9:00 PM (Tokyo time).

Team USA has an opportunity to prove that their talent is more than capable of winning as they also have a game against Iran at 1:40 PM (Tokyo time) on Wednesday.