Texas basketball ex Kevin Durant, Team USA shocked again in upset

There is one former member of the Texas basketball program that is taking part with the United States squad for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. Famed Texas Ex and Brooklyn Nets superstar forward Kevin Durant joins Team USA this summer as the biggest name on a roster loaded with talent.

But all of that talent for this United States team has done anything but pan out well in a circuit of exhibition games ahead of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo later this month. KD and the United States fell short in their second international friendly in three days on July 12. Team USA fell short to Australia on the night of July 12, by the somewhat comfortable final score of 91-83.

This was not a good defensive showing for the second game in a row from the United States. And this team looks to just be straight-up getting outplayed in the second half of games in this pre-Olympic exhibition circuit.

It wasn’t necessarily Team USA shooting poorly from the field or from downtown that caused them to lose. Team USA shot 46.2 percent from the field and 36.1 percent from beyond the arc. But that also isn’t good enough when playing an inspired international team with some NBA talent like Australia.

That is especially true when a team like Australia shoots better than 52 percent from the field and nearly 42 percent from beyond the arc. For the second straight game, the United States was decimated from beyond the arc.

There wasn’t any one area of this game where the United States did extremely poorly. But there wasn’t anything that they did exceptionally well either.

Former Texas basketball star Kevin Durant and the United States shocked again

Durant himself did play better against Australia than in the United States July 10 stunning upset at the hands of Nigeria. He registered 17 points, tied a team-high with four rebounds, two assists, no steals, two blocks, and no turnovers. And he shot 6-of-13 from the field, 4-of-9 from beyond the arc, and 1-of-2 from the free-throw line.

It likely won’t take too long until Durant really starts to heat up. He was better in this outing against Australia than the meeting last weekend with Nigeria. That is the good news.

The glaring and obvious bad news for the United States is the fact that they just lost two games in three days at the hands of two countries that might not even get to the podium in Tokyo. Granted, Australia and Nigeria have looked very solid in their pre-Olympic exhibition runs this month.

Legendary San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and the United States needs to pick up the pace, and soon. Next up for Team USA in the pre-Olympic exhibition circuit comes against Argentina on July 13, at 5 p.m. CT.

An already busy offseason for the former Longhorn Durant is about to get even busier with the Olympic Games approaching later this month in Tokyo.