8.15-3

RIO DE JANEIRO — Kyrie Irving’s body wasnearly parallel with the floor when he snared the ball. Before hitting thehardwood, he tossed a pass to Kevin Durant, who was streaking to the basket.

凯里-欧文身体几乎和地板平行着接到篮球，在身体撞到地板之前，他把球甩传给凯文-杜兰特，后者轻松上篮得分。

Somehow, Irving’s pass cleared the rim fora picturesque Durant alley-oop.

欧文的传球很诡异，清空了篮筐附近的防守，杜兰特空中接力得分，画面很美。

“It was perfect,” Durant said.

“那很完美。”杜兰特说。

The U.S. also finished preliminary playwith a perfect record after downing France, 100-97, on Sunday to advance to 5-0and a date in the quarterfinals Wednesday.

上周日，以100-97的比分击败法国队后，美国队也全部完成了小组赛的比赛，他们创造了5-0的完美记录，本周三将进行四分之一决赛。

Sunday was another imperfect game for theU.S. team, which had to sweat out a victory against a third consecutiveopponent. Compounding matters for the U.S. was that one of France’s bestplayers, Spurs guard Tony Parker, missed the game as a precaution to rest anailing toe. Imagine if Parker had played.

周日的比赛对美国队来说同样不是很完美，连续三场比赛惊险取胜，对于美国队来说有点复杂的情况是法国队最好的球员之一托尼-帕克没有参加本场比赛，帕克主要为了保护性的修养他受伤的脚趾。想象一下，如果帕克参加比赛了呢？

For the first time, some players admittedthese Olympics were more difficult than they thought.

美国队的一些队员首次开始承认奥运会比赛比他们想象的更困难。

“I thought personally we were going to dominate these games and theywere going to come easy,” forward Paul George said. “You start playing thebetter competition and you see it across the board that these teams are prettygood.”

Durant said he thought the U.S. was goingto blow out every opponent. At least that was the goal coming into the Games.

杜兰特说他以为美国队会轻松打爆每个对手，至少这是他们比赛的一个目标。

“We wanted to strive for greatness,” Durant said. “We have to figureout how we’re going to be better.”

The U.S. did look better for most of thegame after one of its most dangerous offensive weapons showed up to play forthe first time in five games.

Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson, whowas shooting just 15.4 percent entering Sunday, led all scorers with 30 points.His precise shooting (7 of 13 from 3-point range) helped the U.S. build a16-point lead toward the end of the third quarter.

That lead was reduced to four before theU.S. made enough plays, Irving’s pass to Durant included, to earn the victory.

“The fourth quarter I think we felt like we had the game won,” CoachMike Krzyzewski said.

With every alley-oop in the last threegames, every made 3-pointer that made the U.S. look unstoppable, there was acareless turnover or a defensive lapse that made it look mortal again. Andagain, the U.S. did just enough to offset its mistakes.

“This isn’t a tournament that we’re going to just dominate,” Georgesaid. “There’s talent around this world, and they’re showcasing it. Thesegames, we’re having spurts of dominating. We’re just not finding ways to put afull 40-minute game together.”

They have put games together for longenough to get by the first week. Now it’s onto the knockout round — with theU.S. knowing someone could actually knock them out.

“Everyone wants us to win by a lot of points, but that’s not going tohappen this time,” Durant said.

“人们都想我们大比分赢的比赛，但是这次不是这种情况。”杜兰特说。

At this point, the U.S. is happy just towin.

此刻，美国队赢了就很高兴。

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