{"id":305048,"date":"2021-07-22T02:25:59","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T23:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/good-for-team-usa-to-get-punch-in-the-mouth\/"},"modified":"2021-07-22T02:25:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T23:25:59","slug":"good-for-team-usa-to-get-punch-in-the-mouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/good-for-team-usa-to-get-punch-in-the-mouth\/","title":{"rendered":"#Good for Team USA to get ‘punch in the mouth’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Good for Team USA to get ‘punch in the mouth’<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Nets star Kevin Durant knows most of the world is rooting against Team USA, and their stunning exhibition losses emboldened their foes that they can be beaten.<\/p>\n

But Durant said it also reminded Team USA they can be beaten, reinforced they\u2019ll need to earn their way to Olympic gold in Tokyo. And that\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, yeah, I feel like we\u2019re understanding what coach [Gregg Popovich] wants from us on both ends of the floor,\u201d Durant said after Team USA practice. \u201cI feel like guys are getting more comfortable with each other in their roles on a team, and that\u2019s only going to go well for us as we start to play real game<\/a>s.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was good to kind of get a punch in the mouth early on to remind us that there\u2019s not going to be a cakewalk. So many people were used to Team USA coming in blowing everybody out, so it was good for us to see that. Now hopefully those are the last losses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant and Popovich are counting on those upset losses to Nigeria and Australia in their first two exhibition games back in Las Vegas having gotten Team USA\u2019s full attention. But they\u2019ve certainly gotten their foes\u2019 attention as well, buoying the hopes of teams like France coming into Sunday\u2019s preliminary-round opener.<\/p>\n

\"
The Kevin Durant-led Team USA has stumbled in its Olympic exhibition matchups.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEvery team wants to beat us. Everybody wants to see us lose. So every game has a little bit more pressure to it,\u201d said Durant. \u201cAnd a lot of guys dropped out, a lot of circumstances. And I\u2019m sure other teams [have] seen us lose and feel confident coming into the tournament. But we understand what we\u2019re getting ourselves into, and we\u2019re looking forward to the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those guys dropping out are Wizards star Bradley Beal (health and safety protocols) and Cavaliers big man Kevin Love (injury recovery) being forced to withdraw. Zach LaVine is en route to Japan after his own quarantine, with Popovich saying the wing could practice Thursday and play Sunday.<\/p>\n

With Team USA having only eight players until reinforcements show up (LaVine and NBA Finals trio Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton and Devin Booker), Durant will carry an oversized burden. He\u2019s also just 25 points from becoming Team USA\u2019s all-time Olympic scorer, but claims that\u2019s not a point of emphasis.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, records are meant to be broken and people calling you the greatest, that\u2019s all opinion,\u201d said Durant. \u201cI can\u2019t concern myself with that. It\u2019s about how I come to work every day.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Good for Team USA to get ‘punch in the mouth’” Nets star Kevin Durant knows most of the world is rooting against Team USA, and their stunning exhibition losses emboldened their foes that they can be beaten. But Durant said it also reminded Team USA they can be beaten, reinforced they\u2019ll need to earn their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":305049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/07\/kevin-durant-team-usa-olympics-struggles.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[70888,112387,70487,60955,70889,111082],"class_list":["post-305048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2020-olympics","tag-7-21-21","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-kevin-durant","tag-olympics","tag-team-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}