In London, Team USA narrowly defeated South Sudan 101–100, making a thrilling comeback. The experts were concerned about their poor performance during this match, especially since Skip Bayless recently joined this group. During this game, the 72-year-old raised concerns to the attention of the crowd over the roster’s 3-point shooting.
Bayless talked about how the national teams began to rely a lot on long-range shooting on UNDISPUTED. Because of this, Team USA almost lost the game due to Stephen Curry‘s poor shooting performance from beyond the arc. Speaking about the team’s deficiencies, the NBA analyst said:
“These games just become three-point shooting contests where they made 14-33 and we made 7-28…If they outshoot you by 7 from the line…you just have to do the math and all of a sudden you say, ‘That’s 21 points more than we scored from the 3-point line,’ because they were hot and Steph was not hot. He was 3-9 and it’s starting to feel like we kinda go when Steph sets the tone”.
.@RealSkipBayless is concerned with Team USA’s 3-point shooting after close win vs. South Sudan: pic.twitter.com/vwZRAOQo0X
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) July 22, 2024
Is Skip Bayless right in being concerned ?
When you compare South Sudan’s 42.4% 3-point shooting percentage to Team USA’s 25%, Skip Bayless’ worries were well-founded. Despite being high-volume shooters, Curry and Anthony Edwards in particular failed to live up to expectations, shooting 33.3% and 14.2% from beyond the arc, respectively. The remaining players on the team shot 3–12 from three-point range, finding it difficult to stay up with opponents.
Their most recent match against Germany brought up the issues once again. Curry struggled to make long-range shots once more, going 1–7 from outside the arc. Thankfully, the remaining players rose to the occasion, shooting 50% from three-point range to help the team win 92-88.
Team USA needs to take care of this matter before to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Fortunately, they have a stalwart like LeBron James to make up for their faults till then.
